It is natural to take stock of activities running through the year as a new one beckons. This is very important if one is to avoid the mistakes of a preceding year and enter the coming year with hope and determination that this time around success will crown every effort put in an endeavour.
As media people we also have a duty to do an assessment of the how the nation has been governed and other issues emanating thereof.
The year opened with a cloud of uncertainty about who would take the reigns of government since two presidential elections could not produce a clear winner. A final one at Tain constituency in the Brong Ahafo region produced a winner in the person of Prof Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress. It was undoubtedly the most hotly contested Presidential elections conducted in the country. The tension, acrimony and near anarchy nearly marred the excellent track record of Presidential elections in the country.
Two men stood out strongly and their actions contributed immensely to douse any ‘fires’ that threatened to engulf the whole country. They are the Former President, John Agyekum Kufuor, who issued a statement calling for calm and acceptance of the results by the then majority party and Dr Kwadwo Afari-Djan, Electoral Commissioner who was forthright in declaring the results of the elections. We congratulate these men for their actions which kept the nation intact. The new government of President John Atta Mills took over promising to hit the ground running. But the government was soon to run the affairs of state not only at a slow pace but to repeat the same mistake of seizing vehicles of past ministers and chasing them out of bungalows. There was high-handedness in handling of the matter of seizure of official cars of ministers.
No lessons were learnt and we call attention to this anomaly in the hope that as the government enjoys its mandate of four years it should not be seen to be committing the same mistakes of the previous government.
One issue the government has had to battle with for 12 months now is handling of communication. We have situations where an incident occurs and those in charge of government machinery give conflicting government positions. Right now there is a Presidential Spokesman then a Director of Communications at the Presidency and the Minister of Information and her two deputies. All of these persons speak for the government and this must be confusing indeed.
We recommend the government re-align portfolios or reorganise the communication set up.
We commend government for handling the crisis at Bawku except two issues which are the high-handedness of the military command post there and the conduct of the Presidential Spokesman Mahama Ayariga in the area.
Some residents in the area accuse the military of showing bias in favour of one tribe while they also say Mr. Ayariga is often given military escort and moves round as if he has some political power over the area.
These are genuine concerns of the residents and the government should take them on board so that there can be lasting peace.
The government initially made a costly mistake of describing the economy as broke but was corrected by one of its own. In a steady manner, however, the government now seems to be on top in handling the economy as the cedi has stabilized and inflation goes down. But the crucial issues of job creation and money in the pocket of people are yet to receive full attention.
The fuel situation has stabilized after initial hiccups and we hope now the Ministry of Energy and the Tema Oil Refinery have learned their lessons and are on top of issues. Never should a tanker of crude wait at the port for documents to be completed as it happened a few months ago.
In all there is general peace prevailing in the country and that is what we must be thankful to God.
We wish the government and the people of this great nation a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.
