A nation that does not honour its heroes isn’t worth dying for. That’s an adage. That adage has spurred many nations to become great because those who seek to make those nations great do so because they believe in making the nation great.
Rewards for such achievements only go to motivate many more citizens to “die’ a little for their countries through whatever means that go to benefit the larger populace.
There is a reason, just the names of important people rake in huge sums of money in terms of tourism. There are many reasons people visit Ghana. Have we quantified the contributions of Ghanaian greats like Nkrumah, Tetteh Quarshie, Abedi Pele, Azumah Nelson, Ebo Taylor, Asamoah Gyan, or even more recently Abraham Attah?
There isn’t a soul on earth that will travel to Jamaica and not have Bob Marley or Usain Bolt in mind. This clearly spells out how important the heroic deeds of people help to sell their respective places of abode.
And what if with all these lofty impressions in our minds, we are driven to places by these names and what we see is a denigration of that name? That will be sad, right? Unfortunately, that seems to be the case in Ghana.
We have done well as a people to attempt to honour people we claim served the nation well by naming important national edifices or assets after them. Universities, stadiums, parks, streets bear the names of our heroes.
I recollect when President Kufuor became president, he made sure all the major stadiums in the country were named after important sports personalities who had served the nation well. Hence the names Ohene Djan, Baba Yara, Robert Mensah, Azumah Nelson all had their names officially attached to the Accra, Kumasi, Cape Coast Stadiums and Kaneshie Sports Complex respectively.
It was good a good initiative. And I guess it served as a boost for service, and pride to the families. It was at the same time bad because the larger aim wasn’t to preserve the sanctity of such “immortals.”
Has anyone noticed how the name of a living ex president, J. A.Kufuor could be misspelled on a signage that seeks to celebrate him on the Alajo-Kwame Nkrumah Circle highway? And that is supposed to be an honour?
The Politics
The politics that come with such naming also does worry me much. One of the priorities of the current Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s (AMA) Alfred Oko Vanderpuje when he was appointed was to remove Ohene Djan’s name from the Accra Sports Stadium. His reason was that the stadium was in Accra and ought not bear the name of a non indigene. Ohene Djan’s memory and his family disgraced right there!
We all are familiar with the embarrassment the same AMA boss caused himself and Ghana at large when he decided to rename the Theodosia Okoh National Hockey pitch after Prof. Mills, a few weeks after his death. The late national hockey star and designer of the Ghana’s flag who was alive then, protested, and the decision was reversed.
The Azumah and Efua Sutherland Examples
Recently, Ghana’s boxing legend Azumah Nelson asked for his name to be removed from the Kaneshie Sports Complex due to its deplorable state. He said the sorry state of the Complex does not befit a national edifice bearing the name of a globally respected former world boxing champion. A Daily Graphic report quoted the legend as saying “If you respect somebody and you think that the person has achieved a lot, you don’t name such a place after him.”
That Ghana has an impeccable record of maintaining her national assets will be an assertion that could be equated to saying Usain Bolt isn’t a good sprinter. We commit so much into infrastructure and cleverly supervise their deterioration.
A friend once jokingly asserted that our inability to pay attention to the very things that attract tourists to this country is in itself enough tourist attraction. It isn’t funny.
Any one visited the popular Efua Sutherland Children’s Park recently? That’s the venue that hosted Nigerian child comedian Emmanuella when she recently “visited.” That’s Funny Face hosts his annual Children’s festival.
The park obviously becomes the first point of call for any outdoor children’s event. First because of its location; it is in the centre of town, and access to the place isn’t a bother. And secondly, it is a national asset.
How we have allowed such the park to deteriorate beyond repair isn’t that surprising. The once national pride, a place that proudly hosted schools and national children’s events is now an apology of its self.
Apart from the state of disrepair, the park isn’t a safe ground for any Ghanaian child. Sanitation is an issue- places of convenience, I doubt exist. Refuse? I refuse to elaborate. And what about lighting? Security threat!
The sad part, what makes my heart bleed is how the park still bears the name EFUA SUTHERLAND! It is an insult to the illustrious Ghanaian woman and her family. Efua Sutherland who lived between 1924 and 1996 was a teacher, scholar, and cultural activist who made children’s issues central to her life and work.
According to Mmofraghana.com, “after pioneering an indigenous movement in writing, publishing and development through drama for children, she was appointed in the 1980s to lead Ghana to become the first country to ratify the U. N. Convention on the Declaration of Rights of the Child.
“Through the work of the Ghana National Commission on Children, of which she was a founding member and Chair, several initiatives for children were moved forward including the Children’s Park Library Complex network, Child Literacy and Mobile Science Laboratory projects, as well as the commissioning of extensive research on the Ghanaian child.”
Thus, the twelve-acre children’s park, which was acquired through her advocacy, was renamed posthumously in her honour. That’s how we honour her hard work by attaching her name to a national disgrace.
And oh, as if to spite the memory of Efua Sutherland, the ultramodern Rattray Park in Kumasi was named after Robert Sutherland Rattray, a Scottish who was the Assistant Colonial Secretary in the Gold Coast and clerk to the Legislative Assembly of Accra in 1919. What a contrast of the Sutherlands?
If the Ministries of Tourism and Gender, Children and Social Protection aren’t enthused about protecting the Ghanaian child, what about the National Commission on Children?
And if the excuse that the Achimota Forest Reserve is going to be developed into an eco and amusement park hence the neglect of the Children’s park should ever arise, then we should as well hold on to giving our children a good socialisation platform until they turn adults and see what they become.