I have had this on my
mind for a long time, but I bid my time until the President’s New Year message
gave me the go-ahead. It is difficult to write on a topic such as this without
provoking the straight insults of NDC faithfuls, and they are often right
because if one is silly enough to out-rightly deliver dirty insults to the
President of Ghana, who happen to come from the NDC, who else must respond?
Definitely not government’s Ministry of Information? But even to the fanatics:
they have to, in low moments, express their despair at those in power
especially when it is mostly their votes that birthed government. Their anger
and or despair may not do any magic, but it will go to inform those in charge
that all of us, including the faithfuls, have feelings and refuse to be made a
four-year political variable to be used and abandoned at the selfish
convenience of some celestial party gods and goddesses, that’s just by the way.
Now I proceed: methinks
the President of Ghana needs a good Speechwriter. Whoever is currently at the
Presidency doing that job maybe good in grammar, but not speech writing. Constructing
long sentences often regurgitated at many, many national events and forcefully
chiseling out its grammatical originality is not the Art of speech writing. Reading
the New Year Message from a prompter, it was not just the President’s normal voice,
RESPECTFULLY, the speech text lacks sincerity concerning the 2013 difficulties
it concedes existed; the address was dry in morale and faithfully uninspiring
with some disrespectful, if not arrogant aloofness to the painful suffering we
just left behind in 2013- I wish I could put it less truthfully. Some of the
President’s
speeches are of course crafted by technocrats, but where the President’s
handlers know he is not delivering a UN G.A address, AU Summit speech or
delivering a certain Nigerian University’s Public Lecture, but this time he is
speaking to the people who a year ago endorsed his government at the polls, the
same people who bear the brunt
of the friction emanating from an ‘unlubricated‘ national economy, surely, the
speech could have been a refreshing New Year music to tactfully shoo us into
the betters days we are feverishly waiting for. The speech writer(s) has
consistently failed to mirror the mood of Ghanaians in the mind and words of
the President. He/she is not able to effectively calibrate the dynamic
demeanour of Ghanaians or the tone and vocal rhythm of his employer (The
President) and deliver accordingly a heart-piercing text (easy to voice) on
occasions that will not only make people willingly rise to their feet from
behind their TVs, but also appeal to the Ghanaian’s famous ‘sense of
co-operation’, about the tough nature of the Executive job at hand, inter-laced
with a calmly poetic explanation of presidential difficulties and an empathetic
acknowledgement of our very justified national despair. Then the speech will
proceed, with the subtlety of the lawyers who aided Opusika Aggudey escape
Nsawam Prison; to dismiss as premature all such despairs because government’s
milk teeth are still in place with 3 years to go! I will be remiss if I did not
acknowledge that flowery speeches, on their own, cannot guarantee lower taxes,
free fuel or reduced tariffs. It’s been
difficult for me writing this because my humble opinion may be misconstrued as
one the many write-ups that delight in taking the Presidency to the cleaners. I
have a great deal of respect for people in authority, and I hope to never, ever
open my young mouth to insult any adult who has through hard work and
dedication risen to his/her position. In all this, you may be bothered to ask:
so what is my problem? My problem is
that as ordinary citizens, policy implementation is not part of our constitutional
duties despite our many needs. Were it so, we would have given ourselves low
taxes and higher pay slips; make NHIS premium-free, by ourselves, supply free
kerosene to all villages, free pre-mix for fishermen, free petrol and diesel for
drivers; give Okada men free license, cut down import duties, give “triple
spine” allowance to ex-convicts, then pay Teachers & Nurses the salary of Ministers
& Parliamentarians and vice versa, and go ahead to pay all National Service
Personnel,
which will include SHS graduates, the President’s salary—damn the consequences!
Thanks to the Social Contract theory,
you can dismiss this as wishful thinking! But then, we have a duty somewhere in
the whole mess; to ensure, through constructive counsel, that whoever holds the
levers of national policy does not fail. In the unlikely event that the
person(s)’ performance is not impressive in our estimation after (mere) one
year, we can still advice him on how to communicate to us going into Year Two,
in a manner that will sooth our Year One pain and give us a reason to trust
that the New Year Address of better 3 years ahead is not yet another big lie. I
wish the President success, from the “borrom of my heart”.
MIKDAD MOHAMMED (c)
January 2014 ... 0244599591