Ghana’s Future: A Paradox Of Choice?

It is unnatural and rather confusing for something to have two contradictory characteristics simultaneously, an advantage and a disadvantage but still, decisions taken are contradictory to the set goals.

Civilization commenced in Africa, Africa is a leader in the production of cocoa, up to 70%, diamond up to 95%, gold up to 50%, and other natural resources in the world. The land is said to be the most arable in the world capable of growing almost all types of food known to mankind. Africa is a library of tourist attractions and wildlife. It is historically proven that life started here in Africa before anywhere else. The African continent is truly blessed in this regard.

History has it that, Africans contributed immensely to the building of the United States of America and Europe during the era of slavery even till the present day where the phenomenon manifests in different dimensions in disguised form.

Post-slavery, the western powers still take possession of our natural and mineral resources destroying our basic needs to sustain and improve their standard of living.

Their feet and affairs constantly tread the land of Africa for their selfish interests. As much as corruption and bad leadership are self-inflicted and hinder the continent, they must not be the reasons to mask strides made in our development as a continent or put a scar on our image of significant cumulative progress.

Africa may not yet contend for the position of a superpower in the context and definition of the word, but Africa cannot be ignored in global affairs.

The black light Africa emits suggests peace, communality, hospitality, rationality, tenacity, and attraction.  Africans know their value and respect the sacrifices of past leaders.

We have come from a place of adverse aggression and repression to be what we are today.

If we alter the factors that define a superpower in a more optimistic sense, Africa will be leading the charge through peace and not by the force of gunpowder.

Narrowing the concept down to Ghana, a beautiful country located in West Africa, on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the deep south, sharing borders with Cote D’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north and Togo to the East.

Ghana comes to mind whenever thriving and emerging Economies are mentioned and adversely, Ghana is also mentioned when it comes to very negative situations in Africa, like poverty, tribal wars, forest degradative activities like illegal small-scale mining otherwise called “galamsey” and to large extent insecurity.

A major paradoxical situation in Ghana pertains to the country’s economic wealth; Ghana is a hub of major natural resources like gold, bauxite, diamond, timber, and oil and these elements are the backbones of wealth and affluence.

However, despite Ghana having all of these enviable resources, the glaring downside of it is poverty.

The very towns and villages in which these minerals are mined are in the low brackets of everything and almost paling into insignificance for the lack of social amenities.

There are no good roads nor basic amenities like potable water, and electricity. Literally, these places do not benefit from the minerals mined in them, and this has retarded their growth, what a classic irony and testimonial of deprivation.

The youth who find themselves in these towns have their minds psyched that engaging in the mining of these precious minerals is a shortcut to riches is now pawns to wealthy persons who finance the mining activities. The net effect of unregulated mining is dire, and this could be seen in the depletion of forests, degradation of lands, and pollution of water sources that fend human settlements.

Most times people die in these mine pits when they get trapped and buried alive. The industrial sector is not too strong and until recently, there were not many value-addition processing companies in the country. The political parties jostling for power have identified this necessity and some have pledged to build a gold refinery in Ghana.  Countries like South Africa, Australia, Brazil, the U.S, China, India, and others have processing capacities, as opposed to Ghana which was recently named Africa’s leading gold producer but still an exporter of the mineral in their raw state.

For a major revenue source for Ghana like cocoa, the story is no different. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are by far the two largest producers of cocoa, accounting for over 60% of the global cocoa share but this feat is not evident in the pockets of the ordinary cocoa farmer,

The cocoa-growing areas are dotted with villages and towns without basic amenities and with very poor residents.  The roads leading to the farms are in a deplorable state.  All said and done, the internal obstacles and trade terms with advanced economies conspire against the countries which are sources of raw material, further aggravating the situation of the poor farmer or the laborers in the field.

The class system is also a tenet of this concept, with the rich getting richer and the poor and less privileged getting poorer.

But the paradoxical nature of situations cannot be overlooked, the influx of squatters scattered across places perceived to be the preserve of the rich and affluent in society. In Ghana, one of the mirrors on the theatre of contrasts is the plush suburb of East Legon in Accra where the glitter of sophisticated block buildings is mixed up with squatters who perform menial jobs for the rich.

These two kind of settlements in the same area seems to create the perfect picture of Ghana and maybe, what the country is seeking to achieve in the near future. A perpetuation of the two-way street of the rich and the poor.

Ghana is a country of veritable contrasts evident in many spheres of life. The unpleasant ones hit you right in the face once you stepped foot in the slums where people wallow in abject poverty, filth, and perhaps all the things which lower the esteem of humanity.  Is that the Ghana we seek to build? is that the Ghana we look forward to?

Well, it is past time the country and its people sat up but if it decidedly pulls the bull by the horns and does the right things, it could claw back on some of the losses. If young children below age 10, are now supporting themselves by selling on streets instead of devoting all their time to school to become better in society, then Ghana has a huge task but it is not too late to put in place the structures and the systems to correct these anomalies and position Ghana in a more secure place and on the right pedestal.

I don’t know how to put it, but it should be a wake-up call to individuals, corporate bodies, and everyone interested in the future of Ghana, let’s do this together.