As we celebrate Citi FMs Ghana Heritage Month it is worth remembering the great leadership shown by illustrious individuals such as the civil servant George Ekem Ferguson that our generation may long have forgotten. I got this extract as I researched on the Ghanas civil service. It tells us where we have come from on the back of sterling incorruptible leadership in this our most beloved Republic and where we can go if we dare produce such men and women of virtue once again in our times. Stupendous changes have taken place since the days of Ferguson. The citizen of this country who was born after the 1925 Constitution or the Royal Order-in-Council can hardly realise the rights he enjoys as compared with those of Ferguson and his contemporaries. The enfranchisement of the masses was dreaded by the British bureaucracy. There was no national educational system and no University College of the Gold Coast. There were no workmens compensation, no trade unions or Whitley Council, no serious local self-government, no public health services of any kind. Newspapers were few, and only weekly ones. The standard of living was at best one tenth of what it is to-day. Maternity and child welfare were unknown In truth there has been a great change, but it was a change which came piece by piece as a response made by the British Government to the demands of the Chiefs and people of the Gold Coast. The nineties of the last century which saw Fergusons brilliant performances and also his lamentable death have been described as the Golden Age of the Gold Coast. It was the period that saw the introduction of cocoa into the Gold Coast, which has been a great bulwark of financial stability to the country. It also saw great activities in mining operations and the establishment of the Bank of British West Africa. Farming and agriculture grew increasingly prosperous. Then last but not least, the period also produced incorruptible political leaders, such as Mensah Sarbah, Jacob Sey, King Ghartey IV of Winneba, J. P. Brown, Attoh Ahuma, Casely-Hayford, Kofi and Egyir Asaam, Hutton-Mills and Quartey-Papafio-Magnus Sampson(1956)
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 15:23:16 +0000
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