I have fond memories -Nana Kofi Abuna
Nana Kofi Abuna V, the Chief of Essipon in the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolis of the Western Region, one of the country’s female chiefs, shares her thoughts on Ghana’s 59th Anniversary Celebration with our correspondent, Dotsey Koblah Aklorbortu.
Advertisement
Nana Abuna: I have fond memories of Ghana’s Independence but regret that we are not glittering enough as the Black Star of Africa as always touted.
My fond memory of Ghana has a lot to do with the fact that aside several setbacks after we attained independence in 1957, Ghana still remains the most peaceful place to be.
I am always happy considering how far the Lord has brought us; we are still together as one people with diverse cultures, which makes us unique, although various regimes and governments have come and gone.
We have a lot to celebrate in terms of peace, but my regrets have to do with the fact that we have not performed very well in the face of all the God-given natural resources.
Dotsey: Nana where did we go wrong?
Nana Abuna: There is no doubt that Ghana was the Star of Africa at her independence. We were blessed with a lot of natural resources, arable land for agriculture, industries in Sekondi/Takoradi, Tema and railway network with industries all over.
Today what do we see? Sad stories about how the various successive governments abandoned projects that were started by one government after change of government.
Today, I am sure that the projects that were started by past political leaders still remain uncompleted. A lot of the taxpayer’s money has been channelled into these projects in the areas of health, agriculture, education and other social services but what happened to them?
What happened to the storage facilities that were built by Nkrumah ? One of them in Sekondi/Takoradi and our dreams of industrialising the country, agro-processing and so on. What happened?
The railways system, the shipping lines, the omnibus services, state housing, State Transport, Ghana Food Distribution, the GIHOC, the Black Star Line, among others.What happened to all these?
Therefore, my son, where we went wrong is when we fail to manage and maintain standards. From the day of independence, we have overthrown regimes and misapplied our resources to our own disadvantage.
How can we have the state Housing Company and we can’t build enough houses to accommodate the populace? We still have a housing deficit; the railways are yet to find their feet, post-harvest losses due to improper storage and off-taker for the produce that comes from the market.
Dotsey: From what you are saying, it means if Ghana is a worker, we would say we have not worked hard enough to be able to pay our ‘retirement benefits’ to the 59-year-old who is about to ‘retire’ at 60 next year!
Nana Abuna: It is a sad story, my son. It is true we do not have enough to pay Ghana “ex gratia” next year as we celebrate her at 59 today. Our gold, bauxite, manganese, rubber are still not processed locally.
We could have paid Ghana well if we had good stories about Bonsa Tyres, Aboso Glass Factory, timber companies that have all collapsed. Today we don’t have timber. Why? because we harvested without a sustainability plan in place to replant the felled timber.
We import timber today. How and why did those industries, commerce and strong Black Star Line, vibrant transport and housing systems go down?
With that we cannot pay Ghana enough, but we have peace and respect for one another and I only hope that from the next year, when we start the 60th year celebration, we will ensure that the past failures would guide us to do better.
Dotsey: What about leadership and Ghanaians in general?
Nana Abuna: Another big challenge we have is our attitude, as leaders and as citizens, at 59, Ghanaians have to change their attitudes and act in the national interest. Ghana will make a lot of progress if we change our way of doing things and put the nation first.
We said our leaders are to blame yes to some extent. What about ourselves. It is good we do things right and put the country first and we will have a better story to tell in the next 60 years.