We have become a polarized nation. While political polarization is increasing across the country, the odd part is that our division mainly takes on a negative tone. Due to the high level of centralized power, we are compelled to flatter the egos and soothe the anxieties of tantrum-throwing partisan elites whenever we attempt to improve Ghana.
Whether it is better education, healthcare, fixing our decaying infrastructure, or making the country more affordable to live in, we are structurally forced to consider the interests and feelings of partisan politicians, begging permission from the most wantonly unethical and narcissistic individuals in Ghana.
Seventy-eight years on, corrupt, scare-mongering politicians continue to assault liberal democracy. A worry. Attempts to show the relevance of a liberal multi-party democracy to the good society have been denied by not-so-gentle progressives and their cronies who control major sectors of the economy, from concessions to cleaning toilets.
Time to speak up. This is not the arrangement of a free society. This is the habit of colonialists ruling over a colonized people. It is not befitting an independent democracy. And for citizens who fought gallantly for freedom, and are so proud of our history of rejecting illegitimate colonial authority, we should not accept this local oppression. Ghanaians do not have to grovel pathetically before partisan oligarchs to prevent them from unearned privileges — privileges which, of course, are already more lopsidedly distributed to the political class than ever.
Few voices today offer the depth, clarity, and historical grounding of freedom. The ideas of the UGCC bring classical insight to the issues that define our time — shaping how we understand national identity, globalization, and the fate of our country. The ballot box is not where real change occurs. The state has no supreme moral authority. Indeed, glorifying the state and suppressing individual ambition does not prepare a nation for freedom, but for servitude.
Meanwhile, we still believe that socialist central planning in Ghana can work if the right leaders are in charge. Despite what the political class claims, a corporatist and paternalistic welfare state that relies on the IMF cannot generate wealth.
The failure of our governments since 1957 to fulfill their promises of prosperity and social justice is due to two reasons: wrong ideology and partisanship. This is the Ghanaian dilemma: the majority of our politicians have more in common than we think. They believe in the magic of government.
They believe they can cure poverty by reducing greed through collective solidarity. They are financed by the same neo-colonial institutions that organize and support dependency. They deplore corruption in the abstract, yet go out of their way to excuse actual wrongdoing. And they get into political office for money and self-promotion, not for the interests of those who vote for them.
A free society requires the majority to shed the victim mentality. The evidence shows that free markets work well. Government-controlled trade, favouritism for connected industries, restrictions on free speech, state-owned enterprises, and cronyism are all bad ideas, regardless of who promotes them.
Government spending and a mixed economy run by the state do not solve poverty; they often keep it going and reduce living standards. The spirit of the UGCC lives on — not in archives but in action. Today, we remember to demand:
• Decentralisation that transfers numerous central government functions to districts and municipalities, including policing, education, and road development.
• Fiscal relations legislation that allocates 40 percent of the revenue generated within the country to districts and municipalities.
• Discontinue the confiscation of private property without market-based compensation.
• Restore all government-granted mineral rights to the property owners from whom they were taken.
• Expand skills-based education, not just degrees.
• Focus on creating an economic environment where innovation thrives and individuals can create meaningful, well-paying jobs, wherever that may be.
We just need to remember that the policy ideas the UGCC advocated for have helped improve other countries and their poor populations. To help Ghana become a self-reliant, wealthy nation, we must end the numerous, harmful, and politically popular policies that have damaged our economy.
Maintaining the current neo-colonial economic system overall would be disastrous for the poor, as it has been since independence. The UGCC believed in freedom — not just from colonialism, but also from dependence, and silence.
Let this anniversary reignite in us the promise of participatory nationhood. May it remind us that activism and leadership are not relics of the past but essentials of the present.
As we celebrate, let us also recommit to building a country where every citizen, regardless of age or background, can claim dignity, voice, and a future full of hope.
The writer, Kwadwo Afari, is the National Protocol Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
