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I respectfully address you with neither rancor nor bitterness in the fading twilight but with one purpose in mind: to serve GHANA and mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors, At the moment Ghana’s democracy is not simple perfect, because of the skills of or vision of those in high offices, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideas of our forbearers and true to our constitution.
That today, our country is in a midst of several challenges, is now well documented. Our economy is badly weakened and largely donor dependant.
• Job creation is still a problem
• Industries have collapsed
• Health service is not very strong and costly
• Our school fail too many
• Infrastructure is very inadequate and in some places non existence
Yet each day brings further evidence that the way, we debate national issues have depended our political divide and threaten our nation.
These are indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics, less measurable but no less profound are a sapping of confidence across our dear land. A nagging fear that Ghana’s democracy is on the decline, that the next generation will lower its sights.
Today I say to all Ghanaians especially our politicians, that the challenges we face our real, they are serious and they are many. We remain a young nation but in the words of scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to re-affirm our enduring national spirit to choose our better history, to carry forward that precious gift that noble idea of oneness as Ghanaians, passed on from generations to generations.
The God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In re- affirming the greatness of our nation, we should understand that greatness is never a given, it must be earned, the journey ahead of us as a nation is very summon table and there are no short cuts or we should we settle for less, but as at now it seems our politicians, academicians and civil society are settling for less.
Rather it has been the risk takers, the doers, the makers of things, some educated, but often men and women obscured in their labor who have carried us up the long rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
I refer to our fishermen, farmers, miners, hawkers and mothers. Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands are sore so that we might live a better life.
They see Ghana as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions, greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or factions. This is the journey we should continue today and not the journey of divide and rule. For today tell us all as Ghanaians to remind ourselves that the time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interest and putting off unpleasant statements and decisions, that time has surely passed.
Starting from now, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking our NATION GHANA GREAT AND STRONG.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.
The state of our economy calls for action and not constant disagreement between political parties
• We need to create jobs
• Need to build new roads and bridges
• Generate and extend electricity grids and improve our communication systems
• Restore science to its rightful place in our academic system
• Raise our health care standards to cover every Ghanaian
• We need to transform our JHS, SHS, Polytechnics, and universities to meet the demands of a new age.
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All these we can do, if we begin to think alike and forget about what I call the 3P’s in Ghanaian politics and national fiber and psychic, the 3P’s are
• Pettiness
• Political point scoring
• Pull him down attitude
I sometimes question the scale of our ambition as a nation , when I listen to our politicians from both side of the political divide as well as the numerous social commentators debate on national developments , they tend to divide us the more with their insight thoughts on national issues , they forget what Ghanaians can achieve when their imaginations are joined to common purpose , we are a national whose democracy has become an example in the rest of the world , we are a nation that achieved independence to the envy of other and became a beacon to others.
What they should note is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that a stale political argument that has consumed them for so long no longer applies.
The question they should ask themselves today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works, whether it helps families to find jobs at decent wages, care , can our nationals afford and can they have retirement packages that is dignified
Where the answer is yes we should keep it and move forward, where the answer is no we need to find solutions and not mere talking and arguments without any compromise and solutions.
For the world has changed and we must change with it. For those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and malicious fabrications, what Ghanaians will say to you is that our sprit is stronger and cannot be broken, and we shall continue with this democratic choice.
For we know that our heritage is a strength , not a weakness , we are a nation of many great tribes and religions, we are shaped by every language and culture , and because we have tasted the bitter swill of slavery and colonialism ,we have emerged from that stronger and united , I believe that the old hatreds has passed away , that the lines of tribe has dissolved as the world grows smaller , our common humanity has revealed itself and that Ghana has become a beacon of hope in ushering in a new era of peace and tranquility that is the envious of many nations practicing democracy.
To our politicians who seek to sow conflicts and wants to be served instead of serving , know that you are on the wrong side of history , for I repeat the world has changed and you need to change with it.
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To our politicians I say our challenges in the global world might be new but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage, fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism these things are old, these things are true and this is the quite force of progress.
What Ghanaians demand of you is the return of these truths? What we require of you is a new era of responsibility, this is the price and the promise of citizenship, this is the source of our confidence in you, the knowledge that God calls on you to shape an uncertain destiny, with malice towards none, with clarity for all, with firmness in the right as God gave us to see the right. Please strive on it to finish the work you are in so as to bind up the nation’s wounds
Thank you
Eugene Omane
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