Part I
March 6, 1957 marked the birth of the great nation of modern Ghana. The name, Ghana, derived from a prosperous ancient kingdom of West Africa, means land of Gold.
After the departure of all the European merchants in Ghana (then Gold Coast) in 1874, the English turned the country into a colony and began to rule over its citizens.
The people of Gold Coast were made to believe and accept the role of subservient during this era. This role of subservient, carefully cultivated into the minds of generations of Ghanaians continues to permeate the society to date. Furthermore, the mindset has completely undermined the confidence and creative capabilities of successive generations of Ghanaians.
In this article, the pre-colonial and colonial history with its resultant effect on the competency of leadership in Ghana will be discussed. The people of Ghana are naturally endowed with the spirit of hospitality and friendliness. These attributes of this nation is complemented by every visitor to the shores of Ghana. As taught by the science of genetics, “attributes” do not come in vacuum but are inherited from previous generations and passed on to successive generations.
In the 13th century (beginning in 1487) the ancestors of Ghana in good conscience and moral hospitality, whole-heartedly welcome the European merchants to the shores of Ghana (Gold Coast) as guests. However, the imperialist power (guest) had a concealed sinister motive. Instead of concentrating on the mission that brought the guest to the shores of Gold Coast (trade), the guest began to meddle in the internal affairs of the host nation. The guest played a divisive role among our ancestors along ethnic lines to generate distrust among the populace to encourage strife. As the divisiveness and strife among our ancestors deepened the colonial master undertook a mediator role and therefore asserted authority over our ancestors. The bible was preached to our ancestors to accept the morality of the guest. Having established a sense of morality and trust, the guest perpetuated the divisive tactic to further a determined motive to rule over our ancestors (divide and rule). The nation became so polarized and the unity of the people came under threat. Our ancestors, in the light of the strife and divisions among them accepted the role of their guest as an honest mediator to settle their differences. The guest, in view of this, seized this perfect opportunity to gain the trust of the people and began to usher gifts in the form of alcoholic beverages, cigarettes and other foreign made products to the traditional leaders of the society. After having gained the confidence and trust of the people, the guest began to establish policing, prosecutorial, and taxing powers over its hosts.
For the ensuing years, Europeans saw an opportunity and flopped to the shores of our country; and began to rule over our ancestors. To further consolidate/strengthen the grip of power over our ancestors, the guests imported and appointed Europeans as heads of institutions.
As it is the case of modern Ghana, our traditional rulers demonstrated hospitality and friendship by offering gold bars in return for gifts of alcoholic beverages, canned foods, textiles, among others. The establishment of such trustworthy relationships offered the guest great opportunities to exploit and rob a whole nation and it people of its natural resources and rich culture. Our ancestors were made to believe in the myth that they could not govern themselves and that the white race was the only race capable to govern over them. This psychology was preached to our ancestors for an extended period of time, which cognitively became an acceptable doctrine. During these years of imperialist rule, the colonial powers were not accountable to anyone but themselves. They extracted natural resources such as gold, diamonds, manganese, bauxite, cocoa, among others and exported them to Europe for processing.
For fear of threat to their interests, they established inferior quality education for the ruled natives. The colonial government devoted less than 10% of the national budget to education.
Few roads and rail lines were constructed to transport the minerals from production sites to the only harbor established under colonial rule (Takoradi Harbor).
The proceeds from the sale of the minerals were never accounted for to Ghanaians. This practice continued from 1874 until 1957.
In 1946, a group of natives who had been privileged to study in the United States and Europe returned home to fight for self rule. The movement/struggle for self rule was fiercely resisted by the colonial power (the British). Our determined ancestors did not waiver in their determination to pursue this goal to the end.
On March 6, 1957 the efforts of these courageous sons and daughters of Ghana led by one of the most talented orators of all time and a prolific writer of modern Ghanaian history, Osaegyefo Kwame Nkrumah, bore fruit and marked the birth of a new nation- Ghana. This achievement marked the most important and exciting chapter of our nation’s history.
The young nation, led by its revered charismatic, ambitious and goal oriented Prime Minister, Osaegyefo Kwame Nkrumah faced numerous challenges ahead. The young nation lacked basic infrastructures such as schools, roads, factories, colleges, Universities, hospitals, police stations, airports, among others to train and service its people. The pure breed natural born talented leader of this nation was never deterred by these daunting challenges. Devoid of egocentric traits, but the love for his nation, his determination and goal was to build a just and modern society to refute the social construct belief that “blacks are incapable to govern themselves”. Kwame Nkrumah’s administration embarked upon ambitious goal to build the newly born nation of Ghana to an emerging economy status. His government built modern schools, training colleges, Universities, hospitals, modern airports and harbors. To further pursue his goal of building a middle income economy it became imperative to establish national institutions such as state farms, ghoic divisions of companies, state hotels, state owned transport-systems, modern industrial city of Tema, the Akosombo hydro-electric dam, among others. His industrial experiments attracted people from all over the world to visit Ghana just to see for themselves. Kwame Nkrumah’s ambitious and visionary goals led to the construction of a nuclear facility in 1964 for peaceful uses. Kwame Nkrumah, in 1960 realized that, the hydroelectric dam in Akosombo could not adequately supply the energy need of modern Ghana as the country modernized and developed. Hence, the nuclear option at Kwabenya.
During these years, his political opponents, (JB Danquah, Busia, Akuffo Addo, “the mate meho” group, among others) who vehemently resisted the move to self governance allowed themselves to be corrupted by western imperialist governments around the world to oppose Nkrumah’s administration. His determination to move the country to new frontiers continued until his overthrow through coup d’état in 1966. The coup, sponsored by the CIA and boasted by this intelligence organization as it is cited in numerous documentaries such as one aired by BBC channel 4 in spring 1993 brought nothing but misery on our nation.
Kwame Nkrumah, during his reign clearly demonstrated the true meaning of leadership. He governed the country in line with his Marshall plan for Africa development.
Since his overthrow in February 1966, developments in Ghana have stalled. The country has been marred with multiple military coup d’états. There has been a real leadership vacuum in Ghana since 1966.
In 1997, another native son of Ghana, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, educated in the United States of America entered into Ghanaian politics with great vision and passion for his country.
Like the President –Elect of the United States, Barack Obama, Dr. Nduom began his political career from the grass roots as a local assembly man. During his tenure as an assembly man, Dr. Nduom helped salvage the near collapsed Komenda Sugar Factory from closure by negotiating a foreign loan to sustain and reorganized the company. This deal led to the creation of additional new jobs for the large number of unemployed youth in the district. (to be continued)
By: Kojo Essel. Los Angeles, CA. USA Email: funboy02003@yahoo.com
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