By Daniel Jeddman | Editor-in-Chief, GhanaMedia.net & GhanaNews.org
OPINION
There is a question that has been on my mind for some time as a Ghanaian living in Germany:
Why does Africa continue to struggle with problems that other societies have spent generations learning to solve?
I ask this not from a position of hatred, inferiority or racial discrimination. I ask it because I have travelled, observed and experienced another system, and I believe Africans must be honest enough to examine ourselves.
When many Africans travel to Europe, we see functioning roads, organised public spaces, advanced technology, reliable infrastructure, efficient transportation and institutions that have been developed over generations.
We admire the innovation.
We admire the engineering.
We admire the discipline.
We admire the long-term planning.
But perhaps we sometimes admire the finished product without studying the mindset and systems that produced it.
Development Does Not Begin With Concrete — It Begins With an Idea
Almost everything around us began as an idea.
Someone imagined something that did not yet exist.
They discussed it with another person.
Someone believed in it.
Someone challenged it.
Someone invested in it.
Someone tested it.
Someone failed.
Someone tried again.
Eventually, the idea became a prototype, a business, a technology, an institution or an infrastructure project.
And then another generation improved it.
That is how civilisation advances.
No serious inventor builds everything alone.
No major company becomes successful because one person knows everything.
No country becomes technologically advanced because one government official suddenly wakes up with all the answers.
Progress requires ecosystems.
It requires people who can disagree without destroying one another.
It requires investors who are prepared to take risks.
It requires governments that create room for innovation.
It requires universities and laboratories.
It requires engineers, entrepreneurs, scientists, journalists, artisans, teachers and ordinary citizens.
Most importantly, it requires a culture where success is not treated as a threat.
Africa Must Stop Pulling Down Its Own Builders
This is where I believe we have a serious problem.
A young Ghanaian can have an excellent idea today.
He tells a friend.
Instead of hearing, “How can we develop this?”, he may hear:
“It won’t work.”
“Someone has already done it.”
“Who do you think you are?”
“You will fail.”
And sometimes, when the person begins succeeding, the problem becomes even worse.
Jealousy enters.
Politics enters.
Personal interests enter.
People begin looking for ways to discredit the person rather than strengthen the idea.
That mentality must change.
If your neighbour is building something useful, help him build it.
If the idea fails, learn from the failure.
If it succeeds, celebrate the success.
If you have money, invest.
If you have knowledge, teach.
If you have influence, open doors.
If you have criticism, make it constructive.
That is how nations build.
Europe Did Not Become Developed Overnight
It is also important to be intellectually honest.
European development cannot simply be explained by saying that Europeans are inherently more intelligent or innovative than Africans.
That would be a dangerous and historically inaccurate conclusion.
European societies developed through centuries of scientific advancement, industrialisation, education, institutional development, capital accumulation, political transformation and technological experimentation.
Colonialism and the extraction of resources from Africa and other parts of the world also played an important and deeply contested role in European economic history.
But the lesson Africans should take today is not racial superiority.
The lesson is institutional continuity and long-term thinking.
A society becomes stronger when one generation builds something that the next generation does not destroy.
What Are We Building for 20 Years From Now?
This is the question I want every Ghanaian to ask.
Not just the President.
Not just Parliament.
Not just ministers.
Not just CEOs.
Every one of us.
When we construct a road, will it still serve our children decades from now?
When we build a railway, is it designed for the next generation or merely the next election?
When we establish a technology company, are we building something that can become an African institution?
When we educate a child, are we preparing that child to solve tomorrow’s problems?
When we receive public money, are we thinking about the people who will inherit the country?
That is the difference between political thinking and nation-building.
Ghana Has No Shortage of Resources
The argument that Ghana has nothing to work with is difficult to accept.
Ghana possesses gold, oil, cocoa, arable land, human capital and a large pool of young people capable of learning technology and creating businesses.
Gold alone demonstrates the scale of the opportunity.
Ghana’s gold export earnings reached about US$20 billion in 2025, according to figures reported by the Ghana Gold Board from Bank of Ghana data.
The artisanal and small-scale mining sector alone recorded more than 100 tonnes of gold exports in 2025, generating approximately US$10.8 billion in foreign exchange, according to GoldBod.
So the question is not simply:
“Does Ghana have resources?”
The question is:
“How effectively are we converting our resources into lasting infrastructure, industries, jobs, knowledge and opportunities?”
That is the conversation we need.
And Yes, Ghana Still Has Serious Problems
We cannot celebrate economic figures while pretending that everything is working.
Accra continues to face serious flooding problems.
Alajo and other parts of the capital have repeatedly been identified among flood-prone areas, while experts have pointed to poor drainage, construction on waterways, waste management problems, weak enforcement and inadequate urban planning as contributing factors.
In May 2026, authorities even ordered evacuations downstream of the Weija Dam after water levels rose above the maximum operating level and controlled spillage began.
These are not merely political talking points.
They affect real families.
They destroy businesses.
They damage property.
They disrupt education.
They sometimes take lives.
And when a problem survives for decades, we must stop treating it as a temporary inconvenience.
We must ask whether the system itself is failing to produce a permanent solution.
We Must Also Be Accurate About Ghana’s Economy
There is another point I want to correct from the wider conversation.
Ghana has made significant progress under its current IMF-supported economic programme, but it would be inaccurate to simply say that Ghana has already completely “left the IMF.”
In May 2026, IMF staff reached a staff-level agreement with Ghana on the sixth and final review of the Extended Credit Facility programme, while discussions also moved toward a non-financing 36-month Policy Coordination Instrument. The IMF said the final review still required Executive Board consideration.
That distinction matters.
We should demand progress without sacrificing factual accuracy.
A country cannot build a better future by replacing one form of misinformation with another.
The Political Problem Is Bigger Than One Party
This is not an NDC problem.
It is not an NPP problem.
It is not simply a government problem.
It is a Ghanaian problem.
Governments must be held accountable for public expenditure, infrastructure, corruption, planning and service delivery.
But citizens also have responsibilities.
We throw rubbish into drains and complain when the drains flood.
We build on waterways and then blame rainfall.
We destroy public property and complain about poor public services.
We discourage ambitious people and later complain that Africa has no innovators.
We celebrate successful people after they become famous but sometimes ignore them when they are struggling to begin.
We cannot demand a developed country while maintaining an undeveloped mindset.
What Happened to the Long-Term Vision?
This is where the legacy of Ghana’s founding generation remains important.
Kwame Nkrumah’s era should be studied critically — including both its achievements and its failures.
Nkrumah was overthrown in a military coup on February 24, 1966, while he was abroad. Declassified U.S. records show that military and police officers had been plotting against his government before the coup, and American officials were aware of the plotting.
However, the popular claim that Emmanuel Kotoka personally overthrew Nkrumah by planting a bomb in a flower is not something I would present as established historical fact.
The historical record clearly establishes the 1966 military overthrow, but that particular flower-bomb claim should not be repeated as fact without credible evidence.
That is exactly the standard we should demand from ourselves.
We can be passionate without abandoning accuracy.
Africa Needs Builders, Not Destroyers
I want to see a Ghana where an ambitious young person can say:
“I have an idea.”
And the response is:
“Let’s see how we can make it work.”
I want entrepreneurs to have access to capital.
I want universities to become engines of innovation.
I want engineers to have opportunities to solve African problems.
I want technology companies to be able to scale from Accra to Lagos, Nairobi, Johannesburg, London, Berlin and New York.
I want governments to compete with one another based on what they have built — not merely what they have promised.
I want politicians to understand that a road is not an election souvenir.
A hospital is not a campaign poster.
A railway is not a political trophy.
A school is not a monument to one administration.
They belong to generations.
The Change Has to Start With Us
As Africans, we cannot continue waiting for somebody else to save us.
We must change how we think about one another.
We must learn to collaborate.
We must learn to invest.
We must learn to criticise without destroying.
We must learn to disagree without becoming enemies.
We must learn to think beyond four-year political cycles.
And we must learn to ask one uncomfortable question:
What are we leaving behind when our time is over?
Because one day, every politician will leave office.
Every businessman will retire.
Every journalist will stop writing.
Every entrepreneur will eventually hand over the company.
Every generation will disappear.
What remains is what we built.
That is the real measure of a life.
And that is the real challenge facing Ghana.
We have enough talent.
We have enough resources.
We have enough young people.
We have enough ideas.
What we need now is the courage to build — and the wisdom not to destroy what the next generation will need.
— Daniel Jeddman
Editor-in-Chief, GhanaMedia.net & GhanaNews.org
