GHANA’S 54TH INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATION IN TORONTO ORGANISED BY GCAO. SPEECH BY DR. MARTIN LA-KUMI, COMMUNITY LEADER AND DENTIST

Salutations

Honorable Consul General, Pastors,Church leaders, and their congregations, Nananom, ladies and gentlemen.

‘At long last, the battle has ended, Ghana, your beloved country is free forever, From now on there is a new African in the world, This new African is ready to fight his own battles and show that after all, the Blackman is capable of managing his own affairs. The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked to the total liberation of the African continent’….. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah on the eve of Ghana’s independence on March 6th, 1957..

Fellow Ghanaians. We have come a long way from 1957 until now that we commemorate the 54th anniversary of Ghana’s independence. Since independence we have had lot of successive leaders who have given us various forms of administrations which we have had to contend with in the hope that they will usher us into prosperity and good life.

A lot of us grew up in Ghana but we have become Ghanaian-Canadians by dint of the fact that we have adopted this country to be our abode where we earn a living and our prosperity.

Some of our children have been born here. We have to inculcate into our youths a sense of belonging to Ghana by developing the necessary attachments to the motherland so as to maintain our culture and flourish it for our next generations to come.

We have to be part of the Canadian mosaic by involving ourselves in the political administration of the country we live in where decisions affecting us a re taken. The time has come to see a Ghanaian-Canadian City councilor, a Ghanaian-Canadian member of Provincial parliament, and a Ghanaian-Canadian member of the Federal parliament.

We have to encourage our children to enlist in the police, fire and civic services to be exposed to the workings of a society and the day to day business of the city and Government matters. We have acquired skills and knowledge in this country. We need to put them to good use to better our lives here and in the motherland as well.

The time has come for Ghanaian-Canadians to positively think about establishing a Ghanaian credit union in Canada to provide funding to our own businesses. This is because, invariably, the traditional banks will not find it prudent sometimes to offer loans or grants to grow our businesses. It is interesting to note that most ethnic groups in Canada have established their individual ethnic credit unions to help themselves succeed.

We need to support our indigenous based Ghanaian Canadian businesses to succeed in our environments. There are over 100,000 Ghanaians in this country and we need to be recognized from coast to coast as a formidable community in Canada.

Furthermore we have to investigate what we can do to help Ghana in its development and progress and make use of all the knowledge and skills we have acquired in Canada, to be able to transfer to the motherland to help in its development.

Ghanaian professionals in the diaspora who have acquired skills and knowledge in medicine, law, engineering and consulting are encouraged to organize themselves to volunteer their services to various institutions in Ghana. This will show love, concern and duty to country. Also in order to elevate the healthcare status of the country, the need to acquire medical equipment from hospitals in the diaspora to be given to health centers in Ghana is very essential. This can be done by bodies such as cultural organizations who can obtain these hospital items to equip the various hospitals in their traditional areas.

Over the years some Ghanaian businessmen in the diaspora have set up businesses in Ghana, however we are encouraging those who have had businesses and business experiences to form partnerships with their diasporan counterparts to continue to do more for Ghana in terms of formulating ways and means to create new businesses in Ghana to benefit the teeming unemployed especially the youths in Ghana.

When it comes to establishing business in Ghana, the Government of Ghana should establish the proper infrastructure to make it possible to attract and create new businesses. Some of these are good passable roads, continuous running water and electricity, efficient communication system, and schools for training manpower. The need to emphasize more upon science and technology especially in our secondary and tertiary institutions in Ghana to meet our technological needs is very important.

There should be an enabling environment in which there are adequate policies and laws to enhance the smooth operation of businesses. Such policies governing the banking system, the licensing and registration of businesses, the proper working order at the ports and the harbors, efficiency of our court systems to adjudicate issues such as land tenure disputes, will alleviate some of the frustrations of would be investors.

Finally, the call upon diasporan Ghanaians to help the motherland with their acquired skills and wealth still continues and the diasporans have never turned a deaf ear to that call.

Last year over 2 billion dollars were remitted by diasporans to Ghana towards economic growth. At the moment, the Government of Ghana has mandated a Constitutional Review Committee to review and prepare recommendations in areas of the 1992 Constitution that need amendment. Articles 92 and 94 in chapter 3 of the Constitution prohibits Ghanaian citizens by birth or naturalization who take on citizenship of another country from remaining as citizens of Ghana.

They are also prohibited from joining the public service as well as running for some high elective offices.

We feel that these articles are discriminatory and we are therefore asking the government to repeal the chapter to let democracy prevail as found in other countries.

Finally we should all be supportive of the actions of the GCAO which forms the mouth piece for all of us.

Thank you.