The Executive Director of the Center for Democratic Development (CDD), Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh, has stated that Ghana’s fundamental interests have remained unchanged since the country gained independence.

According to him, these interests have always centered on sovereignty and the pursuit of political power as said by former President Kwame Nkrumah, who emphasised the importance of freeing oneself from foreign domination.

Speaking at the JoyNews National Dialogue titled "Should Ghana Look East or West?" on Friday, May 31, Prof Prempeh said, "From the dawn of independence, our fundamental interests have not changed. It was first about sovereignty. 'Seek ye first the political kingdom,' as Nkrumah meant - freeing yourself from foreign domination, and then other things will be added and the other things were development.

"They defined them in terms of freedom - freedom from hunger, from want, from poverty, from illness and disease so all of these freedoms -  when you expressed them in another form was development.” 

He emphasised that the pursuit of sovereignty, political economic, and development has remained Ghana's primary interest, and stressed that no one can deny these have been the country’s priorities.

Prof Prempeh explained that these interests have possibly remained constant due to the sustainable development strategies that have been employed, noting that the intergenerational development and sustainability methods used have been effective.

“What is hinged, I think and what has also presented this question of choices - East or West is that at some point, we started off making some choices at independence and they were not choices about development but about methods.

“How do you get to the destination? Development is your goal, you want food security, you want social cohesion, you want to be free of conflict, well-trained population. I think the early years, the choice then which was also not inconsistent with what was happening globally was in favour of very heavy stage-centered approaches which are implications for the political choices we also made so we mostly almost made a bargain - suspend democracy and human rights and we will give you development,” he said.