Just another celebration
For once, the scorching sun gave way to a heavy downpour. It could be showers of blessing as some interpreted it. It could also be God's way of telling us enough of this so-called independence parades.
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Former President J.J. Rawlings described it as anthem and flag independence and it seems the man was right. Of course, he could not make things better during the 19 years he was in power, enough time for Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohammed of Malaysia to transform that backward country into an economic giant.
Sometimes I wonder whether God deliberately wanted to make a case to prove how a people well-endowed could live a very miserable life. Look at such a small country with so much wealth -- water resources, minerals of different types in high deposits, forest resources and to cap it all, oil and gas reserves.
These are resources that many countries will go to war for. For many years, we have exported our rich mineral resources in their raw form without any fair idea how much revenue they have fetched for the simple reason that the trade in these valuable commodities is in the hands of firms owned and controlled by foreigners.
The local people, having seen the enormous amount of gold and diamonds taken away from their land without any corresponding improvement in their lives, have decided to throw themselves into the pits and fight for their own survival.
Who can blame them? There is nothing about Obuasi which shows that it was once one of the richest gold mines in the world. The mineral wealth of Obuasi has built business empires and skyscrapers in London, New York, Johannesburg and other world capitals and made millionaires of many in distant places. Our own son, Dr Sam Jonah, was knighted by the Queen of England for a job well done. He presided over the exploitation of his country's mineral wealth.
Today, if galamsey (illegal mining) has become a national menace, it is because our young men and women have become desperate and no amount of legislation, threats or physical assault will stop them. The survival instinct, which is the law of the jungle, has taken full control of their actions.
Thank God we still have minerals such as manganese and bauxite which can turn our economy round only if we can have a leadership which will be wise enough to know that selling these minerals in their raw form will not serve our national interest.
Ghana is about the only country which has all that is needed for a fully integrated aluminum industry. We have bauxite in abundance, we have salt and, thanks to the foresight of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, an aluminum smelter. God knows you need a lot of electrical energy to operate the smelter and so he again generously gave us abundant oil and gas. So where is the problem?
As we celebrate our political independence with so much fanfare, three of our major national assets were constructed for us by countries that should be our classmates on the political terrain. The Flagstaff House, the proud residence of our President, was built by the Indians. The buildings serving as offices of our Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Foreign Affairs were constructed by the Chinese.
These are strategic installations that under normal circumstances should not be handled by any foreign country. But we have buried our national pride, dignity and state security by succumbing to the foreign aid and dependency syndrome.
So what are we celebrating by exposing our children just as they did to us and our fathers to the scorching sun or a heavy downpour when they can't go home to get water to wash the sweat from their bodies or enough power to iron their school uniforms?
Our government officials will always leave the parade grounds to wine and dine but to the majority of the people, independence day celebrations are becoming a painful reminder of our failure as people who, in the abundance of everything, are still struggling for survival. Maybe this celebration should end somewhere and the day shold be used to do general cleaning to free us from the mountains of filth that are choking the life out of us.
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