Former President Mahama raised the bar of governance and performance in the country and his successor, President Akufo-Addo, had no choice but to sustain that standard if it must succeed. When he was elected in 2012, he had a clear vision and mission of what he wanted to achieve.
Looking at the landmarks in the villages, towns and the cities, I know he will only praise God that he left Ghana better than he met it. Ghana was rescued and he set the standard. The Akufo-Addo government must follow this standard.
The President and his team must change their orientation because the Ghana they held hostage, buried and drained during their time under President Kufour, is different from the Ghana they inherited from John Dramani Mahama and his NDC administration. Ghanaians have become sophisticated and more enlightened and they know their rights and what is good for them.
Many Ghanaians including some ardent supporters of the NPP have described President Akufo-Addo as a failure. Ghanaians felt that with the kind of promises the NPP led by its presidential candidate and his Vice gave them, soon as Akufo-Addo came to power they would feel see great changes. But Ghanaians including of their supporters are saying from all indications, Mahama’s government is far better than the current administration.
Meanwhile, the prices of all goods and services including port charges have gone up. Each time one buys a product or pay duties at the port and goes back the second day, one will notice that the price or duty has drastically increased. The Government is failing because persons and organisations that kept the former administration on its toes and vehemently chastised it over trivial issues turn blind eye when this administration is doing something wrong.
Each time the President and his government go wrong, these persons and their organisations device sweet communication strategies to cover them. As soon as President Akufo Addo mounted the saddle of leadership, he banned galamsey operation and ordered the galamsey operators who sponsored his campaign to go into farming. The question is how can you tell these youngsters to go into farming without the machinery they will need to do that.
His minister of agric after exhausting the loan the Mahama administration contracted from the Canadian government on useless activities, recently disrespectfully announced that his sector has created 750,000 new jobs and has generated over a billion cedis only for members of his own party including their top financier Kennedy Agyepong to rubbish the claim.
The President always announces policies without putting palliative measures in place. Ghanaians are dying by instalments in their houses because of these government’s bad economic measures which have unleashed on Ghanaians hunger and starvation. The last administration was distributing fertiliser and cocoa seeds to the farmers. The Mahama administration planned using the Canadian loan to open farmers service centres across the country.
This administration has cancelled the free fertiliser and seeds policies making life difficult for the farmers. Many supporters and sympathisers of the NPP say they regret voting for Akufo Addo due to the current economic challenges the country is facing. Recent opinion poll conducted by a respected agency revealed that Ghanaians have been compelled to adjust the feeding pattern of their families, while others including traders have resigned to fate, resorting to seeking divine intervention through prayers and fasting.
The Minister of finance himself has said the economy is in recession. Unemployment has increased, income continue to decline, fuel price jumps every week, high utility tariffs, workers are losing their jobs and the hike in petrol pump price has led to rise in the cost of transportation, the cedi is losing its value and irregular payment of salaries has become the newest convention.
Armed robbers are killing Ghanaians including security operatives because of the administration’s bad security measures. Government has politicised the security agencies weakening discipline and ethics in the various security outfits. Corruption has become the order of the day and it is now a culture in this administration. People pay millions of cedis before they are allowed to see the President, unlicensed companies belonging to family members of the President have taken over the oil industry, millions of dollars was paid to a nephew of the President to review contracts signed under the previous administration.
The finance minister through his in laws have taken over the insurance industry and the wife of the President’s wife has started appending her signature to loans contracted by the state.
President Mahama was in court the first nine months of his first term to defend the petition by Nana Akufo-Addo and his party but did many wonderful things within the period including massive infrastructure, streamlined the single spine policy etc. The Akufo-Addo government has borrowed more than 30 billion but has nothing to show to justify the excessive borrowing. The President spent the whole of his first year commissioning projects started and completed under President and mischievously took credited them to his tradition. Ghanaians were more happier under Mahama than the current administration. The Akufo-Addo government is causing Ghanaians pains.
According to the world bank’s recent report investors interest in the Ghanaian economy has dropped and Barclays’ South Africa’s latest report on investment in Africa corroborated the report, Ghana dropped three places in the latest best countries rating
THE MAHAMA FACTOR-
Just a year after his exist, Ghanaians have started craving for the return of former President Mahama. His legacy vis-à-vis the abysmal performance of the current administration is dominates discussions in our trotros,Taxis and public places. This call has heightened because of the Akufo-Addo’s government’s inability to substantiate the many false allegations they levelled against him and his administration during the campaign.
Ghanaians are yet to be told where his wife Madam Lordina Mahama constructed her warehouse inside the flagstaff house, the hundreds of fuel stations owned by his appointees, the hotels in Dubai, his private jet, the hundred mansions they said he owns etc. Discerning as the are, Ghanaians have seen the tricks the NPP adopted in 2016 to incite Ghanaians against the Mahama administration. Ghanaians are assessing this administration’s performance using the standard set former President Mahama and his NDC administration.
The performance of the Mahama administration and what the current administration will do in its four years is what Ghanaians are going base their decision on come 2020. The character of the former President, how he carried himself in office vis-à-vis what we witnessing will be the other deciding factor.
The carnival-like reception Ghanaians accord the former President wherever he went confirms the assertion that Ghanaians are craving for his return. His achievements including the hospitals, the roads, the renovated ports, water, the massive infrastructure in the communication sector, the railways, the chip compounds, the mobile clinics etc are all visible in our communities and people use these landmarks as their yardstick when measuring the performance of this administration.
Part 1
ahotoronline.com|Ghana
