54th Ghana Republic Day Anniversary celebration in Paris FRANCE
GHACIF SPEECH
It gives me great pleasure to be called upon to deliver the address of GHACIF to this gathering. GHACIF has chosen for this 54th anniversary celebration of our home country’s’ attainment of republic status, a theme that focus on our community here. That is,
“BRINGING EXCELLENCE INTO OUR COMMUNITY”
Ladies & Gentlemen, today, as Ghana celebrates its republic day, we the Ghanaian Community in France must be proud of this milestone despite historical evidence that after 54 yrs Ghana has not realised the full benefits of its system of governances or the founding fathers vision of Freedom and Justice.
However, we should not dwell too much on the historical past lest we’ll be held as hostages by history. Rather, today, let us dwell on what we can do to make the best of life for us, our children and posterity.
Ladies & Gentlemen, we all want and expect successes in our individual and community lives, successes that meet our aspirations, bestows us with respect and provide the highest quality satisfaction.
However, many pressures are placed on our community as we strive to achieve our dreams and aspirations. The stresses of the 21st century can sometimes get the best of us. There isn’t anyone who isn’t experiencing one or more significant challenges in their lives: financial, health, family/social relationships, work related stress etc. etc.
Our success is dependent on addressing these pressures in a coordinated manner.
Together we must bring excellence into our community, and enhance the quality of life of community members through the provision of appropriate and accessible programs, facilities and services; and ensuring comprehensive and clear processes are adopted to provide the community with avenues to engage in decision-making.
It is in the light of the above that I propose that we organise a community search conference next year to harness the skills needed to understand both complexity and rapid changes in our community and related environment. Use those skills to create both a Vision of a desirable future, and plans for how to get there.
Achieving Excellence is to focus on creating and sustaining a positive living environment for the benefit of all Ghanaians here in France.
We as a community must be committed to improving our quality of life through creative, cooperative, and comprehensive effort to build a community culture that is constructive, innovative, positive and supportive of community wellbeing.
Ladies & Gentlemen, no matter what role we play within the community, each person has the power to influence the lives of community members for the better every day. The nature of set relationships with each other has the power to greatly influence living outcomes.
I want to challenge each Ghanaian here to treat each day as a new opportunity to achieve excellence in our community by focusing on the way we interact with one another within our homes, workplaces, and in public places.
Bringing excellence into our community demands a strong desire to do the right thing, to do it well and to be able to continuously demonstrate positive progress. Our community, therefore, must be progress oriented, and support progress.
A progress driven community must have clear organisational values and goals; visible and competent leadership at all levels; a relentless focus on improvement; and openness in all that we do.
Our community must function as an open, adaptive system, which has a clear understanding that issues are not resolved in isolation. Let’s all become true catalysts for change, bringing all social groups and structures together to help change our orientations – working in diversity to create a most desirable future for the community.
Ladies & Gentlemen, I want to emphasis here that no single social group, working in isolation, can bring and achieve excellence for our community. Strong partnerships, working across all sectors, will be critical to its success.
As a unique community, let’s strive for open, clear and timely communication. We must all contribute, in ideas and in deeds, to the creation and sustainment of a healthy, productive and a vibrant community life. What we do and how we do it makes a difference. Let the values of discipline, hard work, and respect accompany us on this path of excellence.
We must show respect to one another. The respect we show for each other effects how our children will show respect in the future. We can make a difference in the lives of our young ones by committing to model respectful communication in our homes, work places, and our social gatherings.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s continually focus on the development of a constructive organisational culture. We must all be an encouraging force in our community, and use our efforts to cooperate and support one another.
Together we stand to achieve excellence
Together, we can help and accompany our young people to achieve excellence
Together, we must all play our part in achieving excellence. The Ghanaian community in France deserve no less.
Thank you for your time and, long live the Ghanaian Community in France, long live Ghana. and May God bless us all !!!
SPEECH delivered by Mr. Alfred OHENE-AKONOR (GHACIF General Secretary)
