Ghana At 65: A Fool At 40? -By Wilson Anku

“A fool at forty is a fool forever. If you’ve not matured by forty, you never will.”
At least, that’s what the trend of life had taught us.

Tomorrow, March 6, Ghana would have turned 65 years of being independent. By now, every Ghanaian can tell the performance of succsssive governments hitherto.

The democracy we practice appears not to deliver the promise of ‘government for the people’.
The hardworking Ghanaian seems to be losing the momentum towards economic independence .

In the 90s, one of the most discouraged phenomon of patriotism was ‘brain drain, the export of skilled professionals from Ghana’. Now, no single government could discourage that anymore. Why? The economy cannot adequately satisfy the demands of these skilled professionals. Is it any wonder that even in the midst of war in Ukraine, some Ghanaian student in Ukraine prefers to languish in Europe than return to Ghana.? Anyway, who wants to return to Ghana to join the long meandering queue of unemployed youths? Skills in frustration.

Patriotism. This word is an abandoned utopia in Ghana lately. The spirit of going the extramile for one’s country had been exorcised! No one want to ‘die small’ for Ghana anymore.Politics seems to be the safe haven for enjoying the ‘good of the land’. Errrrm, maybe it is the case of the bourgeoisies and the proletariats. The helplessness of the masses. The cry of the poor.

I still believe Ghanaians are not lazy. I believe South Koreans are not smarter either. But the disjoint lies in the quality of decision each of these two countries made 65 years ago.
Today, South Korea is a first world country, Ghana is still struggling with its identity in the global south.

Tough talking without wherewithal is as equal as shooting oneself in the heart, expecting not to die. “Ghana Beyond Aid”. Hmm. What’s our current economic situation at the moment? Don’t we require much more than aid now?

A fool at 40 is a fool forever.

Future of the Ghanaian child in Ghana. In decades past when we observe independence day with a March pass, we saluted the red, gold, green flag of Ghana. We were children who were confident of a better future. Education in Ghana was top-notch and a guarantee for global competition. Can same be said of a child born in Ghana post Sept 11,2001?

The poles are shifting. The Ghanaian youth is unhappy about the economic situations in Ghana currently. The quietness of a bulging youth population is dangerous.

Ghana, what future do you have for the child born in Ghana?

(End of Part 1)