Ghana, to be quite honest, does not need a Father Christmas who would carelessly give away our scarce resources to inveterate apologists. Rather, Ghana needs a serious, committed, and forward-thinking leader who can utilize our scarce resources judiciously to benefit all Ghanaians.
Needless to say, a typical judicious distribution of national resources is the implementation of social interventions such as Free SHS and the School Feeding programme.
My dear reader, considering the enormous benefits of education, it is indeed prudent and somewhat forward-thinking for any serious and committed leader to seek to bridge the ever-widening social inequalities gap through the rational distribution of national resources in the form of free SHS and other social interventions.
In a fairly stable democracy such as ours, governments come and go, and given the political dynamics in Ghana, it is a trend we can expect to continue regardless.
But the all-important question discerning Ghanaians should be asking is: should we trust every political party to form a government with an uninspiring excuse of steering the nation in the right direction?
The vast majority of unhappy Ghanaians, rightly so, voted against the NDC and Ex-President Mahama in the 2016 election largely due to the unresolved business-crippling dumsor, the unpardonable incompetence, and the wanton sleazes and corruption which brought untold miseries upon Ghanaians in the absence of globally affected coronavirus and the Ukraine/Russia intractable war.
Delightfully, however, the business-crippling dumsor has since been brought under control by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration.
There is no gainsaying the fact that some of us were extremely livid when former President Mahama, out of meaningless benevolence, doled out large portions of our scarce resources to inveterate NDC apologists like the founder of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), Madam Akua Donkor, who, in all honesty, contributed nothing meaningful towards Ghana’s well-being.
In fact, Ghanaians were extremely concerned when, out of unpardonable dereliction of duty and uncontrolled corruption, Ghana’s debt ballooned dramatically from GH¢9.5 billion in 2009 to an incredible GH¢122.4 billion as of December 2016, in the absence of the universally diffused coronavirus and the protracted Ukraine/Russia conflict.
The concerned Ghanaians ventilated their arousing disgust when the erstwhile NDC administration disastrously collapsed social interventions such as the School Feeding Programme, the National Health Insurance Scheme, the Metro Mass Transit, the Free Maternal Care, SADA, GYEEDA, amongst others.
Let us face it, no true patriot should shrill and thrill over the GH¢800 million dubious judgment debt payments, including the GH¢51.2 million to Woyome, which resulted in the drastic reduction of capital expenditure, and as a consequence, most contractors were not paid by the erstwhile NDC administration.
It is worth stating that in spite of the seemingly insuperable odds, since assuming power, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration has taken commendable strides to improve social mobility through the implementation of poverty reduction policies such as free SHS, one district one factory, one million dollars per constituency, tax reductions, a dam per village in the northern part of Ghana, among others.
Undoubtedly, individuals have different reasons for going into politics. Some people enter into politics for their unconditional love for their nation. Others just view power as an excellent opportunity to amass wealth and enjoy other trappings that come with the job.
It would appear that some politicians do not care about the plight of the masses; they only scramble for power in order to pursue their vested interests.
I have always insisted that governance is a serious business and, as such, it requires a forward-thinking, serious, and committed group of people to bring about the needed advancement.
Nevertheless, it has not always been the case in Ghana’s democratic ambience. The emergence of multi-party democracy has given birth to both purposeful and maladaptive political parties.
As a result, we have, over the years, been electing dreadful economic managers who cannot see their backsides from their elbows and have only succeeded in sinking the economy deeper and deeper into the mire.
Given the circumstances, it is extremely frustrating to listen to the views of inflexible NDC supporters, whose lives did not transform under the Mahama administration, contrary to what their leaders would want us to believe.
Despite their leaders’ much-touted social democratic ideals, the successive NDC administrations have failed to implement a single social intervention, and the die-hard supporters are unmoved by such an unpardonable dereliction of duty.
Ghana, under the erstwhile NDC administration, so to speak, went into economic meltdown, which regrettably brought about harsh socio-economic standards of living in the absence of the ecumenically diffused coronavirus and the Ukraine/Russia impasse.
So, it would be quite unreasonable for anybody to suggest that to err is human, and therefore Ghanaians should forget and forgive Mahama.