Arthur Kennedy on Ghana's Independence Day

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• Akosua 9 years ago

  exchange of words. That was TRENDING more on the net.

  exchange of words. That was TRENDING more on the net.

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• Kojo 9 years ago

  It's spot on.

  It's spot on.

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• omanhene 9 years ago

  Excellent piece by Arthur K

  Excellent piece by Arthur K

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• olu 9 years ago

  My revered Doctor, Remember Nkrumah said we were capable of MANAGING our affairs. Nkrumah did not say we were capable of solving our affairs. I think we are on course managing our affairs however slow we are moving. We hoped ...
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  My revered Doctor, Remember Nkrumah said we were capable of MANAGING our affairs. Nkrumah did not say we were capable of solving our affairs. I think we are on course managing our affairs however slow we are moving. We hoped to reach a point of solving the problems but now we are on managing mode.

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• Ebo Letrik 9 years ago

  You seem to be conflicted: which is one is BETTER, a corrupt and useless
  democraZy or a progressive and visionary autocrat!

  You seem to be conflicted: which is one is BETTER, a corrupt and useless
  democraZy or a progressive and visionary autocrat!

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• Fact 9 years ago

  The Bible has a term for it: Forked Tongue!

  The Bible has a term for it: Forked Tongue!

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• Okponglo Guy 9 years ago

  When you take on all leadership. When you fight Nana Addo, you come across asa vindictive.
  
  Our politicians are rapping the country, totally oblivious of the poverty of our people.
  
  State assets and institutions need ...
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  When you take on all leadership. When you fight Nana Addo, you come across asa vindictive.
  
  Our politicians are rapping the country, totally oblivious of the poverty of our people.
  
  State assets and institutions need to be managed better.

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• Gordon 9 years ago

  Dr. Arthur Kennedy, Was the 24th February, 1966 coup d'tat justifiable? as you have defended it several times. 50years between NPP(Busia,Dombo, Danquah, akuffo Addo) and NDC is deeply regrettable. No Continuity. Please join C ...
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  Dr. Arthur Kennedy, Was the 24th February, 1966 coup d'tat justifiable? as you have defended it several times. 50years between NPP(Busia,Dombo, Danquah, akuffo Addo) and NDC is deeply regrettable. No Continuity. Please join CPP with your bright ideas to SAVE GHANA. Thanks.

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• Paul 9 years ago

  Arthur Kennedy makes a lot of sense in this opinion which I agree entirely with.
  
  He has posed a number of relevant questions. My question is, how do we go about addressing these and to go back to what Nkrumah really meant ...
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  Arthur Kennedy makes a lot of sense in this opinion which I agree entirely with.
  
  He has posed a number of relevant questions. My question is, how do we go about addressing these and to go back to what Nkrumah really meant when he so passionately and emphatically stated that we would "demonstrate to the white man that the black man is completely capable of handling his own affairs"?
  
  Here is the simple trick - Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, notable examples of success (despite the long drawn out Civil war fueled by the West in the latter case)have succeeded where Ghana and most other African States failed, yet they had one thing in common - Single Unitary Governments which some may call dictatorships, but which interestingly were 'left alone by the West' to flourish for whatever reasons.
  
  It is interesting that he refers to Tanzania and the lamentation of their leader - Tanganyika and Zanzibar (which came together to form Tanzania) have NEVER really unified as a single nation to this day, nor did they have good, unified government with a singular focus for their development. Nyerere, who was Nkrumah's nemesis and incidentally was 'left by the West', and indeed protected to continue running the country (similar to the Singapore situation) failed to unite and unify his country, and failed to build a strong nation!!!
  
  What was the Ghanaian case? there was, (and still is) strong opposition, partisanship and a determination not to see eye-to-eye, culminating in the collusion to overthrow our government. Sadly that overthrow which was met with jubilation and mass hysteria at the time was never followed up with a concerted and focused effort at healing our differences and re-embarking upon a sustained and uninterrupted path of development.
  
  I believe we can spend all the time going over and over and over this whole thing again, and again. That will do us no good.
  
  What we need, and why I support Arthur Kennedy's reflections, is a multi-partisan and unifying group which comes together as a basis for a mass movement to get us back on track as one nation (under God) to focus on our development.
  
  Rather than pollute the minds of the youth along party lines and continue to divide us, I am sure Arthur Kennedy would agree with me that it is about time we turned all that around by applying CIVICS in our school system in a new way to teach the youth TRUE PATRIOTISM and not one merely seen on a party logo. That our young people must learn to believe in their country, and to want to be a part of changing the current culture and working to improve it.
  
  Perhaps this is a good place to start such a dialogue which is non-partisan and which focuses not on individuals and personalities or parties, but our NATION, GHANA.
  
  I will be happy to belong to such a forum. Would you agree Arthur? And will you bring your party on board?

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• KKO 9 years ago

  Paul,
  I would like to be part of it too, IF we would all agree that we have failed as a nation for 59 years, but can still pick ourselves up and move on, instead of being stuck on fruitless old cliches.
  
  I worked on Tanzan ...
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  Paul,
  I would like to be part of it too, IF we would all agree that we have failed as a nation for 59 years, but can still pick ourselves up and move on, instead of being stuck on fruitless old cliches.
  
  I worked on Tanzanian projects for several years and travelled through a bit of the country. I still have very good friends there.
  
  Their new prosperity has nothing to do with Nyerere's failed Ujamaa. Instead the people respectfully allowed him to hang on till he died and changed everything.
  
  Nyerere used the people of Tanzania for his experiments in classics, compelling everyone to speak and read Swahili, which turned out to be a major disaster, together with Ujamaa. While the adult political classes could speak and read English, the language of much of commerce and international relations, the younger generation had to start from scratch.
  
  The remnants of that disaster still exist in science and technology in the country, but they have made amazing progress in the past ten years.
  
  Ghana has the resources (if we can kick the arses of the illiterate Chinese miners and traders out of our country), elect intelligent leaders instead of spin doctors, to get the country back on its feet!

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• Dan'boko 9 years ago

  Thank you sir

  Thank you sir

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• Mark Glory 9 years ago

  Thank you sir. Very well said

  Thank you sir. Very well said

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• Mr bond 9 years ago

  Ghana at 59 it's said to see no beds in our hospitals and pupils and High schools has no tables and chairs or desks and dormitories to sleep in and have to sleep in toilets and bathrooms and our president disrespect us to dol ...
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  Ghana at 59 it's said to see no beds in our hospitals and pupils and High schools has no tables and chairs or desks and dormitories to sleep in and have to sleep in toilets and bathrooms and our president disrespect us to dole $292 million to AMERI for his selfish gain and interest.Ghana at 59 and our debt stock is $37 billion(99 billion) and not 1 pesowa has gone into research into medicine,engineering,Agricultural,water, but our president doling our money to foreign businesses for his own selfish interest.

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• G. K. Berko 9 years ago

  Why should Arthur Kennedy ignore the most salient question, which is: 'What did the very first Coup do for us?' Or, 'How has the onset of Coups affected our progress?'
  
  We so often conveniently defend the overthrow of Nkrum ...
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  Why should Arthur Kennedy ignore the most salient question, which is: 'What did the very first Coup do for us?' Or, 'How has the onset of Coups affected our progress?'
  
  We so often conveniently defend the overthrow of Nkrumah in absolute terms but disown any responsibility to ensure a better Ghana. What we are encountering, now, is the consequences of irresponsible putsch whereby the executers failed to put in place substantive structures to guarantee our forward match.
  
  The Coup-makers thought simply freeing Ghana from the 'demonic Nkrumah' was all Ghana needed to rise into the league of increasingly prosperous and ever-peaceful Nations of the World. So, they took their credits and all benefits associated with dethroning Nkrumah, and left the Nation to its uncertain fate.
  
  The first Coup only opened a floodgate of Coups and vindictive Regimes that competed against non-achieving predecessors. We have never had any long-term constructive plans on Nation-building by any Government, since Nkrumah's time. We have never have had rational continuity of any developmental program, however brief, by subsequent Regimes. We have never set goals for moving past where we took off from Nkrumah.
  
  As if to fulfill a self-predetermined fate of failure, we packaged every developmental program Nkrumah had begun into a single object of failure and waste, to justify the Coup that toppled him. We wanted the Masses to believe in the lies of the CIA propagandists that all the projects Nkrumah had done and signed unto were prestigious, and self-serving.
  
  That being the case, why haven't we seen any significant amelioration of the state of the Nation since the 60's? With all the loudmouth self-proclaimed renowned Economists touting the virtues of Capitalism to disavow and criminalize the Social programs of Nkrumah, what have we achieved Economically and Socially in the 59 years to be proud of as a Nation?
  
  Be as it may that the most productive and dynamic Economic System is Capitalism, it takes a certain framework to see that System flourish to lift all the people out of poverty for good.
  
  We tend to forget that by the time Nkrumah took over the reins of Government, Ghana had barely any Banks, no Industries to help curtail the bleeding of our foreign Exchange reserves through perpetual importation of basic items like Sugar, Milk, tires, Machetes, and the like. There was hardly any single individual in Ghana who could claim any financial ability to build a factory on his or her own. Nor, did we have anyone that the existing Banks could qualify for lending massive Capital to start any sizable private enterprise that could even hire a few hundreds of employees to begin the cycle of multiplication of private wealth as is so characteristic of Capitalist growth.
  
  Have our Governments after Nkrumah done anything to improve on what Nkrumah left us with, looking at our Education, Health Needs, basic Infrastructure, and ushering ordinary individuals into deeper Capitalist ventures?
  
  We craved for more democratic rights and got them, (or did we?), from overthrowing Nkrumah. But we haven't done much with those rights to advance ourselves and the Nation. Only a selected few have managed to unduly take advantage of them. We have limited the same freedoms for everyone with cannibalistic corruption
  that only highlights the opulence of those connected few, and suffocates the rest in a cycle of poverty.
  
  So, Dr. Kennedy, what is your alternative solution to get us out of the mess?
  
  Long Live Ghana!!!

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• Fact 9 years ago

  Spot on, GKB!
  
  Dr K has under his columns several condemnation of the First Republic and its "repugnant despotism".
  
  He conveniently forgets that the sterling foundations from that regime were his "polishing catalyst" tha ...
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  Spot on, GKB!
  
  Dr K has under his columns several condemnation of the First Republic and its "repugnant despotism".
  
  He conveniently forgets that the sterling foundations from that regime were his "polishing catalyst" that made him shine in his endeavors!

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• Paa Joe 9 years ago

  GREAT TO LEARN A PRAISE TO NKRUMAH FROM A FOLK WHOSE PARENTS,NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT AND UNITED PARTY REJECTEDALL THE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS HE AND HIS PARTY CPP THAT HAD TAKEN OFF IMMEDIATLY AFTER INDEPENDENCE IN GHANA.
  ...
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  GREAT TO LEARN A PRAISE TO NKRUMAH FROM A FOLK WHOSE PARENTS,NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT AND UNITED PARTY REJECTEDALL THE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS HE AND HIS PARTY CPP THAT HAD TAKEN OFF IMMEDIATLY AFTER INDEPENDENCE IN GHANA.
  
  UNLESS WE KNOW THE IMPORTANCE SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY PLAYS IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF A COUNTRY, WE WILL ONLY CONTINUE TO HAVE POLITICS AS THE ONLY PREOCCUPATION,ECONOMIC BACKWARD,UNDERDEVELOPED AND HIGHLY INDEPBTED POOR COUNTRY(HIPC)IN THE WORLD.
  
  SINGAPORE WAS NOT BUILT ALONE ON PRIMITIVE POLITICS, ITS CITIZENS USED TECHNOLOGY,INNOVATION, CREATIVITY,INVENTION, TOIL, SWEAT AND HARDWORK TO TRANSFORM THEIR NATION TO PROSPERITY.
  
  HAVE WE BEN ALL THAT FOR WITH SUCH A VISION,MISSION AND PURPOSE.
  
  HOPELES WE ARE HOLDING DEGREES AND PHD TITLES IN THE MIDST OF EXTREME POVERTY IN GHANA.

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• Nii Addo 9 years ago

  Dr. Thanks for your take on this issue.but were you not part of the ruling body who who celebrated the Ghana@ 50? Your party spent over 50 thousand dollars on that occasion and there was nothing wrong about it then when there ...
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  Dr. Thanks for your take on this issue.but were you not part of the ruling body who who celebrated the Ghana@ 50? Your party spent over 50 thousand dollars on that occasion and there was nothing wrong about it then when there was dumsor, no employment, and your leader decorating you lots with Golden chains at the end of your party's term in office.

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