The Ghanaian Sphinx : Reflections on the Contemporary History of Ghana, 1972-1987.

Abstract

Now, as I reflect on the present state of our dear country, I cannot help recalling this ancient Greek myth, for Ghana does pose a riddle: the riddle being why it is that a country which is so well endowed by Nature has failed so dismally to develop and progress? Or, as the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) put it in its policy guidelines issued in May 1982, "how a nation so endowed with such resources could be entangled in an ever deepening crisis". And Ghana is indeed endowed. Her material resources are second to none; her soil and climate are ideal for the production of every conceivable tropical and savanna crop; her mineral resources of gold, diamond, bauxite, manganese and possibly oil are the envy of many countries. Her human resources are unparalleled in Africa.