The economy is failing the ordinary man

He listed single digit inflation, general economic boom under prudent management, and the stabilisation of the cedi, as some of the success stories that make his achievements unprecedented.

We need not debate the issue. At the time he made that pronouncement in the United States, most parts of Ghana were in darkness. A family of four in Ghana now, cannot take breakfast on the head of the family's total daily wage. The cedi is exchanging for $1 to GH¢1.70. At the time he inherited the national economy in January, 2009, the dollar could buy GH¢1.12.

In spite of the roof-top advertisement of single digit inflation, the same ball of kenkey that sold for GH¢0.20 is now doing the rounds for between GH¢0.50and GH¢1. A bag of cement that used to sell at GH¢8, is going for GH¢18. Government contracts are three to four times more expensive. In all fairness, prices have risen for more than 200 percent across board.

School fees at the secondary level are going through the roof. In all fairness, the people of Ghana are going through some of the most difficult times in their lives. So when a head of state fails to appreciate these problems, and rather continues to rub salt into people's wounds by praising the moribund economy he is building, the media have a right to point him to order.

This economy is not holding. If is doing well, perhaps, it is being felt in the healthy bank accounts of people who are feeding fat as hangers-on in this administration.

At the weekend, President Mills rose to the podium at Mantse Agbona in Accra, and derided the ordinary Ghanaian at the wrong end of the economic malaise. Those who are disappointed by the mal-administration, answering the name of government, he claimed, were those who have nothing to show for their leadership of this country.

Unfortunately for the President, the disappointed many in this country have never had the opportunity or the inclination to ever lead this nation. Many of those who have regretted for ever considering to trust the destiny of this nation into the hands of the Ekumfi-born former law lecturer are ordinary workers, farmers and fisher-folks he promised to take out of poverty and are now unable to afford a decent meal.

These are the Ghanaians who wished they had never allowed themselves to be swayed by the talk of reducing petroleum prices drastically, and generally making this nation a better place for all. If the President of the Republic thinks that he could only reward them by deriding them at his rallies, many are those keeping their thoughts to themselves.

The Chronicle has never shied from pointing out that this economy has failed to respond to treatment under the fumbling professor. With rents going through the roof, transportation cost taking away entire wages, and housewives unable to make the house-keeping money go round, there is despondency in many homes.

If President Mills believes he is doing well because of praises he is receiving from men and women lining their pockets at public expense, he would end up like the King who appeared in public without clothes.