The government, according to citinewsroom.com has suspended the rotational celebration of Ghana’s Independence Day celebration and national parade, which is held on March 6 every year, citing the unsustainable costs associated with organising the event.
To save cost, the government has opted to host the 68th Independence Day celebration at the Jubilee House. This new directive, according to the news portal, was announced by Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Minister of State in charge of Government Communications on Wednesday, February 12, 2025.
Felix Kwakye Ofosu noted that the last celebration in Ho, for example, cost the public purse GHC15 million, prompting concerns over its sustainability. Mr Kwakye Ofosu assured the public that the event at Jubilee House will feature a military guard of honour and other significant ceremonial activities to commemorate the nation’s independence.
“In the last few years, there has been an effort to rotate the celebration amongst various regional capitals. Whereas the intentions behind it may be noble, President Mahama has asked that the rotational policy be suspended because of the need to scale down.
“This has become necessary because of escalating costs. It has been discovered after some review that the rotation imposed additional cost and, therefore, at a time when our national budget is severely constrained due to economic difficulties, it was not going to be sustainable to keep rotating the national celebration,” he stated.
Truly, looking at the fragile nature of our national economy, The Chronicle agrees with President Mahama that the rotational policy of our Independence Day celebration should be halted. Though the country will be unfair to the other regions that are yet to host the national event, it will best serve the interest of the country when it is suspended.
Many of our feeder and main roads across the country are in terrible shape. In the face of this, the country cannot afford to mobilise huge resources to move troops or military personnel and the accompanying military accoutrements from Accra to other regions to celebrate our independence. But our stance on the issue, notwithstanding, we are not faulting the Akufo-Addo government for introducing the policy.
Indeed, it has helped Ghanaians living in other regions to have a feel of our Independence Day celebration, which had eluded them for years. But, as we earlier indicated, the economic situation in the country now will simply not allow the movement of the celebration from the national capital, Accra.
Though The Chronicle has welcomed Mahama’s ‘new king, new law’ policy, we completely disagree with him that the celebration should be limited to only Jubilee House. Yes, we agree that the country is facing financial difficulties, but that does not mean that Ghana is so broke that she cannot afford to organise the national parade at the Independence Square in Accra.
School children always see it as a patriotic duty to take part in Independence Day parades, but with the new policy announced by the government, only the military and other state security agencies will have the opportunity to partake in the exercise, because the space available at the Government House is not big enough.
This means, we are deliberately alienating school children from participating, which is very bad. The Chronicle is, therefore, advising President John Dramani Mahama and his government to immediately review the decision to limit the celebration to only Jubilee House.
The distance from Jubilee House to the Independence Square is relatively short and so moving the celebration to the lattervenue will not incur much cost. The exercise, in our candid opinion, should not be limited to the military and a few dignitaries – all Ghanaians have the right to participate. Since Jubilee House is a security zone, we wonder how the ordinary Ghanaian would be allowed access to the venue on March 6 to celebrate the day? This is food for thought.
