Dear Ghanaian Compatriots,
I extend my seasonal greetings to you all from London. You are dearly remembered during this Christmas period of the year. I wonder how every one of you enjoyed the Christmas festive to the fullest. Can we all as individual Ghanaians approach the Christmas festive period in the same manner of happiness and preparedness assuming we are all a nation of Christians believing in the celebrations and without any deaths or sicknesses that will automatically dampen our moods going on in our homes?
You are all very much aware of the difficult socio-economic situation in which Ghana finds herself at the moment. Ghana has been plunged into this abysmal financial difficulty by the deliberate acts of corruption in perpetration by our current political leaders.
The clearly exhibited acts of incompetence in the management of the affairs of Ghana by President Mahama and his Government appointees – appointing people into positions of higher responsibilities based on their political affiliations and tribal orientations but not on merit, have exacerbated the already deplorable economic situation of Ghana. This is a fact that we must sincerely acknowledge if we really seek to find lasting solutions but not superficial solutions to extricating Ghana and ourselves from the untold hardships we are currently confronted with.
We are to understand that nobody can build Ghana better for us than ourselves. Is there any place like home? No! Why then are we not putting all hands on deck to find durable solutions to the dire socio-economic problems engulfing Ghana, making the majority of Ghanaians look so dejected and poor?
What do we do, knowing very well that most of the problems originate from the policies and style of governance by our current government? Do we continue to keep our hands folded around the chest, sitting on our lap doing nothing but expecting miracles to happen from the Most High God or to incessantly prayerfully hope for hand-out sort of interventions by our White contemporaries? Do we not have brains to decide on what is good for us to subsequently formulate and implement laws and policies that have the potential to help us attain such set objectives?
Are we proving ourselves to the world as Black people who are inherently incapable of managing their own affairs contrary to the opinion expressed by our late ex-President Dr Kwame Nkrumah in our favour, saying, and "Black men are capable of managing their own affairs?"
Is it not an insult on our intelligence when our own elected President tells us he will not listen to our complaints, suggestions or advice because we have never been Presidents of Ghana before hence are not in any better light or shape to lecture him on governance? Is he not a hired employee by Ghanaians, although in the capacity of a President?
Does an employer not have the right to boot out a persistently grossly misbehaved employee from his firm? If taking yourself as an individual who is an employer, will you continue to hire the services of a person, thus, an employee, who by their deliberate actions is causing the downfall of your company? Will you not sack the person to replace him/her by a better professional, honest, dynamic and dedicated worker?
Is it not said, "He who pays the piper calls the tune?" Why then can't we tell the President what to do, or suggest anything to him if he was found going astray from the correct path with the likely consequence of bringing untold hardships upon the majority of the citizens as it is currently obvious? Has the employee the absolute authority in the direction of a company over the employer, who in this instance is the owner of the company? The President as an employee but without knowing is telling his employer who happens to be the collective Ghanaian voters to shut up and back off while he does his own thing. Is that the way things should go if we knew about employment laws and ethics?
For how long are we going to continue to keep the current crop of leaders in place, knowing they are highly corrupt and incompetent to be able to effect changes in their policies and style of governance for the better to alleviate the economic burden of Ghanaians? They have not only said it in their minds but publicly in the open by their leader the President that Ghanaians have a short memory. With their acquired knowledge of the weakness in the Ghanaian, they will exploit it to the fullest to their advantage. They will always abuse you knowing that soon after you will forget and forgive them because you have a short memory to be able to remember the bad thing done to you a short while ago.
Please, don't let us behave like an ostrich that buries its head in the sand as if nothing is happening when indeed, its very backyard is under a raging and rapidly spreading conflagration. Subsequently, let us all make it as our New Year resolution to boot out our current leadership that is kicking us in the teeth from power come election 2016. As any sensible employer who cares about their business sustainability and success will not hesitate to layoff an intentionally lazy or a sabotaging worker, so should Ghanaians exercising their franchise do come election 2016. They must boot President Mahama and his corrupt government out of power.
I shall call on you, fellow Ghanaians, to not allow them to continue to play on your intelligence by placating you with any superficial short fixes and, or promises to solving the countries problems to trick you into voting to retain them in power for a further four-year term at the end of which Ghana will have sunk into a dark socio-politico-economic abyss.
Once bitten, twice shy. Do not allow yourselves to be baited with few stolen Cedis that the government and his cronies will be prepared to give to you in their attempts to woo you back to vote for them despite all the numerous tormenting problems you are going through as a result of their deliberate acts of corruption, incompetence and taking you for a fool. Let us tell them we are now wise if we were not a few years ago. We are no longer the fools they could take for granted a few years back.
Our future is in our hands. The future of Ghana is in our hands. Ghana and our lives can be better depending on how we exercise our franchise come election 2016.
I expect all Ghanaians to approach future Christmas festive with a degree of happiness and a sense of self-esteem but not with absolute dejection and poverty made worse by dumsor with the concomitant armed robberies.
I wish you all a belated Merry Christmas and a Successful New Year.
Yours Sincerely,
Rockson Adofo
(Written on Monday, 28 December 2015)