Friends, as we celebrate our 55th Republic Day as a nation, we have stories to tell – both pleasant and unpleasant.
But it is consoling to note that nation building comes with all forms of challenges, especially in cases where massive infrastructure development is embarked upon. Great nations the world over have had their share of these wonted difficulties, and Ghana is no exception. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United State of America, had this to say during his First Inaugural Address on March 4, 1933: “In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunk to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents 
of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; and the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return.
Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.” So, you see, economic challenges in countries are not unwonted. The problem is how to deal with them, and this goes with a high-end, cutting-edge, bold and decisive leadership. Unfortunately, leaders of this kind and type are rare; and they come once a while in generations. It is for this reason why we have to thank God for President John Dramani Mahama.
This is not a matter of propaganda but a hard fact, and I will prove it. If we will be sincere as a people, we will acknowledge that the level of infrastructure development under President Mahama within two and a half years is matchless. And I am talking of development in the areas of Health, provision of good drinking water, schools, roads, ICT, air transport, just to mention a few. Most of these are not only essential life-changing projects, but are projects that have never happened or existed in the history of our beloved nation.
I have already dealt with most of these projects in my previous write-ups and I don’t want to burden you with details about them. But please permit me to talk about a project that I have not discussed before. Ghana has only two harbours. The first is the Takoradi Harbour, which was built in 1928. 30 years later, the second harbour, Tema was also built. After 57 long years, history is going to be made. Work on the Atuabo Free Port (AFP) in the Western Region has began and will be completed in 2017.
The harbour has a land size of 2,000 acres; and it is an optimum ultra-modern facility for offshore and gas activities in Ghana and countries in the Gulf of Guinea. The interesting news is that the new harbour will have a rig repair and ship maintenance facility. This is first in the history of countries in the West Coast of Africa. Currently and in the past, ships from these countries usually go to Singapore, Malaysia or Japan for maintenance. For instance, offshore rigs in Ghana that need maintenance have to be taken to Las Palmas in Spain or Cape Town in South Africa.
Either way, involves a 20-day transit journey with estimated incredible cost of US$500,000 a day to these destinations; costing a total colossal sum of $10 million even before repair works start. Therefore, if the Atuabo Free Port is not an important and strategic project, then I don’t know what else is. It takes a leader who thinks outside the box to conceive such an idea. The amazing thing about the young man from Bole is the speed with which he does things.
It took Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah nine years to do what he did for Ghana, but it has taken President Mahama about only two and a half years to do all that he has done, and on this score I foresee him breaking Nkrumah’s record in infrastructure development if he is given another term.
Yes, it is true that there is some level of hardship in the country at the moment, but it is only evanescent. Ghana has always endured and survived hardship, and I am optimistic that it will bounce back and prosper under President John Dramani Mahama. Happy Republic Day! Anthony Obeng Afrane
