As Ghana celebrates 60 years of nationhood, President Nana Akufo-Addo has charged Ghanaians to rise above ethnicity as the country strives for national development.

Whilst acknowledging the importance of Ghana’s ethnic diversity, which features over 50 ethnic groups, President Akufo-Addo impressed the need to rise above the negative aspects of diversity in the name of national interest.
Speaking at the 60th-anniversary ceremony at the Black StarsSquare in Accra, he said Ghana’s developmental goals would be achieved “when we move and act as a united people.”

“We must take pride in our diversity by all means, but the Ghanaian must always rise above the ethnic or sectional interest. We have a bright future and we must mobilize all our resources and all our strengths, here and in the Ghanaian Diaspora, to get to that Promised Land faster.”

It has been 24 years under the Fourth Republic, and President Akufo-Addo noted that, the effects of this political stability were slowly coming to the fore after decades of instability under various juntas.

Under the political dispensation of the Fourth Republic, he reminded that it came with multi-party constitutional democracy and guaranteed individual freedoms under the rule of law.

“These past 24 years have been the longest period of political stability our country has enjoyed since independence, and the effects are showing, albeit slowly.”

“The pace of our development has quickened and our self-confidence, which had been severely strained, has returned. At independence, the popular slogan was to seek first the political kingdom and all other things would be added. We assumed and, indeed, we expected that rapid economic development would follow the political freedom that we achieved.”

Source: citifmonline.com