Prof. Godfred Bokpin, who lectures finance at the University of Ghana Business School, has argued that Ghana cannot celebrate its independence while corruption and nepotism continue to impede socioeconomic progress.
He believes that these deeply ingrained social vices that are going unchecked are the cause of the current economic crisis. On Citi Prime News, Prof. Bokpin stated that Ghana will continue to lag behind despite gaining colonial freedom 66 years ago until the trend is reversed. The fact that spending money on independence has no effect is, in my opinion, also important. To guide our subsequent celebration, we need precise timelines and goals, and more importantly, we should anticipate achieving independence from nepotism, corruption, and low productivity during the 67th celebration. We must anticipate something worthy of celebration. Spending millions of Ghana cedis each year to celebrate is insufficient. There are difficulties thus on the off chance that we can’t acquire freedom from debasement then, at that point, it does not merit commending anything any longer.” With over 50% inflation and a depreciating cedi driving up living costs, Ghana’s economic metrics have been declining recently. The government has been forced to request an extended loan facility worth $3 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to assist the recovery of the economy. As part of its efforts to rescue the faltering economy and satisfy the IMF’s requests for assistance, the government has implemented a domestic debt exchange program. We should make use of the celebration to examine the major failures and successes of the past. However, our path since independence does not appear to indicate that we have achieved independence. All this time, we have been lying to ourselves. The control and direction of our economy that we had hoped for when we declared independence in 1957 have not been realized. Over the course of these 66 years, Ghana has enjoyed quality time under Western supervision. Therefore, we really ought to consider independence. Prof. Bokpin continued, “We have not been able to turn the aspirations and intentions into real sustainable development.”
