Mr. President, Carpe Diem

I couldn't bring myself to write anything celebratory on Independence Day because I honestly did not find much to be happy about.

The President's message though, was right on target. Our economy is at a breaking point partly because it is so import dependent. The global economic space is fiercely competitive and our laisse - faire attitude simply will not cut it. Mr. Mahama is right again in his diagnosis that the biggest challenge to bringing about transformative change in Ghana is attitudinal. Without going into a long historical journey on how attitudes changed for the worse in Ghana, we can agree on some of the identifiable symptoms of the disease of protracted underdevelopment, which will be our undoing as a nation.

President Mahama has the disadvantage of having been part of an administration which oversaw the largest budget deficit in recent times, so if he indeed is taking a different path, he must provide vigorous treatment to the patient. He must break with NDC orthodoxy, not in content but in application of his interventions across the board. He must depart completely from “Ghanaianisms” such asking folks "to bear with us", appealing to The Almighty and other common exhortations. He must begin to shape his party and the public sector to embrace data and measurable outcomes in place of indiscipline, noise and propaganda.

All Ghanaian institutions are corrupt so it is laughable to behold parliament's "OMG - gee whiz" response to Mr. Bagbin's recent claims that legislators are on the take. Influence peddling should be on our coat of arms.

To produce the Made in Ghana results like Nkrumah did, the Mahama administration must rely on meritorious Ghanaians in all fields and less on the appointing party apparatchiks with dubious backgrounds to handle sensitive areas of government, critical to our development. In Nkrumah's days the global effort to recruit the best Ghanaians and sometimes expatriate technocrats in all fields as part of a broad vision for development was vigorous.

Let's take the weather forecast for the recent March 6 commemoration, for example. Ghana Meteorological Service did provide a generic forecast, vague as it was. They should have been more specific on the risk of precipitation in the capital at the time of the event. Alternative plans could have been made. These could have included starting the event at a time with less risk of rain, an alternative indoor venue, change in the programming to exclude children marching in the rain, the president speaking in a dry region of the country etc.

Not to belabor this but the recently appointed National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) deputy director is an example of a party apparatchik in a sensitive position. First she blames dwarfs and juju for the fall of the cedi, then she claims falsely that she did not get a weather forecast ahead of 6th March. It was NADMO's duty to anticipate problems and co-ordinate with Ghana Meteorological Services to plan for an undisturbed independence event. So, was anyone held accountable for this snafu? Same old, same old, "Modin Sanế." No accountability. Political and administrative heads of agencies, on whose watch state funds and assets are lost should be suspended, fired or prosecuted based on rapid and detailed investigations. They have a duty to ensure that the public purse is protected. Our national attitude to these failures should be unequivocally punitive. Competence and verifiable results should be the guiding principles of government. The attitude of the Office of the President in these matters should lead the way to a New Ghanaian Attitude (NGA).

We are constantly wooing investors. Yes, it's good to have a stable democracy but what investors need most is a workforce that is well trained, disciplined and productive. We no longer have this in Ghana. We used to, 30 years ago.

An SHS graduate cannot write a job application without grammatical errors. Many cannot speak English in a sustained manner, without breaking into pidgin or making one run for cover. As a result, the caliber of university graduates is very poor compared to those of a generation ago. Free SHS is a laudable goal but the quality of the educational product at all levels must first be addressed. We are not using evidence - based educational methods of project - based interactive learning in our schools, hence we have poor managers throughout our system at all levels.

I am reminded of my late grandmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Andrews who was the first girl to successfully earn a Standard Seven Certificate in Tarkwa. She was instrumental in teaching me the rules of English grammar as a child. No present day JSS graduate is capable of what she did. She could recite Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" with understanding.That is why she was known as Lady Portia in her youth. She described vigorous debates between her school and rival schools in Aboso and Prestea in her days, which no longer occur in our education system, even at levels higher than JSS. The absence of critical thinking and analysis on many issues is so obvious today on the many loud radio and TV shows, where political mud-slinging passes for debate.

Our youth are unprepared for the global workplace. Youth unemployment is ready to explode and long range sustainable solutions rather than short term tactical approaches are necessary. The Arab Spring had nothing to do with Arabs. It was rooted in many years of ill prepared youth with no career prospects in those countries. With our fertility rate still above 4.0, this is a long term issue which can explode and destabilize the whole society. The education system deserves more than lip service and tokenism. Teachers must be better trained, well-resourced and well paid for it is upon their work that the very future of the nation depends. Tomorrow's leaders are currently unprepared to lead.

The average public servant arrives at 11:00 am and is done by 2 pm. What do we do about this? Investors are guided by strategic relevance and financial returns for the risks they take. Our lax management attitudes and poor work ethic do little to encourage sustained investments that benefit us as a nation. They add to the cost of doing business. The president must be creative in leading the charge on these issues in a bold and visible manner if he is to leave a distinct legacy.

We are a well-endowed, resource-rich beggar nation. We should be ashamed that after almost 60 years as a nation state, our officials oft stated strategy for development is to reach out to donors (elegantly referred to as donor- partners), while we lose billions of dollars yearly through corruption and incompetence.

We must invest in systematically rooting out of corruption at all levels, starting with public institutions and in conjunction with that, devise a broader based taxation system which is more closely tied to true commercial activity in the country. Tax payers should be able to elect their representatives at the local government level so they can hold them accountable. This will greatly help with the development of a cadre of politicians over time who progress to the national level through serious work at the local level, establishing track records that are verifiable.

Some of us remember when Made in Great Britain items were replaced over a few years to Made in Ghana goods in the early 60s. We imported less and made goods of high quality both for the local and global market. The trains and city buses ran on time and the manufacturing sector was vibrant. The society was orderly and Ghanaians were disciplined enough to line up everywhere and take their turn in public and commercial houses for services.

We live in a state of organized chaos. We have devolved into an unproductive, unaccountable, 19th century society with poor sanitation where diarrheal conditions are still the leading cause death. We are ranked second globally in diarrheal related deaths. What a distinction after 57 years of statehood. We certainly won the right to mismanage our own affairs. The president is onto something but has his work cut out for him. "Mr. Mahama, your mission, should you choose to accept it....."

Mission “almost” Impossible. Those who benefit from the current situation are not going to roll over and die. They must be actively neutered.

If the president is to succeed, he must follow his innermost instincts. He must become less of a party man and govern fiercely, without fear or favor. He will risk becoming a one term president if he dithers because Ghana is ready for a tough executive leader. He must seize the day and not look back. It is a daunting task but Mr. Mahama has accepted the mission and must deliver by leading the era of attitudinal change from the top by the actions of his government.

T P Manus Ulzen is Professor of Psychiatric and Behavioral Medicine at the University of Alabama the author of " Java Hill: An African Journey" - A historiography of Ghana.
[email protected]
March 17, 2014