A free press, freedom of expression and lack of censorship in the media are key democratic tenets that cannot be overlooked by any nation that aspires to reach its full democratic potential. That is why by all means, we must congratulate the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo on continuing with the ‘Media Encounter’ tradition initiated by the erstwhile administration.
It goes to prove that Ghana as a country is committed to ensuring that the Press, often referred to as the “Fifth Estate of the Realm” has the liberty to operate and act as convergence for government and the masses.
Having said that, its imperative to state that, these Media Encounters are not just for fun or arranged for the President to dazzle with words or mesmerize ‘us’ with his oratory skills. It is an encounter that offers an opportunity for the first gentleman to speak to his people and a chance for the people to understand happenings, policies and initiatives executed by Government. It will therefore be defeatist for any Media Encounter to be organised without realising this fundamental goal.
It is on this premise that I am shocked that this Media Encounter organised by the President Nana Akufo Addo did not meet the specific objective of bringing government closer to the people. And purely from my observation, it appeared Mr President was in a hurry to have it go. He appeared prepared to dodge certain questions and have his way with the Press. No wonder the Minister of Information was quick to say the President has other engagements so the session will be brief……his lame excuse is for another day!
A number of questions asked by some journalists were shallow and irrelevant but we cannot spare the blushes of His Excellency.
Corruption
The President in his bid to defend his so called anti graft initiatives asked Ghanaians with evidence against his appointees to come forward with it. Not only did the President feign ignorance of the numerous cases of corruption his one year old administration has been hit with, but endorsed the actions of his ‘men’ with his believe that all allegations leveled against his government on corruption have been proven wrong.
One would have thought the concerns over #kenbondgate would have been allayed with a strong word of commitment to see that the issues with conflict of interest, procedural mishaps etc are investigated and dealt with; he rather appeared confident in defending his government against all allegations of corruption.
Then there’s the recent #cashforseat allegations against the Ministry of Trade and Industry and to some extent, his person, over expatriates being charged a hefty $100,000 to sit by him at the recently held Ghana Expatriate Business Award (GEBA) by the Millenium Excellence Foundation. Interestingly, the President whose involvement in investigating the issue was limited to clearing the ministry of any wrongdoing prior to Parliamentary Probe committee did not hesitate to reiterate his stance that the ministry did no wrong, a position I believe he wants the committee to take note of. Clearly we don’t need to be told that the President’s remarks on some allegations of corruption against his government being ‘Flimsy and Irresponsible’ was really insensitive and contrary to his famous phrase of protecting the public purse.
Security
The year 2017 was perhaps the most challenging for our nation as far as security was concerned. The rise of political vigilantism and the impunity exhibited by some of these groups proved a huge hurdle for our security forces. The acts of violence exhibited by groups aligned to the President’s own party crossed the threshold of any reasonable justification. From seizing and taking charge of public facilities to displacing and changing appointed heads of certain public institutions.
Last year alone, Delta Forces (a pro NPP vigilante group) showed us a glimpse of what it was capable of doing by attacking a court and assaulting a judge. Given the political leadership at the time, this issue was mishandled and a state prosecutor ended up filling a nolle prosequi in this particular case. There were many other atrocities committed by this same group and it’s affiliates yet none of the perpetrators have been brought to book.
Yet the President, in his encounter in trying to play politics with the issue told the Press he was ‘Passionate’ about the issue of Vigilantism indeed we have seen how ‘Passionately Unconcerned’ He acted.
And Rather conveniently, Mr President found it needful to pass judgement on the constant strive between cattle herdsmen and farmers in the low lining plains of Ghana by referring to it as the “Fulani Menace”. This description is condescending and seeks to generalise the issue by blaming a whole group of people instead of describing the issue at hand. Such description of the issue downplays efforts to resolve the issue by making it a problem caused by the ‘Fulani’. This is a security problem not an ethnic one and the President’s passive response proves yet another feeble commitment to addressing security issues in the country.
Economy
On economy, the President said the size of his government vindicates his economic performance. He based this mainly on the premise that there’s been a GDP growth of 7.9% and inflation rate has dropped to 11.8%. His Vice has also recently been reported to have said the 7.9% GDP growth was a national record. A little reading on his side would have informed him that this economy grew by 14% in 2011 at the time when inflation rate stood at single digit. Interestingly, the size of the government then was smaller with just about 80 ministers of state as compared to the current 110.
The president was amazed to have met a budget deficit of 9.3% of GDP and then proceed to bring down inflation from 13.3% to 11.8%. The NDC took over governance in 2009 at a time when budget deficit was 14.9% (the highest in history) but still managed to bring down inflation from 18% at the time to single digit.
But all these economic figures aside, it is not a deniable fact that the current economy has become very ‘hard’. The cedi has depreciated tremendously against the major foreign currencies, import duties have sharply increased, cost of fuel has skyrocketed and cost of production has gone high. In effect, cost of living today has increased tremendously which has made life unbearable for most Ghanaians as compared to the previous regime under H.E. John Mahama.
The argument on how our economy is faring is no longer about some cooked up numbers, it’s about how these claims of growth are affecting the lives of the ordinary Ghanaian. The contradiction between the growth claims and the reality is worrying.
We are still waiting for the release of the lowest dollar to cedi exchange rate as we were promised by the ‘competent’ vice president. Tariffs keep spiralling with no indication of dropping.
The Energy problem is appalling, the Energy minister who is obviously clueless about the state of the Energy Sector of our Country keeps preaching a stabilized price of fuel when in reality fuel prices keep shooting up.
Unemployment
My lowest point of the whole Media Encounter was when the President remarked openly that he could not provide figures for the number of jobs his administration have created after a year in office. Honestly, the President is right, there are no numbers because his administration has not created one single job since coming into office.
Lack of proper planning and realistic goals meant the reliance on the 1 District, 1 Factory proved faux pas. Call it the big white elephant and you will be right. This administration promised to create 800,000 jobs with the 1D, 1F initiative. The initiative was launched with pomp and pageantry at the sod cutting of the Ekumfi Pineapple Factory.
Months on, the President cannot point to a single job created by this initiative. This is largely because, after spending taxpayers money to launch the initiative and publicise it, the ‘1D,1F’ was kicked off the table, alas, it was just a political rhetoric to deceive Ghanaians. The President however did not listen keenly to the Chinese when they informed him of how industrialization transformed their economy. It was the putting into action of their plans and policies and not the speeches delivered and statements made on how those plans could transform their economy.
Meanwhile, between 2013 and 2016, the Mahama led administration created close to 800,000 jobs due to the many social intervention programmes it introduced.
The Graduate Business Support Scheme which was run by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations engaged about 2,000 people. The Rural Enterprise Project also created about 21,045 jobs across the country within this period.
Again the Micro Finance and Small Loan Centre (MASLOC) advanced micro credit to a total of 190,607 beneficiaries, enabling beneficiaries to set up micro businesses.
Contrary to his assertion that he couldn’t be the student and Examiner at the same time, he ended up doing what he sort not to do. In a 40 minute monologue before the whole encounter, he made a case for his administration, laden with verbose rhetoric and excuses. A year ago, the President was telling us, he couldn’t wait to get started, now he’s saying debts accrued by previous administrations are being made and cannot tell us the number of jobs his government has created. A year from now, we’ll still be here, perhaps then, we will hear something new from the President and his 110 men and counting.
As the President ended his speech quoting his Vice president on ‘Competence’, it will be fair if he asks his Vice President to quickly solve the economic problems he claimed he had solutions to. We are still waiting Mr Vice President.
George Opare Addo
ahotoronline.com|Ghana
