In 1957, Ghana became the first country in Sub-Sahara Africa to gain independence from colonial rule. The euphoria that accompanied the event was non like ever experienced on African soil. It culminated into a massive wave that swept through the rest of the African continent and brought freedom to many. It was a symbol of emancipation for black people all over the world, including those in the United States and the Caribbean.
The hopes and aspirations of this new nation were high. Booming with confidence, the newly elected leader, Kwame Nkrumah declared Ghana’s independence, and charged that “the Blackman is capable of managing his own affairs”. As simple as this statement may sound, it was what motivated Nkrumah and his government to carry through with their agenda for the new nation.
To give meaning to above statement, Nkrumah’s administration embarked on various developmental projects that would place Ghana into the class of wealthy independent nations.
Akosombo dam, Tema Harbour, Tema Township, State farms, the educational accelerated program that ensured that there is at least one secondary school in every district, University of Ghana, KNUST, the various road networks and the countless industries that were built all attest to the commitment of then administration to build a prosperous Ghana.
Today, the same cannot be said of Nkrumah’s Ghana. The state of Ghana is not different from that of Liberia, Sierra Lone, DRC, Zimbabwe and many more failed African states.
Since 1966 when Nkrumah was overthrown at the behest of the imperialist nations, they have continued to mingle and dictate the pace of Ghana’s development. From our educational system, politics, economy, and recently our family system.
The West have determined what kind of government is in place at any time of their chosen; even who is at the head of that government.
They have decided what kind of educational system we run. Our economy is basically run by the West. IMF, World Bank and their affiliate agencies have planned and execute all our economic programs.
On our educational front, we have moved from the traditional Ghanaian educational system to a chaotic westernized system that had issued different kind of secondary school leaving certificates for the past 30yrs. Ghana today, continue to struggle in crafting a workable educational system for its youths.
Our government systems have suffered several unjustified military interventions mainly by western machinations to satisfy their whim and caprices. The democratic, infrastructural and industrial development.
Ghana’s economy and that of many African countries have become a laboratory for IMF and World Bank for economic experimentations. In Ghana alone, we have witnessed several economic interventions ranging from Economic Recovery Program I&II, Structural Adjustment Program I&II, PAMSCAD, HIPC and recently Millennium Challenge Account Program.
All were intended to rescue Ghana from its economic stupor into economic growth. Unfortunately,most of these programs came with debilitating strings that made them impossible to achieve their intended purposes. Of course, these programs are inherently designed to fail, and to make Ghana forever dependent on the West for survival.
You will agree with me that after Kwame Nkrumah, successive governments have gone pan in arms seeking foreign aid to run the country. In exchange for aid, we have given our natural resources, our dignity, identity and everything Ghanaian to the would-be donors.
Recently many ECOWAS nations including Ghana signed another nation wrecking pact with Western European countries under an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), a program supposedly intended to open European market for ECOWAS nations; obviously, another charade to purchase ECOWAS sovereignty. I will deal with EPA in a future article.
To add to the chaos was the co-called recent Africa-United States summit that was held in Washington DC. Is it not amazing that days just after Russia slammed US with trade sanctions on exportation of dairy products to the Russian market, about 50 African leaders were invited for economic summit? Where do you think those dairy product will go?
Recent influx of Europeans, Chinese, Americans and Middle Easterners to Ghana is what I called the “great gathering”, a multinational posturing for the auctioning of Ghana’s sovereignty.
Ghana’s current economic conundrum provide the necessary impetus for what would lead to the inevitable auctioning of Ghana’s sovereignty to highest bidder. I hope we are conscious of the looming disaster and are working to avert it, in the absence of that may God have mercy on us all.
E.D. Odoom is a Forensic Scientist and A Change Agent; specializing in Strategic Leadership and Organizational Psychology
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