Ghana’s 66th independence celebration is worthless – John Dramani Mahama advocates

Ghana’s Former president John Dramani Mahama has interrogated the purpose of celebrating 66 years of Independence when the country is in a crusible. He stated that the 66th independence celebration doesn’t serve any purpose because Ghana is experiencing Shortage of Vaccines for immunization of newborns.

He went further to say that, the celebration has become a “party Jamboree”  and it is also being celebrated in the face of economic hardship so it is worthless.

He asked that “As Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang said, today if you’re a mother and you take your child to the hospital for vaccination, three of the vaccines are short for the first time since the Fourth Republic. “So why are we celebrating independence when our children cannot get vaccines?”

He also said, “we gained strength in the fight against polio fewer people were getting crippled by polio. But today, our children cannot get the polio and measles vaccines. “And as long as they don’t get it, the diseases are going to start spreading again and we’re going to celebrate 66 years of independence? You can celebrate it. I am not going to be part of it.”

John Dramani Mahama was giving his speech at the 5^th Anniversary Dinner and Awards Night of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Professional Forum (ProForum) on Sunday, March 5, in Accra.

He revealed that he will boycott the celebration, which comes off in the Volta Region on Monday, and added that the celebration has lost its value hence worthless it is.

“I’ve stopped going to the Independence Day because it has become a party jamboree. When I went to Tamale, they told GBC to take the camera off me. They bused their supporters in and filled the whole stadium.

“When I entered the stadium, the place was quiet, and they gave me a corner I went to sit, and they occupied the daze. Then I decided I don’t want to be part of this party jamboree.

Independence is a solemn national celebration, and we should celebrate it at Independence Square so that anybody who wants to come could come. But today, they bus their supporters in with party flags and T-Shirts.

He also stated that “Nkrumah got us independence and I am an ‘Nkrumahist’ so, I will attend Independence Day, any day if it is not hacked by one party because it is supposed to be a national day for all of us. So, I am not going to be in Ho tomorrow because I don’t want to be part of an NPP jamboree.”

Lookingat his words, is obvious that he underrated the 66th independence day celebration and called on the government to urgently procure all unavailable vaccines for the immunization of children to bring down the childhood diseases in the near future.