By: Kingsley Quartey

I just came across this quote by Barack Obama I love it. I think it’s the essence of his message. The same theme can be applied to Ghana. The days of importing rice into a country like a 'Tropical' country with high unemployment rate and fertile land should be numbered -( we will eat our own rice, and if we don’t have the tractors to farm then we will plow with bulls).

The US$600 million we spent importing rice into Ghana can be spent on education and building bridges and hospitals.

The days of importing Sugar into a country like Ghana where Sugar cane grows easily is numbered, I can feel Ghana can attain its rightful place amongst the so-called rich nations, but we have to work extremely hard, there can be no rest, there can be no half-and-half effort.

All our resources must be rallied to benefit our country. We can’t depend on the IMF or the Worldbank to help us, we can only depend on our selves to better our country and enrich our people.

I am sure there would be set backs and false starts, but like Barack said, "we are the one we are waiting for" - we must never expect someone miraculous to come and 'right our economy" and create jobs no, but I believe in all my heart it can be done.

(1/2) Those of you who are interested in history, check the sophistication of 13th century Spanish society, and see what happened after the Mongols, and you will realize that any country can achieve success if it puts its mind to it.

But there work is going to be so arduous , nothing like you have ever done before, but I am sure in the end it will be worth it.

Thank you.

- Kingsley Quartey

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. If you’re walking down the right path and you are willing to keep walking, eventually you will progress”. Quoted by Barack Obama

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