Professor Agyemang Badu Akosah, a former presidential aspirant of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), has expressed concern about the country’s under-development, after 50 years of independence, despite being blessed with so many resources. “It is a shame that after 50 years of independence, some Ghanaians do not have access to education and basic social services such as sanitation facilities, and have to use the beaches as places of convenience,” he said at a symposium in Accra at the weekend. The symposium dubbed, ‘Planetary Liberation Day,’ was organised by LifeTools, the socia1 outreach and peace advocacy wing of the Etherean Mission, a non-denominational organisation. The event, which was under the theme: “Essential Life Education - The Movement for world Peace,” was to create awareness about peace and stress. Professor Akosah said Ghana was far from the accolade of a peaceful and hospitable country. “What is peace and hospitability if a section of the society- the disabled - are being denied their rights and also the majority of the citizens cannot make ends meet,” he asked. Professor Akosah partly blamed the country’s under-development on selfishness, saying “selfishness has become the philosophy of the country with people stressing ‘me’ and not ‘us’.” He said, “the desire of many is acquiring material wealth at the expense of the state, while the majority of the citizens live in abject poverty.” Professor Akosah, therefore, called for a rethinking of the development policies of the country. He said Britain in 1945 was also going through poverty and underdevelopment, but the leaders initiated strategies to change the poor fortunes of the country into what the world was witnessing today. Professor Akosah urged Ghanaians in the diaspora to return home and help in the development of the country. Using himself as an example, he said people questioned why he left his lucrative job in the West and came back to Ghana, but he told his critics that God knew why he created him a Ghanaian and placed him in the centre of the world. Brother Ishmael, Head of the Etherean Mission, and Director of Life Tools, said the various civilisations in the world held visions of promoting greater individual joy and peace. He said despite the advances in education, technology, science and the arts, the global world landscape today was characterised by war, strife, disease and poverty.