By Prof. Kweku Azar
For generations, we have battled formidable enemies.
Colonialism shackled us, dictating our fate under foreign rule.
Military coups robbed us of stability, forcing us into cycles of political uncertainty.
We have toyed with different constitutions—Westminster, One-Party State, Bicephalous Executive, and Hybrid Executive systems—searching for the perfect framework to build our nation.
We fought back. We won our independence, proving that we could govern ourselves. We restored democracy, rejecting military rule in favour of the will of the people. We have experimented with more constitutions than most countries in the world, believing that structural reform could be the key to our progress.
But today, we face a different enemy. An enemy that does not wear a uniform, does not speak a foreign language, does not come from outside our borders, and is not impressed by constitutional text, no matter how well crafted.
Our greatest enemy is partisanship.
Partisanship has divided our people—not by ideology, but by blind allegiance. It has turned politics into a battlefield, where the goal is not national progress, but total domination.
It has made us see corruption not as a crime, but as acceptable when committed by “our side.”
Partisanship has corroded our institutions.
* The courts no longer serve justice, but political interests.
* The media no longer informs, but amplifies propaganda.
* The civil service no longer functions on merit, but on party loyalty. Civil servants must now be paid a neutrality allowance just to perform their duties impartially.
* Parliament no longer debates policy, but defends partisanship.
•Pastors have turned pulpits into political platforms, preaching allegiance to parties instead of moral truth.
* Academia, once the citadel of critical thought, has been compromised—scholarly analysis is now dictated by political leanings rather than evidence.
* The security services—meant to serve the people—are deployed as enforcers for political elites.
* The student body, once united under NUGS as the voice of the youth, is now fractured along partisan lines. Student activism is no longer driven by principle but by party loyalty.
Partisanship has paralyzed our progress.
* Every government undoes the work of its predecessor, not because the policies are flawed, but because they bear the wrong party’s name.
* State contracts, scholarships, and job opportunities are not awarded based on competence, but on political allegiance.
* National development is held hostage by political calculations, where leaders prioritize re-election over real solutions.
We have become more loyal to parties than to our country. And in doing so, we have weakened our democracy, compromised our future, and betrayed the very independence our forebears fought for.
To defeat this enemy, we must reclaim our identity as one people, bound by a shared destiny.
* We must put country before party. Policies should be debated on merit, not on which party proposed them.
* We must demand integrity over loyalty. Leadership should be earned through competence, not party connections.
* We must restore our institutions. The courts, the civil service, the media, and the electoral system must be protected from political interference.
* We need judicial reform badly and it must start with removing partisan judges.
* We must unite against corruption. Stealing from the state is theft—no matter who does it, no matter which party they belong to.
* We must not use power to show people where power lies. We must use power to empower our people.
* We need OPAL, ORAL, OMAMPAM & OSOSO.
* We must tune out the partisan noise, shed the heat of futile debates, and seek the light of truth and progress.
History will judge us not by how fiercely we defended our parties, but by how boldly we defended our nation.
We have conquered colonialism, coups, and have adopted various constitutions before. Now, we must conquer partisanship, or risk losing everything we fought for.
We defeated colonialism not with superior weapons, but with unwavering patriotism—a collective belief that we deserved the right to govern ourselves, that our destiny was ours to shape. It was not tribalism, not partisanship, but national unity that fueled the independence movement.
We overcame military coups not by aligning with factions, but by standing as a people who refused to let our democracy be hijacked.
It was patriotism that restored civilian rule, because the people, tired of instability, demanded governance based on the will of the nation, not the force of the gun.
And now, as we stand 68 years into independence, a new battle threatens our progress; not colonial rule, not the military, but unchecked partisanship.
If patriotism freed us from foreign rule and rescued us from military takeovers, then patriotism must once again be our weapon.
We have proven before that when we stand together for a cause greater than ourselves, we win.
The choice is ours. The time is now.
Happy 68th independence anniversary!
Da Yie!
