Running a nation on manifestos and promises

By our present actions, we may be creating new challenges and not opportunities for posterity. We should not take anything from the future to satisfy the present. We may have made several promises on campaign platforms but will their fulfillment necessarily contribute to our collective advancement as a people? Are we on the right path if all we do from government to government is fulfill campaign platform promises? It looks as if all we are doing is run this country on party manifestos and campaign platform promises.

This I believe partly accounts for our inability to expand the capacity of vital state institutions to enable them develop the capacity of the mass of our people. We have seen the creation of new state institutions with the induction into office of every new government some of which turn out to be running parallel to already existing state institutions just to be able to fulfill campaign promises and implement party manifestos. In most cases, these only create legal avenues for more party loyalists to be given appointments to join the looting brigade.

In recent times, we have witnessed how private entities working in collaboration with public institutions have turned such collaborations into a collusion to rob this nation under the supervision of governments, of several million Ghana cedis of the taxpayer’s sweat. The benefits as these revelations have shown makes such collusion, a lucrative enterprise for those people involved.

If this continues unchecked, we may soon have ambitious politicians creating private entities in the name of other people to come and partner government in their development drive when in reality; they may just be fraudulent avenues to help them siphon monies from the public treasury.

From what we have witnessed so far, we may be running a fraudulent democracy or we may be on our way to creating and running one. I am told we have a National Development Planning Commission and so I believe we may have a national development plan. If we do, how has the fulfillment of campaign promises and party manifestos helped in the advancement of our national development plan? If we do not have any yet, I believe it is about time we have a plan and see to it that every government works toward such a plan.

God Bless this republic of Ghana…..