If the Republic of Ghana were a person

Monday, 1^st July 2024, marked sixty-four (64) years since Ghana, our beloved motherland, became a Republic. What would Ghana look like if she were a person at age 64? For starters, we can all admit that she would be a woman: a mother.

She would probably be getting ready for retirement from active duty.  She would have more than likely mastered whatever profession she had been holding.

She would probably be a grandmother with adult children.  Perhaps she would have already prepared her will in anticipation of her future exit from this world, handing over whatever she possessed to her loved ones—if Ghana were a person.  But Ghana is not a person.   Ghana is a nation—a republic!  So how do we “judge” a republic at age 64 years old?  What is our expectation?

Let’s start from the basics: what at all is a republic? According to the Oxford Dictionary, a republic is a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president, rather than a monarch.

So, by this definition, the key thing about a republic is the fact that sovereignty rests with the people.  This means that it is the people’s power that is transferred to their elected officials—the president, members of parliament, and politicians in general—to use in running or managing the republic for the benefit of all citizens.

It has been 64 years since the power has been with the people of Ghana. How have we, the people, through our elected (and sometimes unelected) officials run this republic?

Is the Republic of Ghana where she’s supposed to be?  How is she looking as a 64-year-old? I will limit my list to 10 things:

1. Ghana is currently in so much debt with a debt to GDP ratio of 83.6%, and many national assets used as collateral for the debt.
2. Unemployment is at an all-time high (currently about 14.7%)
3. Human resource flight: young people countrywide are fleeing in droves, heading to any country that would accept them.
4. High inflation and high cost of living compounded with an avalanche of levies and taxes, including a 1% Covid levy which is still in effect more than a year after the WHO declared an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.
5. An unstable currency—Bloomberg recently listed the Ghanaian cedi as the 4^thworst performing currency. The current exchange rate is roughly 16 GHS to 1 USD.
6. Lack of constant electricity supply.
7. Lack of constant water supply, and a grim projection that water would probably be imported in the future due to our polluted rivers.
8. Rivers that are polluted because of illegal mining, popularly known as “galamsey”.
9. Bad roads, making travelling dangerous and unnecessarily time-consuming.
10. Poor sanitation. According to the UNDP, about 12,710 tonnes of solid waste is generated every day in Ghana, with only 10% collected and disposed of properly.

With the above-listed issues, if the 64-year-old Republic of Ghana were a person, we the people of Ghana would probably point a finger at her and say in Twi, our predominantly spoken local language that “wambo bra”, meaning hers has not been a life well lived. But Ghana is not a person, so who do we point the finger at? Going back to the definition of a republic where the power rests with the people, we would have to point the finger at ourselves as the people of Ghana.  It is our fault that Ghana looks the way she does.  When we sing patriotic songs like, “…oman be ye yie aa efi yen ara, yen ara…” (“…if a nation will succeed it depends on us…”) and “yen ara y’asaase ni…” (“this is our very own land…”) do we really take time to digest the lyrics of these songs, or do we only sing them for singing’s sake?  We are Ghana, and Ghana is us! So, if Ghana is looking like hers hasn’t been a life well-lived, then it is our fault!

How have we used the power we possess in making sure Ghana looks good? Have we sold our power for cheap by taking “free” t-shirts every four years from politicians, and relinquishing our sense of duty to “uphold and defend” our beloved motherland?  Or do we not know that we also have a responsibility in this nation-building agenda?  Why do we only point to the politicians and elected officials? Or have we forgotten that we gave them our power and put them there? That they work for us? How are we holding them accountable for the job that we have employed them to do?  Imagine owning a shop and hiring someone to be the shopkeeper. Would we leave the shopkeeper to do as he/she pleases with our shop? No, we wouldn’t. We would see to it that the shopkeeper does whatever job he/she was hired to do.   Why then do we leave our elected officials to do as they please with our more precious homeland with no proper accountability?

I believe it is because we don’t fully understand the power we possess.  If we did, we would not be saluting or bowing down to politicians—in fact they would be bowing down to us, the people.  We would not be perpetuating the divisive partisan politics we’re currently guilty of, voting along tribal lines, when political parties are nothing more than vehicles that should convey us to the more important destination of a national goal and agenda.  We need to teach our children in schools, not only to be patriotic, but we need to instill in them the sense of duty to build a Ghana we can all be proud of.  We need to teach them to put Ghana first.  It is not passive, but active.  It will not happen by chance; we must deliberately take the steps to educate ourselves as a people that we too have a role to play in this nation-building agenda, for after all, “yen aara y’asaase ni” and “oman be yie aa efi yen ara”!

Fortunately, the Republic of Ghana is not a person, so sixty-four years is still relatively young.  We can turn things around.  We can make corrections by changing our attitude towards nation building. We cannot point to our elected officials only.  We must point to ourselves first.  That way, when we are right standing, we can hold our elected officials accountable if they’re not doing the jobs we hired them to do.  We can start from today by changing the way we see ourselves as far as building this republic goes—that we are not invisible, we are not voiceless, but rather, we are the main stakeholders, for after all, this is a republic and the power rests with us, the people.

Many well-meaning Ghanaians have been asking the same question lately, “nti Ghana be tumi aye yie” i.e. can Ghana improve?  I believe the answer is yes, Ghana be tumi aye yie, na Ghana be yie nso: Ghana can and will improve.  With the right change in attitude, I have no doubt that we can build the Ghana we’re all looking for. The Ghana that would invoke the sentiment from our children, their children and future generations, that indeed “Ghana abo bra”, “Ghana afa ne ntama pa afra”, “Ghana aye yie”—that truly, hers has been a life well-lived!

Writer: Maabena Ohene-Kena Webb