Yesterday was the 66th anniversary of the country’s independence attained on March 6, 1957.
To mark the day, there were parades in all the district and regional capitals across the country, while the national one was held at Adaklu in the Volta Region.
In a speech, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo praised the efforts of individuals and groups who played roles that served as a precursor to the country’s independence and mentioned some national achievers from the Volta Region and its tourist potential.
He also alluded to the theme for the occasion – ‘Our unity, our strength, our purpose’ to make some points, and appealed to the people to fulfil their responsibilities to the country by, for instance, paying their taxes and working hard to help transform the nation.
As expected, he acknowledged the hardship in the country and gave the assurance that his administration was doing all it could to resolve the problems and very soon, the people would have some relief.
One other important point was his expression of appreciation to the team that led the country in its western border dispute and won the case.
We think President Akufo-Addo’s speech captured areas relevant to the occasion and the present circumstances of the country.
His reference to all those who fought for the country’s independence in even relatively small ways and his mention of some great people the Volta Region in particular has produced for the benefit of the country are reassuring that any citizen’s role to uplift the country will be remembered by even generations after them.
Earlier on the day we had put out an editorial titled ‘Happy Independence to all Ghanaians!’ in which we had asked the country’s managers and, of course, those who care to assess whether Ghana had got the full benefit of its independence.
*Whatever the answer is from any source, we think our prompting dovetails into the President’s call on Ghanaians to fulfil their civic responsibilities to help transform the nation.
No nation would prosper based on only the efforts of its managers; all the citizens must do their part too.
The country has achieved some level of development, no doubt, but it still has a long way to go and that calls for collective efforts of individual citizens, groups and institutions of state to make any headway.
It is about time both the State and the citizenry abandoned the negative things like the mismanagement of the economy, corruption, passiveness and partisanship and adopted attitudes that can transform the country for the benefits of both the current and future generations.
We wish to commend the Akufo-Addo administration’s novelty regional rotational celebration of the country’s Independence Day, which started with the 62nd Anniversary in Tamale, the Northern regional capital, in 2019.
To us, it throws a special spotlight on the host region and helps to promote all its potential to the whole world by no mean persons but the movers and shakers of the country just as President Akufo-Addo did for the Volta Region yesterday.
The country must maintain that in line with Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s promise on March 1, 2019 ahead of the maiden regional celebration in Tamale.
Let Independence Day prompt the burning desire to transform the country!
