Alex Bossman Baafi
If you scan through the horizon of our history under the current NDC Government of President Mahama, you will see nothing but suffering and shame as a result of Apathetic Leadership. One can say that this government assumed the governance of our country without a program and that person would not be far from right.
There is absolutely no sector in our country today that is experiencing progress and that is the gospel truth. Spanning from Energy, Education, Health, Sports, Agriculture, Trade and Industry, Economy to Tourism and what have you. All sectors are fast declining in real output terms.
As we speak, more than 17,000 of our loved ones are battling cholera with over 150 needless deaths. In this 21st century how on earth can our authorities look on unconcern for filth to engulf the whole nation even though they continue to draw salaries at the expense of the tax payer? The recent gutter politics of the president of our country is hypocritical and a sign of shame of his lackadaisical attitude leadership. We must be grateful to Almighty Jehovah for sparing our nation from the deadly and contagious Ebola disease for now or else all of us would perish in the face of this ‘obey the wind’ governance of our country under President Mahama.
Currently, we cannot say anything good about our education system. The recent WASSE result said it all with over 70% of our young people battling in failure. The future certainly looks break for these unfortunate ones but the authorities hail this as a sign of success. The lives our SHS students are now in jeopardy. Certain special schools cannot be reopened because of headmasters/headmistress face the risk of being arrested for non payment of bills. Again the government has not found it a duty to release money to bill them out.
Have a look Energy Sector and you will understand what leadership failure means. This government was confronted with ‘dumsor-dumsor’ since its inception six years ago and no remedy has been found to date. This suffering of the masses and the destruction of business as a result of unreliable power and its multiplier effect on the economy is not a worry at all to the government. Is this not a clear sign of leadership failure? Who has sat down to quantify the negative effect of the dumsor-dumsor on our economy? Is that not apathetic leadership?
What about our economy? Is it doing better? Our national currency, the cedi has depreciated by 40% this year alone because of excess liquidity born out of irresponsible government spending among others. The whole nation has been consumed in debt such that a substantial part of our hard earned resources is used to retire or service debt. Is such practice prudent?
Poverty is on the increase in our country today, we have high utility tariffs, high taxes, high cost of credit, high cost of raw materials, high cost of doing business, high cost of living in addition to the declining fortunes of our currency. The combined effect of these and erratic energy supply have made the economic hardship of our people unbearable. Unemployment level among the youth of our country is very high and appalling.
Corruption has taken the better part of us. It has now become a waste of time to talk about SADA, SUBA, GYEEDA, WOYOME and what have you. What is worrying is that we have a President who has the power to hire but has no power to fire. Such situation breads sycophancy and promote rot, graft and mediocre and hence spectacular leadership failure. The government has no clear cut vision and therefore no clear cut priorities for the good people of our country. There had been huge public outcry against widespread corruption in the country but nothing is been done to plug the leakages from the public purse.
Mahama NDC government inherited a country that grew at 8.4% at the end of 2008. This was before the country went into commercial production of oil which was made possible by dint of hard work and determination by the previous NPP Administration headed by President Kuffour. In deed the economy of our country’s growth rate was the highest in the world, reaching double digit at 14% by the close of 2012. Is it not a shame that within a twinkle of a year or two, our country is broke and had to resort to International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a Bail Out under this irresponsible and incompetent Mahama administration?
Recent report indicates that IMF has cast serious doubt on the government’s projections and estimates overall Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at 4.5% for 2014 which is far below government’s target of 7.1%. Is it not a shame of highest magnitude? We are here because of this government’s abuse of power, greed, misappropriation, mismanagement and embezzlement of state funds as well as graft, rot and widespread corruption by our people in government today of our country. This is a government that has prioritized the welfare of family members, cronies, friends and party supporters at the expense of the welfare of the entire good people of our country. The doors to state coffers had been opened wide exclusively for family members, friends, cronies and party faithful to loot as if there is no tomorrow with impunity.
No serious caring leader, wanting to leave a meaningful legacy for his people can afford to engage in such a dormant attitude towards the looting of the state and still be enjoying a good night sleep everyday in the face of steady decline in the fortunes of the nation’s economy unless the person had been overwhelmed by his job.
The government must know that we are fast losing all our farmlands and water bodies because of the illegal mining activities across the country but again the government looks on helplessly. Why? When will the government live up to expectation? The good people of our country deserve better.