Ghana’s Permanent Mission to the UN celebrates Independence Day

 GNA – Ghanaians have been urged to use the occasion of Ghana’s 59th independence anniversary to rededicate themselves to what they can do to make the country better.

‘Our forebears sacrificed a lot to get us independence, some even paid with their lives and today we should also ask ourselves what we can also do to help our country,’ the Reverend Canon Professor Emeritus John S. Pobee, an Anglican Theologian, said in a sermon at a non-denominational church service at the Inspirational Gospel Assembly in the Bronx, New York to mark the anniversary.

A statement issued by the Permanent Mission of Ghana to the United Nations in New York and copied to the Ghana News Agency said Reverend Pobee, the former head of the Department of Religions, University of Ghana, said the celebration of independence will be ” meaningless if it doesn’t help others and country to advance”.

Rev Pobee urged Ghanaians to have a sense of history in order not to repeat the mistakes of the past and to build upon the achievements made by their forbearers in achieving Ghana’s independence.

‘The youth of today [ought to] do everything possible to rekindle that enthusiasm to make Ghana great,’ he said.

Rev Pobee called on all Ghanaians to eschew tribalism, discrimination, indiscipline, laziness and all other negative attitudes that our elders fought hard against, adding that “we are one people, one nation with one destiny”.

Mrs Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Ghana’s Permanent Representative to the UN, paid glowing tribute to the men and women, heroes and heroines of Ghana’s Independence for their steadfastness, commitment and selfless dedication to the nation.

It said Ghana’s Mission will soon introduce an electronic online passport and visa processing and the new measures will include the processing of bio-metric passports.

To enhance the interaction with the diaspora, Mrs Pobee said a special desk has been created at the Mission as well as all foreign Missions.

Special prayers were said for the nation, President John Dramani Mahama and his Cabinet and people in leadership positions.

The service, organized by the Permanent Mission of Ghana to the United Nations in conjunction with the Association of Ghanaian Pastors, National Council of Ghanaian Associations (NCOGA), was attended by staff of the Mission, leaders of various churches, the Ghanaian community and some friends of Ghana.