The National Planning Committee of the 60th anniversary of Ghana’s independence will not exceed its GH¢20 million budget for any reason, a member of the Committee has assured. Jefferson Sackey, the Chairman of the Media and Branding Sub-committee, says what happened during the Ghana@50 celebrations in 2007 will not repeat itself.

According to him, due diligence has been done by the Committee and “we will be very transparent”. Mr Sackey made these known on Wednesday, February 15 in an interview on 3FM’s Sunrise. ‘Ghana, 60 years on’ He indicated that the Committee has been tasked by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to be modest in all senses in order not to attract the chagrin of Ghanaians. “We are going to make sure that we are accountable to the Ghanaian people,” he noted.

“We are going to be extremely accountable,” he stressed. He said the opprobrium that followed the Ghana@50 celebrations is fresh in the minds of not only the Committee members but also Ghanaians in general. No wonder the celebrations is wrongfully referred to as ‘Ghana@60’, he insinuated. The right name of the celebration is ‘Ghana, 60 years on’, the former TV Africa presenter announced.

Logo plagiarism He dismissed allegations of plagiarism levelled against the Committee as regards the anniversary logo, insisting that a student of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) had his design selected after hundreds of submissions were shortlisted, first to 100 and then to 20.

Emmanuel Addo, he said, designed the logo from scratch out of Ghana’s Adinkra symbols Mati Masie and Tikoro nko agyina’. By his feat, the designer must even be given GH¢5,000 if he so wishes, Mr Sackey hinted, noting that most Ghanaians including the Committee members are working on the celebrations for free.

He observed that all the other logos publicized as the already existing ones were nowhere to be found when the Committee made independent checks. He assured that the Committee will not be fazed by the allegations but will make sure that the nationwide celebrations become a memorable one.

The theme for the anniversary is ‘Ghana, 60 years on, mobilizing for the future’. The celebrations are expected to last a whole year with the president on March 6, 2017 lighting a torch, which will make rounds across the 10 regional capitals. Sixty libraries are also planned to be built across the nation to commemorate the anniversary.