Kumasi, Aug. 14, GNA – President Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has expressed worry about the level of development of the
country after 61 years of nationhood.
He said it was disheartening that the first
country in sub- Saharan Africa to gain independence from colonial rule, was
lagging far behind her “peers” like Malaysia and South Korea.
He said the two countries had tremendously
transformed their lives while Ghana remained impoverished despite the enormous
natural resources the nation was endowed with.
The President expressed these sentiments at a
media briefing after his five-day working visit to the Ashanti Region.
The President was in the Region to perform the
ground-breaking ceremony for the commencement of various projects, inspect
on-going ones and pay courtesy calls on some chiefs, to learn at first hand
challenges facing the people.
He said Malaysia was earning foreign exchange
to the tune $17 billion a year out of oil palm, a commodity they got from Ghana
whose entire annual export was $2.5 billion.
The situation, which he described as
unacceptable served as a wake-up call for a deliberate and sustainable
industrialisation drive backed by nationalism to help transform the economy for
accelerated development.
Nana Akuffo-Addo underlined the need for the
current generation to adopt a positive mind-set anchored on diligence,
discipline and time consciousness to give impetus to the national development
agenda.
Technological advancement, he said, was an
added advantage for this generation to speed up the development of the country,
but that must be buttressed by a sense of patriotism from the entire citizenry.
He said at the time Ghana attained
independence, the entire population was only six million with about 250,000
people in the capital, yet they were able mobilise for the liberation of the
country.
“It is therefore possible to move the nation
to greater heights with the right attitude and active participation of the
people”, the President said
GNA