Sixty-eight years ago, Ghana forcefully shoots onto the scene of sovereign countries, carrying an ear-splitting voice of a united Africa. It sends shivers down the muscles of the avarice west whose bent intent to keep Africa in everlasting bondage is spotted early by man of the millennium – K. Nkrumah.

This determined intention rings Ghana’s “developmental demise” with varied assassination tries to truncate Kwame’s life and his government. In 1966 the “sons of darkness” conspiracy with the “civilized marauders” to drag-down Kwame’s government meets success. This vile accomplishment cut the bright economic, political and social prospect of a country, first in the sub-Sahara Africa to gain independence in 1957.

Sixth March 2025 marks another happily-sad day. It’s Ghana’s birthday commonly called Independence Day. I know how Kwame, the father of Ghana, will feel opening some cracks in the curtains of his grave seeing his beloved 68-year-old country, the grey-haired Ghana that fails crawling, fails walking – stunted.

A country reeking with ritualized religiosity, toxic corruption and fake patriotism. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah will be an ocean of tears for the sad state of the state he toils, laburs and fathers.

Kwame will be crest fallen because one of his famous pronouncements that “the black man is capable of handling his own affairs” turns out to be mounds of mockery. Africa for that matter Ghana is more dependent and incapable than what conventional dependency theory means.

The recently refurbished park in Kwame’s memory means nothing to him. This is because most of his beloved countrymen are sleeping with foodless stomachs, facing hard tasks sheltering and clothing themselves.

Some skip breakfast and lunch, crossing over with a lean supper. Others lean on a lean-lunch, skipping breakfast and supper with hopes of meeting the next day and its unknown stories of where, how and when to buy or get food. Nye Bro, life is hard but harder under the recently expelled NPP government!

Our leaders (some of them) are abundant thinkers, whose wits overrun the piggery brains of smart Snowball and agile Napoleon in George Owell’s Animal Farm. When hardship falls as frost-stones on Ghanaians, COVID-19 and Russia-Ukraine war are labelled perpetrators.

This “Jubilee House” narrative forms the chorus of government information no one is allowed to counter. Try it, just make “fii,” you may be buried in the riverine foundation hole of the National Cathedral as Osama Bin Laden under Arabian Sea for his sins against Americans.

I recall the piled-applauds that hails the heroic decoloniality mindset of former President Nana Addo in 2019. He stands before French President Emmanuel Macron and declares with unmatched heroism - “African must quit its mindset of dependency of western tax aids.”

Gloomily, irony of fate reveals a miserable President Nana Addo’s tenure of overborrowing, debt overhang equaling economic haircuts expressed in debt restructure for domestic and foreign creditors.

Ghana could have perhaps started a motionless crawl if the sky train project that sinks US$12 million without a shadow of even a pole to hold the trains skyward. Ghana flings triumphant hands when in 2019 the game changer Pwalugu dam project sees “pick-axe cutting” to start.

In a well sculptured phrase “the single largest investment ever made in the northern part of Ghana,” the project like agenda 111 as a policy response to economic hardship and emergency health reaction are just legacies of ghostly projects that further draw Ghana back. Hmm eight wasted years?

China’s ten-day miracle of building a 1000 bed Huosheshan hospital with 30 intensive care wards in the virus-hit Wuhan (France 24, 03/02/2020) could not riot the thoughts of our leaders into similar action in its tiniest practicality.

This is hard work you know. Compare it to Ghana’s response that is buried in slogan – “we knew how to bring a dead economy back to life, but we don’t know how to bring dead people back to life. Sadly, the agenda 111 hospitals are still uncompleted after insincere commissioning of three empty buildings out of the 111 proposed hospitals to mine votes.

At the end, the economy is dead including the several casualties of the covid-19. One thing is clear – just as they don’t know how to bring back a dead to life, they equally don’t know how to revive walking-dead economy.

With all the scars of economic lacerations of a “criminally managed economy,” and a debt of GHS 721billion, we will not overlook the fact that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) leaves a commendable GDP growth in 2024. In fact, it solidly stands at 5.7, superior to the projected 3.1 growth rate.

Dr Cassiel Ato Forson tells us in his “humane” and “good intention” budget that receives claps from all. Our little kids, Ghana’s future handle, is not left out. Though they may lie on their bellies as snakes on dusty mud floors without text books for years, they can now have textbooks out of the over GHS 500 million budget allocation.

I believe the NPP lexicologists who synonymize “review” to “cancel” of the free Senior High School (SHS) can now reevaluate their semantics as GHS 3.5 billion is allotted for it. I believe in the US$10 Big Push as stated by Mr. Fixer, John Mahama in his recently broadcast state of the nation address.

This together with the uncapped GETFund will revolutionize infrastructure and our kids will soon have class rooms, tables, chairs, teachers and a little hot meal a day to happily be in school.

Happy Independence Day celebration to all of us.