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When a people out of frustration, desperation, or anger, change a government, it is rapid results that they want. When those results fail to show up, we can bet, rebellion would set in arising out of that same ingredient of frustration, desperation and anger that brewed the previous agitation against the status quo.
It happened in 2000, 2008, 2016, and 2024 – a cycle of eight years – that appears to be a spiritual number for Ghana.
Did the NDC learn from it? No. did the NPP learn from it? No.
Almost 30 years after we ushered in the Fourth Republic, we appear to be going backwards, instead of forwards, like Israel in the wilderness.
Poor management
From party management, through policy direction and implementation and national development to technological advancement, we appear to be getting back to older ways of doing things – when the Sahel is striving to emulate East Asia and South America.
Cocoa, gold, food production, water production, timber and fresh water aquaculture – all are deteriorating. Forests are shrinking and game and wildlife resources equally dwindling.
Shoreline beauty and lushness are giving way to plastics degradation and marine resources denuding to a point where must ration, instead of confronting the goons that pillage our resources and hurt our national economy and food security goals and agenda.
So depleted are our natural resources that sand and stone quarries have also been affected, breeding canyons that have to be filled by plastic and metal wastes that, in turn, produce breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
Human resources deficits
Intriguingly, the collective woe is found in the low quality of education that has students cheating and lecturers aping books, without practical transfer of knowledge and mentoring of students to deliver independent and professional innovation to foster development in capacities they find ourselves.
Too many in ICT doing nothing concrete for themselves and the nation; too many in communications and marketing doing nothing for themselves, organisation and industry.
That is woe about joblessness and the scourge of youth getting obsessed with politics.
Too many, again, waiting for jobs that won’t come today or tomorrow and too many chasing politicians for jobs in already soaked institutions and professions is another worry we are having to live with because the politician promises what he cannot ever deliver, instead of creating swathes of opportunities that graduates can latch onto as a matter of course, without being a full-time political underling.
Opportunity to change things
When a political party wins power on the wings of landslide victory, what it cannot overlook is the opportunity to promptly effect changes and impact positively the socio-economic space.
That is the essence of being relevant and wise, discerning and savvy. From reduction in taxes, through abolishing of the E-Levy and reviewing of the Free SHS Programme to fighting galamsey, the NDC administration must prove that it has genuine support to enhance lives and livelihoods.
It must prove it can fight inflation; and it must prove it can stop or radically reduce the volume of rice import just like Burkina Faso or Nigeria.
That is where we are now. No excuses for postponing the affordable housing schemes and no excuses for getting peoples locked up funds for them.
We on The Inquirer think that will be bonanza for sustaining political power and the people’s mandate at the next polls.
