Save the beloved country

By Kofi Akordor
IT was a winding, dusty and muddy journey from Sakumono to Accra. The driver, in order to beat the traffic, decided to use what in local parlance is described as short-cuts. What should, therefore, have been a straight drive from Sakumono through Nungua and Teshie to Accra turned out to be a winding, meandering and delicate manoeuvring at the outskirts of the two suburbs before finally emerging at a place close to the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC).
The question is: Was this circuitous route worth the effort? Here we are, confronted with a dirty, dusty road which has been under construction for more than five years without any sign of progress, let alone completion.
The neglect of this beach road strips us bare of any national pride as our children marched in the scorching sun to rekindle the dreams of independence earned 54 years ago. I hope many Ghanaians will join me in the belief that we have simply failed ourselves, using poverty as an excuse.
Come to think of it. On this short stretch of road are some national installations or institutions that we should be proud of and gladly showcase to the international world. We have the Southern Command Headquarters of the Ghana Army; The Military Academy and Training School (MATS); the Armed Forces Staff College and, above all, the KAIPTC which has been receiving foreign delegations on regular basis. Are we saying we do not have the money to make this road beautiful and durable for motoring?
Can you imagine the feeling, after hearing so much about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States of America, only to meet a dusty, potholes-filled road at Langley, Virginia, as you approach the headquarters of this internationally known and dreaded security institution? We have treated our version of the CIA or the Pentagon with careless abandon.
So, after 54 years as a sovereign nation, where lies our national pride and dignity? Something very serious and fundamental is lacking in our national life. We may have a very good document called the Constitution; we may have all the legislative and administrative structures in place. We may have all the anti-corruption laws and institutions, but without any serious sense of direction, we labour in vain.
For a very long time we have been missing the inspiring leadership that will give direction and carry on its shoulders a broad-based national development agenda. There is no evidence that we have any national development targets for, say, the next five, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years.
We lack the leadership that will challenge the various sectors such as business, agriculture, science and technology to innovative and exceptional achievements just as the great leaders who have left their footprints in the sands of history had done.
On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy of the United States challenged scientists of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to conquer the moon before the end of the decade. That was three weeks after Alan Sheppard had become the first American in space.
President Kennedy’s bold challenge set the US on a determined journey to the Moon. He did not live to savour the occasion when, on July 20, 1969, Commander Neil Armstrong stepped out of the lunar module of the Apollo 11 and took “one small step” in the Sea of Tranquillity, calling it a “giant leap for mankind”. The US has, since then, made six successful landings on the Moon with Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17.
Similarly, during the Cultural Revolution in China, Chairman Mao Zedong closed China’s borders and challenged his compatriots to prove those who claimed the Chinese were primitive either right or wrong. Mao Zedong is dead and gone, but the Chinese miracle has become the wonder of the 21st century and all countries, including mighty America, are all falling head over heels to have their fair share of the Chinese cake. That is the type of challenge I am talking about.
Do we have any such challenge from our leaders? Why are we importing everything, including toothpicks? Why are we unable to make bicycles when we were assembling vehicles in this country in the 1960s? Why are we still heavily importing food items when, many years ago, other countries, including Malaysia, sent their researchers to come and learn from our research institutes?
Why is our educational system in such a miserable state when, at one stage after independence, ours was one of the best, not only on the continent but in the advanced world of those days? Why is our road network in such an appalling state when, year in year out we continue to vote huge amounts of money for road construction?
After 54 years when our railway system should have gone modern, we do not even have the locomotives that predated the colonial period.
We have continued to blame our failures on external factors. We have always been quick to mention slavery and colonialism and lately dictatorship as the source of our problems and underdevelopment when these factors are not limited to Ghana and Africa.
Today, just like yesterday, we have put all our hope on donor support, to the extent that we rely on charity to procure reflective jackets and flash lights for our policemen and women for their official duties.
We have entered the 55th year of our national independence as usual with a lot of promises and pledges. We want a new leadership that will talk less and act more. We want transformational leadership that breaks away from the routine promise-making and pursue achievable goals with religious fervour.
Our youth are losing hope as they see the dreams of independence to be fading away. The democracy that we have been yearning for has come without any signs of a breakthrough in our national life.
The optimists may say we should not lose hope, but hope alone will not offer solutions if we do not take concrete steps to salvage this country from poverty and underdevelopment. We must begin to have confidence in our ability to solve our own problems and end the excessive dependence on external support.
Yesterday, we put all our hope in Western countries – America, Britain, Germany, France, etc. Today, we have shifted to China, Korea, Malaysia and even Thailand. Where our next redeemers shall come from is the big question. Incidentally, in comparative terms, none of these countries could count on more resources than Ghana.
It is time we gave meaning to our independence or stopped subjecting our children to the annual march past under hostile weather conditions for a freedom which does not go beyond raising a national flag and singing a national anthem. We want independence that will make us self-reliant, self-sufficient, proud and authors of our own history.

fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com