The Executive Vice President of Unilever Ghana/Nigeria has opined that Ghana remains backward demoralised and underdeveloped because of the social segregations among people in the country.

Addressing a gathering of Old Achimotans in Accra on the topic: "A nation divided... That all may be one", Mr Yaw Nsarkoh mentioned a number of occurrences that bring division among occupants of a nation.

He laid emphasis on sanitation as a key indicator of underdevelopment naming open defecation as a demeaning and insanitary condition that is a common practice among Ghanaians.

“To illustrate why we remain behind and demoralized, I choose one damning statistic as a key marker for underdevelopment. Ghana has been ranked second after Sudan in Africa for open defecation. If I need to put it more starkly, 3 out of every 5 Ghanaians are subject to this demeaning and insanitary condition. This damning report was put out by no less a person than the Chief Officer at the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH),” he said.

He added, “WASH estimates that Ghana will take 500 years to eliminate the practice due to the slow pace at which strategies, laws and interventions are being implemented.”

He called on all stakeholders in the sanitation sector to step up efforts to solve the canker.

Mr. Nsarkoh lamented lack of equal access to quality and affordable education to both the poor and the rich in the country.

He said a nation that is unable to provide quality and affordable education to its citizens will achieve nothing but remain poor and recessive.

“Education is a lever of social mobility – the seeds of education give rise to the fruit and flower of capability in the citizen. Education, it remains my conviction, is one of the most revolutionary forces known to humanity. It is often my joy to remind people that my own generation is often separated from poverty and peasantry by only one generation…We must act to broaden access to good quality but affordable education. And that means, let us be absolutely clear, a system of affordable state/public education. One that can assure solid preparation for all, on merit – rich or poor, peasant or patrician,” he noted.

Mr. Nsarkoh called for attitudinal change from citizens and leaders for a better environment. "When we talk of change we are not looking for change in faces, we want change in the way we do things...”

He charged both the old and current students of the Achimota Senior High School to do their best in helping to transform Ghana into a better place.

Among the old students who were at the event which formed part of the school’s 90 years celebration were the former Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana - Dr. Afariwa Gyan, Samia Nkrumah, Member of Parliament for Gomoa Central - George Andah, Rev. Dr. Joyce Aryee, Executive Director of the Salt and Light Ministry.

Here are excerpts from the lecture .



Dr Afari Gyan shares his thought on issues



Rev. Dr. Joyce Aryee shares her thought on issues



Samia Nkrumah



George Andah