Ghana’s rich culture and identity was on display on Wednesday in Koforidua, in the Eastern Region, to mark Ghana Day.
Our nationhood has not been without the roadblocks, the setbacks and challenges. Nonetheless, we have harnessed the opportunities to keep Ghana as the bright spotlights of development on the African continent and beyond.
Our governance choices in the Fourth Republic, especially make us stand out as a people determined to reap the toils of the sacrifices everybody is making to nation building. It was for this reason that the choice of a theme for this year’s 67th Independence Anniversary was “Our Democracy, Our Pride.”
Koforidua, noted for its proverbial “flowers,” was alive and bursting at the seams as people from all walks of life besieged the Youth Resource Centre, formally the Koforidua Sports Stadium, to participate in this historic event.
There was pomp and pageantry as well as ceremony when schoolchildren and personnel of the security services took turns to march past to the defeaning applause of guests, including the Special Guest of Honour, President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire.
The occasion did not only showcase skills in military drill but also the cultural diversity of the Eastern Region and, by extension, the entire country. The cultural diversity on display really indicated that Ghanaians are proud of their cultural identity.
And the turnout also shows that the people have embraced the decision to “decentralise” the celebration of the Independence Day, so that all the regional capitals would benefit from the dividends associated with the Day.
Traders in all kinds of food and merchandise have gained from the boom in the local economy of Koforidua over the last few days. The hospitality industry also made some gains.
Unfortunately, as has become familiar with our development process, the decision to rotate the celebrations and even continue to observe the Day has attracted criticisms from the naysayers, particularly leaders of the NDC and their allies in the media, academia and civil society who think the celebrations were a waste of the public purse.
Indeed, these elements in the NDC were conspicuously absent from the national celebrations. We are compelled to ask whether the NDC and its leader, John Mahama in the unlikely event that they win power would ever observe Independence Day.
The NDC has decided to use our temporary setbacks to lead our people astray by claiming President Akufo-Addo and his government as responsible for our present woes, and by so doing try to equalise the failures of John Mahama, including dumsor, to the challenges of the economy now.
Some of our compatriots have bought into this fallacy, but this situation is expected in a democracy where people are free to make choices. Our diversity should not be exploited for personal gain but for the good of our country.