The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is certainly not ready to re-establish itself as a credible political organisation. It may be too early in the day to say this but I'm afraid their action in opposition does not suggest they are serious at all. The party is still engrossed with churning out deceit and backward politics.
Whilst the rest of the world is changing and moving forward, top ranking members of our major opposition party are too busy playing paragons of virtue or disrupting radio broadcasts. One of its members of parliament, Nana Akomea actually promised to break up a radio broadcast and true to his word, he disrupted it. Akomea doesn't mince words, his word is his bond. Next time he threatens to slap you, be sure your cheeks are too far from his reach. His word is his bond.
Members of the NPP claim Professor Mills painted a sullen picture of Ghana’s economy. They say it was not in the interest of the country and certainly an attempt by the ruling party to dampen investor confidence. They can’t be serious can they? It is politics as usual. The opposition NPP is pretending to be the advocates of moral goodness and they imagine that would woe support for them.
What could be more depressing than your country being branded unresponsive? That is what happened under John Kufuor. Ghana was pronounced a HIGHLY POOR INDEBTED COUNTRY, HIPC. We had thrown in the towel like it were a fight between Frank Bruno and Mike Tyson in 1989 – Bruno simply lacked ideas in the 5th round and was knocked out by Tyson; we would not even put up a fight, attempt to pay our debt, redeem our image and put the economy back in shape.
In times of economic stagnation, nations think outside the box to emerge from a downtown looking stronger. They create wealth from challenges. From the Great Depression of 1929 when the US stock market collapse on what has become known as the Black Tuesday and to the late 80s recession, nations have exhibited great tenacity and resilience, weathered the storm and triumphed over the meltdown.
When God provided us with yet another opportunity to marshal Ghana’s best brains to solve our economic woes, we failed to rise to the occasion. We showed the world our weakness and buckled under the challenges. Like the people of Biblical Israel, we failed. And under the stewardship of John Kufuor, we declared our country a hopeless nation incapable of meeting the basic needs and demands of its people without Western support. In spite of our abundant natural resources, we whimpered to the West how we were unable to provide very basic needs of our people like toilet facilities and classroom blocks. And that was the only time I felt very humiliated to be a Ghanaian.
There’s no country like Ghana. Ghana is my first love. I love her very dearly and would put my life on the line for Ghana if I have to. I would abandon my friends and family in the service of Ghana, but for the very first time, I felt I couldn’t travel abroad holding my head high. Our President then, the Commander In Chief, who should stand with us shoulder to shoulder, inspire our nation to achieving things, told the whole world how we are unable to manage our own affairs. He mortified himself and all Ghanaians. It was the kind of humiliation and betrayal that took eternity to heal; the type that could entice the world’s notorious criminals to prey on us because we didn’t know what we are about. And it wasn’t so surprising those cocaine barons from every corner of the earth begun establishing firm hold on our dear country.
To suggest that Mills’ address was bad for investment is the most exciting propaganda to spew out. Our opposition member would rather have us believe all is well and good. They would rather we told investors that yes; Ghana is doing well in spite of the global recession. They would rather we created false impressions about the state of our nation, the same kind of deceit they fed Ghanaians when they were in government for eight years. But like our new president said in his speech, “Ghana deserves better.â€
One of the key ingredients for making Ghana ‘a better place agenda’ is to tell the people the truth. And the truth right now is not the type the opposition NPP wants us to swallow but the unassailable fact that there is insecurity in the global economy as President John Mills puts it. The markets would be better off with the truth about the state of the economy.
And the bitterest truth is that we cannot “depend on the generosity and largesse of foreign donors, they are in deep trouble than us; we have to review the decision to buy two luxury presidential jets as proposed by the previous regime, cut down on excessive spending which has done us no good except to leave us with a national debt of over $7 billion US thanks to John Kufuor.
Whilst the opposition wants us to over spend on frills, our new president, Professor Mills, is encouraging us to save for the most productive areas of economies and have enough to meet the expectations of our people.
Ras Mubarak [mmubarak79@yahoo.com ]
