Every child has a dream. Some aspire to be lawyers, doctors, and many other good professions. But I ask myself that how can this child attain them when he is not guided by responsible parents or guardians who also share in the vision of the child. Many have succeeded in achieving their aims, many others have also failed. The failures have become street hawkers, beggars, thieves, burglars and the likes. The question I always ask myself is didn’t they have dreams? But as I continue to ask, I always get the response that every child, no matter where he or she is , has a dream. This dream however has to be nurtured and guided by responsible guardians. I want to allude this tale of the child and the dream to our country Ghana. Able men and women struggled with their lives and blood before 1957, to place this country in a better position to fulfill its dream of becoming a rich, independent and a successful nation. The road to achieving this dream began after 1960 when Ghana was finally pronounced a republic. The then President, the leader and the propounder of this dream and vision started putting in place structures that will push the nation to its vision. In a span of 6 years, Ghana could boast of a world class hydroelectric power to facilitate the production of electricity and industrial development. World class Universities like the University of Ghana and the then University of Science and technology were established. One may ask what the idea behind all these was. I believe Dr. Nkrumah had the vision of making Ghana a country full of well-educated citizens in the fields of Art, Liberal Arts, Health Sciences and most importantly Technology, which he saw to be the future backbone of the country. Aside from these, factories were established in places where the necessary natural resources abounded and the famous Tema motorway which spearheaded transportation can never be overlooked as well.
All these structures which were among the many establishments and the policies of the first President , were put in place to propel the vision of making Ghana a world class society and a leader among African countries. This vision was halted when he was over thrown. Since then, my beloved country has been visionless and has been run by short term ideas and selfish policies. After 1966, Ghana has been run only by either a 4 year manifesto of a political party, a one year revolutionary policy of a military regime or a 3month ideas of interim governments. This country does not have any common vision shared by all leaders and citizens which it hopes to achieve in the near future..
Since the first republic in 1992, this country has lived only by the manifestos of political parties which are mostly left unfulfilled. Governments leave office after four years and the next one is not ready to complete or continue its uncompleted projects because they are not part of his manifesto and therefore has to fulfill his in order to win the next election. I see all these as unpatriotic and selfish citizens.
One may wonder where I am driving at but my plea is for this country to have a definite National Policy. This national policy will spell out where this country aspires to be in the next years. In terms of infrastructure, education, agriculture, industry, business and any other aspect of the country, this policy will spell them out and when and how they should be achieved. It saddens my heart when an important aspect like education is toyed around for political points. Housing projects are left uncompleted which even common three unit class room blocks are started prior to an election and finally inaugurated days before the next election in four years , all these for political points and not the collective development of this country. I witnessed a very funny occurrence in Kumasi where a road which had been untarred for years was finally tarred a day before the 2012 election which got many amazed. This made me establish one truth, that our leaders know what is right for the country, but because they are not held accountable for what they use our time and money for whiles in office, they choose to work for us only when they stand the chance of getting immense benefits. I don’t think a Member of Parliament will see to the construction of only one feeder road over four years in office for his constituents when a binding policy requires him to do more than that for the well-being of the ordinary citizens. I am saying this because I don’t sincerely see any bright future for this country if we are consistently governed under such circumstances. We must have definite goals, achievable goals that the entire citizenry believes in and will do whatever it takes to make it happen regardless of political affiliations.
With the existence of a National policy or vision, the development of this country will not be determined by manifestos and promises of political parties but rather the works and the duties of every government will be determined by the national policy and vision. This is not to say that the individual ideas of leaders of governments will not be allowed. They will be allowed but they main vision of every government will be to work towards the achievement of the vision of the country. In the enactment of this policy, all political parties who have the objective of being in power will have to assent to the fulfillment of the national policy before it can be allowed to operate as a political party. This policy will direct and guide the paths of our country to attain whatever goals we want to achieve. It might look to be too late but a definite policy with an established neutral institution will spur us on. Our country cannot continue to live by the promises of politicians and individual visions, we must together decide where we want to go. Just as the child’s dream can be fulfilled by responsible and well organized guardians, so does our country needs a definite common vision in the form of a national developmental policy to guide as to our collective dreams. Ghana is more than 50 years and we cannot boast of even one complete city. The land is not growing and I believe it is time for all of us to come together to think about how we can make our motherland a better place for all of us. God bless our homeland Ghana.


Joel Ayim Darkwah
Joel.darkwah05@gmail.com