Accra, March 6, GNA – Mr Prince Bagnaba Mba, President of Forum for Equity, a human rights Non-governmental Organization has called on leadership to use celebration of independence to bridge the gap between elites and downtrodden.
“political independence will be more meaningful if it is linked with economic emancipation. Sixty-six years of our nationhood has created an elite class with a selfish mentality”.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Monday, Mr Mba said the economic disparity between the cities and villages, the different geopolitical zones was terribly alarming.
“We have seen school children in the rural areas without the basic necessities for a conducive environment for learning and fully Air-conditioned, digital equipped laboratories with the best conditions for learning.
“Meanwhile governments from the time of independence failed in meeting the United Nations requirement of thirty percent of GDP for education. There is too much complacency and self-esteem.
Education is the key to wealth creation and management. Education should be for the primary aim of improved human resources”.
He said Ghanaians had had enough fanfare and it was unacceptable for pupils to lie on the bare floors to write.
“All is not lost, there is a new awakening that demands governance with appropriate accountability. To whom much is given, much is expected.”
He said the culture of greed had permeated through all facets of our lives thereby causing unwanted destruction of our natural ecological systems in search of little or nonexistent minerals.
“ Rural Development has been relegated to the doldrums so much that after retirement from public services, we find it extremely impossible to return to our original abodes. Our villages and towns should not be a cemetery”.
He said the Ghana envisaged by the founding fathers of this was based on freedom, justice and equity of all developments, which must be pursued for the betterment of all.
GNA