AS Ghana yesterday climaxed activities to round off the centenary celebration of the late Ghanaian leader and pan-African thinker, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, two distinguished personalities bemoaned the lack of commitment to emulating his ideals, patriotism and loyalty, as well as safeguarding his legacy.
The Vice-President, John Dramani Mahama, said at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum in Accra that the celebration of the birth of Osagyefo Dr Nkrumah raised the question of patriotism, vision and loyalty to one’s country, ideals and humanity.
The Vice-President does not appear to be alone in this line of thinking. The Executive Chairman of the African Development Policy Ownership Initiative, Prof Kwesi Botchwey, has also declared that the deteriorating nature of Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s legacy is ample evidence of the nation’s backwardness in development over the years.
Speaking at the ninth in the series of the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lectures organised by the University of Cape Coast, Prof. Botchwey, who is also a former Minster of Finance, said the sorry state of Nkrumah’s legacy was eloquent testimony of the nation’s continuous neglect of his ideals and called for accelerated efforts to move the nation forward.
The views espoused by the Vice-President and Prof. Botchwey are nothing but the bitter truth and they must galvanise us as a nation and people to emulate the virtues and patriotism of our forebears to improve the quality of life of our people.
Ghana is still faced with the challenges of poverty, disease and deprivation and is still grappling with the provision of affordable and accessible health, decent housing and universal primary education.
As the Veep stated, “Nation building is based on consensus building and the national cause is best canvassed through mutual respect, tolerance and constructive criticism”.
The DAILY GRAPHIC wishes to add its voice to the call for a long-term National Development Planning Policy in which successive governments would respect as well as implement its provisions.
The trend where government after government neglect ongoing projects in favour of their own, which, in the long run, are also left uncompleted, is not doing the nation any good.
On that note, the DAILY GRAPHIC would like to share in the Veep’s reminder to all political office holders to be mindful of the fact that political power would inevitably come to pass and that the judgement of history was not made in the short term.
It is regrettable that many political leaders exit this world without anyone remembering them save a few close relatives or friends. Relatedly, there are many global leaders whose names have been eternalised for good or for evil. However, only those who charted or attempted to chart a good course for their people and communities are venerated when their names are mentioned.
It is in this light that Kwame Nkrumah’s name still stands tall in the scheme of events as he is globally revered and remembered for his formidable vision for Africa.
Ghanaians must, therefore, embrace the views shared by the two personalities and work hard to make life comfortable for the rest of society by eschewing greed, selfishness, nepotism and corruption.
Many years after his death, the questions many are asking is: Are we going to see the re-emergence of Nkrumah in our lifetime to lead sub-Sahara Africa to the promised land — socio-economic unification? Are we ever going to create our own African personality and identity?
As we ponder over these questions, the DAILY GRAPHIC urges all to rededicate ourselves to the ideals of Nkrumah, which are symbols of hope and optimism for many across the African continent.
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