Page 139 - Afrika Must Unite

124 AFRICA MUST UNITE
If our new economic and industrial policy is to succeed, there
must be a change of outlook among some of those who are
responsible for running our affairs. They must acquire a socialist
perspective and a socialist drive keyed to the national needs and
demands. The executives of our public and statutory organiz­
ations must achieve a new attitude to their jobs, which they owe
to the struggles of the people and the labours of our farmers and
workers. No economy, least of all a young one like ours struggling
to find a stable base, can afford to drain its resources in sub­
sidizing unproductive ventures from which only well-paid
executives profit. Moreover, it cannot afford to waste resources
in men and materials, but must use them wisely in pursuit of the
socialist objective.
The spirit of service to the nation must permeate throughout
our society. In a dawn broadcast on 8 April 1961, 1 spoke of the
dangers arising from Ghanaian public men attempting to com­
bine business with political life, and warned that those who
could not give entirely disinterested service should leave politics
or be thrown out. Legislation has since limited the amount of
property our public men may own.
O ur profound need at the present time is for tolerably pro­
ficient technicians, capable of manning, supervising and
managing our agricultural and industrial developments.
Necessarily, there must be a nucleus of more advanced graduates
to take over teaching jobs in these spheres and to provide us with
a corps of scientific knowledge which can sustain invention and
apply its learning to our extended development. For the
moment, however, while we require advanced engineers,
physicists, scientists, bio-chemists, and others, the emphasis
cannot lie in this direction.
We are having to devise an educational system that will
provide in the shortest possible time a body of skilled personnel
able to serve the country’s needs at all levels. The University of
G hana has been reformed so that too much emphasis will not be
placed, as under the colonial administration, on purely literary
and academic subjects. While we appreciate that these are
necessary and desirable, they are at this juncture in our national
life rather in the nature of luxuries which we cannot afford to
indulge in as much as we should like.