Opinions of Sunday, 26 February 2017

Columnist: 3news.com

Ghana, a Throwback Story: Infrastructural development vis-à-vis human attitude

Ghana will celebrate its 60th anniversary on 6th March 2017 Ghana will celebrate its 60th anniversary on 6th March 2017

Ghana today, seems very focused on infrastructural development – building schools, hospitals, constructing roads and building industries – which is a laudable cause.

But what happened to the Cement Factory in Tema, the Steel works in Tema, Coconut Fibre and Ceramic Processing at Saltpond, the Bamboo Processing in the Eastern region or the Gold refinery in the Western region, what of the Pwalugu Meat Factory in Bolgatanga, the Kumasi shoe factory, or the Atomic Energy in Kwabenya and many other collapsed factories established by Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

When people focus on what is not theirs, they lose grip of what they have. Look at the educational structure that is out of tune with the Ghanaian identity and a media focused on bombarding our airwaves with foreign content.

Until civil savants, government workers and the citizenry at large refrain from the lackadaisical attitude towards public institutions and treat it as their own, a factory in each district would be nothing but a huge white elephant.

60 years on after attaining independence we cannot undermine the importance of infrastructural development nonetheless there is a dire need for human development.