Ayekoo Ghana!60 Years On;Time We Review The Colonial Legacy Of Parading Students

Ayekoo Ghana!60 Years On;Time We Review The Colonial Legacy Of Parading Students
It was on the 6th of March.The task was daunting and might.But a man with much daring spirit descended words like thundercloud from Mars..."At long last, the battle has ended!And thus,Ghana your beloved country is free forever!"
Yeah yeah!My first president in that voice was as eloquent as he was enthusiastic.Nay,it was a red letter day, and Ghanaians had every reason to be over the moon.And so the chorus was heard from the crowd, hurray!
It was a clean break,and good riddance,I guess!And Ghana was given the long rope to think free, build bridges again and rip the gains.The way was christened,"forward."
Yes,they(I) mobilized,came,saw and conquered (veni vidi vici).They were at the beck and call of mother Ghana.They laid their lives.They paid their dues and delivered a solid foundation for mother Ghana visible in the massive industrialization,not to talk of infrastructure...
Infact,the country was young, but their vision was long.A vision far beyond political freedom.A vision of hope and transformation.A vision that dared the ordinary Ghanaian to ask for more in life.And the message therein was clearly carried by Dr.Kwame Nkrumah, "Countrymen,the task ahead is great indeed,and heavy is the responsibility;and yet it is a noble and glorious challenge-a challenge which calls for the courage to dream, the courage to believe,the courage to dare,the courage to do,the courage to envision,the courage to fight,the courage to work,the courage to achieve the highest excellence and the fullest greatness of man.Dare we ask for more in life?"It is thus simple, dare we ask for more in life!
Suffice it to say,they prepared the way.But as birds of passage at nature's say are now eternally away!
60 years on,and reality has dawn on us to tell and sell the story of Ghana.The story of  successive crop of leaders or misleaders who have either continued or discontinued the vision of our forbearers.(May the soul of my late mentor,the great professor Mills rest in perfect peace)....
60 years on,thus, several decades after independence,and as the age-long tradition goes,there will be an Independence Ceremonial Parade Nationwide followed by the lightening of the Anniversary torch, we are being told.And this will happen on the 6th of March.
School children,voluntary organisations,security agencies,dressmakers,hairdressers will be paraded as usual for the match pass as part of mobilising for Ghana's future.
As a matter of fact,I still stand by my guns with regards this tradition of parading school children under the scorching sun just for the heck of it.In all conscience,I see this as an annual review of national punishment of such children to atone for mediocrity or ordinariness.Yes, we are punishing the children,and planting history wrongly in their minds.You know what?I was also punished before.Infact, it's a himalayan blunder in the face of history to say the least...
I can tell you, these children mostly don't even know why they are matching.I recently interacted with my students during our match practice on the above subject matter,and the responses I got falls nothing short of a disaster.I realised we are just wasting scarce resources and time on the parades and losing a whole lot of contact hours rehearsing for such so-called parades....
For heaven sake,we want these children to learn something about our history.We want them to know Ghana had some patriotic sons and daughters who were always at the beck and call of the land.We want them to inculcate such courageous spirit of patriotism.We want them to be bold in defending the course of freedom and justice as our forbearers did.We want them to be dedicated and truthful to mother Ghana.
And there can be better ways to do just that.The Ghc10,000.00 as approved for each of the MMDAs provides enough avenue for better options such as drama,poetry recitation,quizzes,documentaries on our colonial struggle,panel discussion on local radio stations,symposiums,What do you know? Educational tours to colonial sites,career guidance and talent discovery(I tell you,most of these children don't really know their worth,interest area and potentials),debates on independence and a host of them....
I think that is the way to go,and stakeholders need to take a serious look at that aspect.Let's save the little resources,time and contact hours we have by getting our priorities right!
May God bless.
The writer is a teacher by profession,a blogger,a freelance journalist, a student of Bsc Public Administration at the University Of Ghana Business School and a voice of hope for the marginalised and young generation.Read more of his works on(ananpansah-ab.blogspot.com).

By ANANPANSAH,B ABRAHAM (AB)
(The village writer)
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