Ghana’s 60th Independence Anniversary Day Parade on the theme “Mobilising for the Future” was on Monday, held with pomp and pageantry at the Black Star Square in Accra.
The colour parade was mounted by 1,200 members of the security forces and 1,200 neatly dressed students from basic and senior schools within Accra.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo reviewed the parade, lit the perpetual flame, took the national salute and also delivered the diamond jubilee speech at the parade.
Professor Azumah Nelson, a legendary Ghanaian box, received the perpetual flame from President Akufo-Addo and carried it out of the parade ground to be taken around all the regional capitals of the nation.
In reviewing the parade, the Inspector General of Police David Asante-Apeatu and the Chief of Defence Staff Major General Obed Akwa, were the President’s aide-de-camp.
Eminent Ghanaian personalities, who graced the occasion, included the First Lady Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo; and Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia with his wife Samira Bawumia.
A number of African leaders, including Presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Faure Nyasingbe of Togo, Liberia’s Vice President Joseph N. Boakai and Olusegun Obasanjo, a former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria also graced the occasion.
Other eminent Ghanaians, who graced the occasion, included Professor Mike Oquaye, the Speaker of Parliament and Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood.
The rest were former Presidents John Dramani Mahama, John Agyekum Kufuor and Jerry John Rawlings with his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings.
Political Parties representatives at the parade include Mr Freddie Blay, Acting Chairman of the New Patriotic Party; Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress and Dr Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, Flagbearer of the Convention People’s Party in the 2016 general election.
Also at the parade were ministers of state, parliamentarians, the members of the clergy, traditional rulers and market women.
There were cultural performances to tell the story of Ghana.
At the parade, was the “Trooping the Colour”, which is a ceremony adopted from the regiments of the British and Commonwealth armies.
This “Trooping the Colour” in past was significant, as the flags served as the rallying points of the military.
In Ghana the “Trooping the Colour” is done once every ten years of independence anniversary.
On March 6, 1957, the Gold Coast now Ghana under the distinguished leadership of Dr Kwame Nkrumah attained Independence from British Colonial rule.
It thus became the first black African nation to gain its independence from colonial rule.
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