How independent is our dependent state of Ghana?

If I may ask, what does independence means to you? Well, my simple understanding of independence means, an entity lawfully free to do as it wishes with it's life. So we Ghanaians are told we are independent and so we are free to do what we lawfully like as a country and as individuals. Sure that is exactly what we want to be when we started disagreeing with the British as their colony. That was what we were prepared to take arms in fighting the British against, if the need be. That is what we want to think made the British and the Americans great, as individuals and as groups. We even read in our history books how the American fought the British for their self determination and how the British enough fought Adolfo Hitlar, in his threat against their freedom to self determination. Our choice to self determination is therefore justify!!

Absolute or Conditional Independence

But, how true is the reality in our lives? Do we really have a freed Ghana and her free individual citizens of Ghana? We all thought we are going to be truly independent in 1957. We thought we were freeing ourselves from being dependent on others, against our will. We never wanted an "ILLUSIONARY" Independence but a TRUE Independence. In fact, we were so engrossed in our sense of self determination to have advised the Guineans to opt for "Total Independent than a Conditional Indpendence" from France. The developments led to France granting Indpendence to Seke Toure and Guinea in 1958 that excluded the Guineans from the core Francophone States.

The Ghanaian Ideological Question

Our struggle for independence was not just a struggle against our colonial masters but a struggle of ideological choice for our future efforts. Our ideological contentions did not only assume a serious concern to our colonial masters and their allies, but a great divid between us internally. The contention manifested itself domestically, between the Nkrumah Tradition and Dankuah Tradition. The most favoured ideological approach to the average Ghanaian at independence, was clearly a threat to the colonial master's establishment and economic interest of a post colonial Ghana.

The Coorpoerative or Private Ownership Models

The two ideologies that confronted Ghana at independence are divided into either managing the state of Ghana, on a Coorperative Business Model or managing Ghana on a Private Ownership Business Model. Both models have some elements of the other in them, except in their areas of dominance. Kwame Nkrumah believe the Cooperative Model is the best for the governance of Ghana while JB Danquah preferred the Private Business Model for the governance of Ghana. Either way, the independence of the nation and democracy to allow every Ghanaian to be part of the decision making, are inevitable.

Kwame Nkrumah's view favoured the Cooperative Business Model. His view of creating the condition and achieving a status befitting an independent Ghana, within a generation, made the "Coorperative Ownership Approach System of Governance" his best option. Ghanaians in 1951 to Independence Day 1957, appeard to believe in the Nkrumah's approach as they repeatedly voted for him massively to win every election. This however contracts with the JB Dankuah's "Private Business Ownership Approach System of Governance" already being use by the British. Ghanaians never seems to like that model, leading to the political party with the ideology to be resolved immediately after the 1951 election, for winning just one parliamentary seat. The ideology and its leadership failed in every election in Ghana, until they engineered a coup in 1966, to force their ideology on Ghanaians. The proponents of the total liberalised economic management of the Ghanaian economic activities, argued that the coup was inevitable. They argued for the state to play the dumb ass and passive, regardless to whatever the private sector does with the Ghanaian. They referred to the active role of government is safeguarding the Ghanaian as dictatorial, undemocratic and oppressive. They cause so much problem to induce the imposition of one party state.

The Time of our Big Questions

Sure we are now back to questioning the whole process of empowerment once again, after 59 years of illusive self determination and 50 years after the Greate Coup D'etate. We are back asking Ghanaians if we ever wanted the independence that will make us a Debtor Nation. We are asking Ghanaians if they ever wanted an independence of an indirectly controlled Euro-American nations through the IMF, World Bank and other Eco political establishments. We are asking Ghanaians if they wanted an independence for our nation of weak vulnerable people, where we live at the mercy of huge multinational corporations, owned and controlled by their home nations, the IMF and the World Bank. We are asking if Ghanaians forever wanted to live in an independent Ghana, where the people celebrate their independent day with borrowed money, just to buy foreign good from those they are borrowing this same money. Which Ghanaian is proud of a Ghana that forever wanted to be a dependent insane debtor nation, with the majority of its people like living in a people of a colony, than a free country?

Our Self Relience, Dignity and True Freedom

We thought our independence was to come with capacity, self reliance, dignity and true sense of equality among ourselves, necessary for every Ghanaian to be empowered to try making their dreams real. We made that promise publicly to our people in 1957 on the day of independent. We told them what we are going to do and how we are going to do, with which they believed us and gave us their mandate. The people supported us to get the independence and trusted us to work for them, till those the people did not vote for, forced us out to have their way.

We wanted the independence of our nation to make us capable of avoiding what we don't like and believe to be against our will, while we do only what is in our best interest. We never wanted an independent Ghana with any Ghanaian helplessly dying on our roads against our will, because we can't freely build the roads but need to go to other more capable nations to give us loans to build the roads. We never wanted an independence Ghana with which we can't freely house all our citizens. We clearly don't like our citizens living in slums and sleeping in shanties helplessly because we don't freely control our own land resources, to be free in building of the houses for the needy.

We have our police, schools, water sources, hospitals, farming systems and industries, poorly resourced against our will.

Our incapabilities are making us so dependent that our own resources are killing us, than saving us. We are so psychologically destroyed by our dependency plight to the extent of not being capable of providing answers to our meaningless independent of Ghana?

The challenge here is, not that Ghana is not independent but how independent are we? For example, our neighbour Côte d'Ivoire is also a proud independent nation but we all know where the government of that country is being manage from. One don't have to mention France, the EU and the IMF but ask yourself where Lauren Gbagbo is currently incarcerated for the Ivorians in West Africa to have their conditional peace and conditional sense of purpose? How independent are we when this type of independence is best expressed as "conditional" and "illusionary"! We desperately want true independence but it's only stupid not to realise that our capability as the state of Ghana, is not good enough to gurantee us this independence better than the pathetic type. What we practically need is a form of capability beyond Ghana, to get us that kind of independence we all wished for.

We Have a Choice

It is just sad that our conditional independence is merely by own imagined captivity. It is more of a state of the mind of acceptance of metal captivity. Self emancipation is very critical here in freeing ourself from our mental slavery that makes it easier for the rules of the IMF, EU, USA, China and the World Banks to work over us. We surely need the ECOWAS laws by our ECOWAS directly elected MPs of our people. The Ghanaian in ECOWAS has a choice.

It is so far very bad, but this is not the end of our pathetic plight. It is actually the beginning of the worse ones than this. The power to change this fate is right in your hand. Join GPPP to empower us to win back our dignity! Join GPPP to restore our economic dignity and the right to choose the destiny of a free people. Let's make our own Ghanaian and ECOWAS laws!!!

Kofi Ali Abdul-Yekin

Chairman ECRA (ECOWAS Citizens Right Advocate)

Founder GPPP (Ghana Poor People Party)

(0233) 0243057869

(044) 07737224787

kofialiabdul@yahoo.co.uk

Twitter: Actiongroupa