WISHING ALL A HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

06/03/08
GHANA is 51 today and all of us, no matter our individual circumstances, must pat one another on the back for having reached this 51st milestone.
Fifty-one years in the life of an institution, a person, etc. means that institution or person has more than matured and is capable of looking after his or her own interests.
On this auspicious occasion of our independence anniversary, all of us must ask ourselves whether the dreams and aspirations of our Founding Fathers have been achieved and whether we are on the right course to future prosperity.
In attempting to answer these questions, we must first acknowledge the fact that we have come a long way in our existence as an independent nation. Indeed, in spite of our turbulent past of coups d’etat and revolutions, we can say that, to some extent, we have remained as one entity and, to the DAILY GRAPHIC, that alone is something to be proud of.
What remains for us is to resolve to continue to maintain that unity so that future generations of Ghanaians will have that same unitary state that we have today.
Politically, it would appear that after the ship of state had floundered on the turbulent seas for some time, it has now found calm waters and it is sailing smoothly. This gives us the hope that, all things being equal, we will eventually arrive at the port of economic prosperity, social cohesion, financial self-sufficiency and, above all, political stability.
But these will not come by themselves. Even as we relish the smooth ride that we seem to be enjoying, let us remember that there are a lot of things that we are not doing right which, in effect, are retarding our forward march as a nation.
Too many problems confront us because individually and collectively we do a lot of things with impunity.
Much of the indiscipline we see around us — in our homes, workplaces, schools, public places, on the roads — are the result of the culture of impunity which seems to have taken over our body politic.
In the face of this, it appears that the laws which were passed to supposedly check these acts of commission and omission have become mere paper tigers. They are not implemented, leading to the situation where everybody and every institution has become a law unto himself and itself.
That is how come hawkers continue to sell on the streets, structures continue to be erected at unauthorised places, including on water courses, unscrupulous people continue to ease themselves anywhere, refuse continue to be disposed of anyhow, etc.
But the DAILY GRAPHIC believes that we can’t build our nation on the notion of ‘Business as usual’, since that will be dysfunctional to the attainment of our aspirations.
We, therefore, call on our compatriots to eschew all negative tendencies which have the potential to whittle away the little progress we have made. That way, we can build on the successes we have so far chalked up and remain on course to attain the middle-income status which is our main pre-occupation now.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that the future portends well for us and so we must commit ourselves to the values of hard work, fellow feeling, honesty, discipline and truth to build our dear nation.
We wish all Ghanaians a happy anniversary and ask for God’s blessings on everything we do from now onwards.