Ghana at 65: Let's continue fighting for our freedom

Hurray! At last, Ghana has crossed another milestone of her independence. It's a great feeling to be free, and such freedom always comes with a price. Ghana, just like many other nations, had to fight fiercely to have her freedom to decide her own destiny, visions, and aspirations.

During our fight for freedom, we lost some of our great men, and many others were imprisoned for standing for what's right. May the souls of our ancestors continue to rest in peace.

Today, we can boldly say we are free. We have made our own laws and have the liberty to lead our nations to their destiny.

Freedom is not an event, or simply; it is something that we fight for and deliberately protect to sustain it. On March 6, 1957, at the Apollo Grounds in Accra, Kwame Nkrumah said, "Ghana Our Beloved Country is Free Forever."
To some of us, we thought that was the end of the struggles for our independence, but no, it's actually the beginning of the struggles.

Our nation has gone through different phases to come this far, such as Coup D'etat, economic and financial crisis. All these phases have actually shaped us into very strong and courageous people in the Sahara region. Our hilife music and cultural diversity as a nation makes us so unique among our neighboring countries. Ghana's freedom in 1957 made us the political "Mecca" in Africa. We had great men like the late President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe who attended Achimota College and also being mentored by His political idol Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

We have proven to the world that we are warriors who have what it takes to fight to the end.

Today, when we look around Ghana, the river of freedom that once flew at the shores of our nations has gradually dried up. Gone are the days when people of all walks of life traveled to drink from our well of freedom.
There is a new form of slavery that is far heavier and greater than what we fought for.

It's the slavery of greed, hypocrisy, ethnocentrism, and lack of good moral conscience in the lives of the citizenry. It's so alarming that greed has taken away the Spirit of patriotism from our nation.

The Fathers who laid down their lives for this nation were driven by the Spirit of patriotism and passion to see both the rich and the poor free. That spirit of patriotism seems to have been eroded away quickly, which has given rise to selfishness. Today, a lack of passion to protect our freedom has paved the way for certain elements both within and outside to come and once again to dictate how we should live our lives as a sovereign nation.

This is a critical moment for us to rise up to champion the course of our freedom. Ghana is indeed free but not absolutely free. Our freedom seemed to have only given us the option to choose who becomes our leaders and representatives in our nation and institutions, but economically, we have still become hewers of wood and drawers of water.

Our fight for freedom can only be complete when we have total control of our resources that poor man's son at Sefwi or Walewale will have a fair share of the national cake.
Freedom is a right and not a privilege, and therefore, leaders must put in measures to address the growing cases of inequalities that threaten the freedom of the citizenry.

Corruption, ethnocentrism, and hypocrisy that have infected our institutions should be purged to pave the way for unity. There can never be freedom when we are divided as a nation.

It's time to move beyond religion and partisanship to rally together as one people to move our nation forward.

Our leaders should exemplify our freedom by embracing our culture and implementing strategies for us to consume our homemade goods. Above all, Ghanaian languages should be strongly prioritized in our educational system and there should be measures to curb foreign contents that find their way in our media space which do not represent who we are as Ghanaians and Africans.

God bless our homeland Ghana and Happy 65th Independence Anniversary.