New Year Reflections: Can we achieve new results with the same old practices?

The New Year has been ushered in with continued politicization of all issues great and small, confronting our country. If the emotional and other resources expended in casting blame on others was applied to critical thinking and objective analyses of our problems, we would be the better for it. The rule of law was continuously undermined by flagrant inaction and in many cases, abuse of authority and corruption during the last year.

There are severe structural problems with our economy, some of which can be solved by simple yet effective interventions. Revenue collection is weak partly because a great deal of economic activity escapes the reach of the tax net. We still do not have named streets and numbered houses despite a presidential directive to address this. That is part of the problem. How these directives are brought to life through verifiable implementation processes, is the task at hand.

If you cannot locate your citizens, you cannot identify all commercial activity and you miss a great deal of internally generated revenue. This is a key structural problem in our society which must be remedied. If over 70% of revenue generated is spent on the public service, we must ask how productive the public servants are. Can we fix these problems? I hope before 2014 ends, I will find places without being given strange landmarks, some of which are living and mobile. Also, I hope that when I enter a government building, a list of services is provided and the time frame in which the service is completed is publicly displayed. “Koo, you may be asking for too much” says the little voice in my head!

In this New Year, I also hope that all are reminded that ours is a secular republic and religion though an important dimension of our lives is not constantly promoted as the only solution to complex socio-economic problems. Prayer is great in conjunction with good values and hard work. All this talk about "what will my portion be?” seems contrary to my understanding of what the good book says. If citizens truly lived according to their projected beliefs, we would be a less corrupt and more productive society.

The rise of religious intolerance is a great concern. Places of worship spring up anywhere and the happy noise of worship for some is noise pollution for others. We need better zoning laws that are enforced. In my neighborhood, a church bell tolls every hour. How are we supposed to sleep at night and get up to work the next day? Complain and you will be branded an agent of Lucifer. All are equal before the law, or should be, without exception.

In this year, the Ghana Football Association (GFA) should not be afraid to say the Black Stars are going to Brazil to win the World Cup. We should aim at the highest possible goal and take the necessary steps to achieve that goal with many goals. In 2010, we only belatedly considered the possibility of winning the trophy so we suffered a psychological meltdown when we needed to be firm and resolute. Let's go to Brazil with belief in our capabilities. Some of us have been waiting for decades.

Hopefully, we will finally realize that our education system is turning out graduates at all levels who are ill prepared to be productive citizens. Concrete steps should be taken to align the education system to the increasing complexity of the work environment so our graduates are employable.

Last year the Auditor-General identified hundreds of millions of Cedis stolen from the state by public servants through a variety of creative schemes. In this year, we should see a long line of public and other officials who have been identified as having robbed the state. (oops! I must be dreaming).

Those under whose watch the thefts occurred should not be at post even if they are not directly culprits of the crimes. Creating a lax environment in which losses to the state occur is equally criminal. If no one is held accountable for all these losses, how in good conscience do we expect these harmful practices to end?

In 2014, I hope that we will take charge of protecting the environment in areas where illegal gold mining is stripping the land of all that sustains the local populations. I hope that not only will illegal Chinese miners be found and deported but that the Ghanaians who collected money and let them in will also be found and locked up. What am I thinking? Also, managing waste rationally will become part of our thinking about the environment. Sea life is being killed by discarded sachets all along the coast. First we have to provide bins for folks to throw away waste and we may even provide them with separate ones for recyclable materials and others for plain organic waste. Of course, the public must be schooled in all of this first. I don't think this will happen this year. I am being grandiosely optimistic!

In this New Year, I hope men like Martin Amidu and Brig-Gen Nunoo-Mensah who call it like they see it will be honoured rather than be vilified, ignored and demoted. If you speak the truth no one wants to hear it. What kind of morality are we supporting in our society?

In December 2014, I hope the President will find a leisure location in Ghana to spend the Christmas break. This will do a great deal to promote tourism in Ghana. It will also acquaint him with the kinds of facilities paying visitors are subjected to. It should not be too difficult to do and believe me there are many locations where beggars will not find him. We also hope the government and its agents will find the courage to do what is right rather than what is politically expedient. Our politics should be more about managerial effectiveness rather than ideology because the task is obvious. It is to raise the living standards of Ghanaians through efficient development planning and strategies at the highest value for money spent. This is how our leaders should be judged.

I hope in this year, we will embrace careful planning and not wait for things to fail and then rush around trying to fix problems after the fact. In hospitals, people die when we do not anticipate problems and in the affairs of state everything costs us more and as a result many are denied a deserving standard of living and sometimes life itself.

In 2014 we should have more leaders who wish to serve the people who elected them and be less concerned about meeting their personal financial targets.

I note that, we are ranked the 6th best place to do business in Africa. To some this is worth celebrating but in reality, we should find out what the countries ahead of us are doing that we are not, for they did not exist as countries when we blazed the trail.

We pray for a better year but we must first make the effort and then God will smile on us!

Prof. T. P. Manus Ulzen
[email protected]
January 7, 2014