GHANA MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE

Today in Ghana, all are reaping the hard fruits our labour; for some, the hard fruits of the labour of our predecessors or forefathers. Posterity would always be the judge. In our own ways, we are better judges of the state of Ghana today. If you do not like what you see in Ghana today, that is the same picture we are all painting for posterity.

I am not here to talk about how bad our economy is, and further point accusing fingers. I am only here to call on all of us, awake, or asleep, to be on guard. For whatever we are going through, , we are all accountable, as citizens. Ghanaians must be held accountable. Ghana must be held accountable!

From time immemorial, it has always been Ghana's practice of soliciting for aid. Why must we keep on begging? How long we would continue with this rather unfortunate practice? Our sponsors are all experiencing a global recession; who do we turn to now in the midst of these crises? Each day, it becomes more obvious. Why do we call this nation, an independent one, when in truth, we are far from being independent? Ghana must be held accountable!

This is a country to be envied by all. A country well-resourced with almost all, if not all the resources any nation can boast of; from our water bodies, forestry, minerals, livestock and most importantly, to our human resource wealth. This country keeps exploiting tons of minerals each day to be shipped and yet in the end, millions of dollars is spent just to import the products of these raw materials back. We actually spend more than they get paid for! Talk about our foodstuffs and livestock; we are hailed as major food producers, and yet, we cannot even produce enough to feed ourselves! We keep supplementing with all sorts of imported products. We spend more on importation than production. Talk about our gold, cocoa, diamond, and the resulting finished products; more is spent on importation of the finished goods than the actual exportation. We spend more in the name of foreign exchange. Ghana must be held accountable!

Ghana spends much more on loans than we actually receive, considering all the amounts paid as interests on these loans. Simply because these loans get squandered! I am not here to point fingers, but again, we are all witnesses to the recent gross mismanagements that we keep hearing about; the saga of judgment debts! It is really disturbing and shameful to see the extent to which hunger and greed can take us. The very people, who have been entrusted to secure our interests, are the very ones cutting us down. We only point fingers at the politicians, but what about the lay people we know of in our communities and workplaces. I sometimes wonder what goes through the minds of these people. How do you spend money entrusted in your care for a project, and somehow expect to go scot-free? Of course, they go scot-free! Ghana must be held accountable!

In the past, various stories have been unveiled, to which all have applauded. But what has happened to the people exposed by these stories? Corruption in Ghana keeps growing by the day! This rot is fast reaching across the globe! It is a huge disgrace to my integrity as a person. It is a huge disgrace to this nation. Simply because, we do nothing about it! Manasseh Azure came up with an interesting but rather shameful expose of the rot in this nation. As usual, the story got the airplay and discussion befitting any ordinary talk show. Afterwards, the debate ends! What is our government, doing about it? What are we doing about it? Of course, how does an accused, punish an accused? How does an accused point accusing fingers? How do the guilty punish the guilty? And so, the rot continues. Ghana must be held accountable!

Globally, there is a recession. Economies are crippling. Governments are finding it tough solving their various economic problems. Money is hard to come by. There is no money to be wasted. There is no money to be lent out by donor nations, especially to be squandered. In Ghana, all I see is the excess of wastage! Funny enough, our governments talk about lack of funding! Taxes are being increased, to be wasted afterwards. Government expenditure, keeps on soaring, mostly wasted on frivolities. A so-called developing economy, which would rather spend huge sums of revenue generated funds, on obtaining new fleets of government vehicles, just to look good. We go a-borrowing, while parading all sorts of excesses and gluttony. Expenditure on government entourage on an ordinary mission can sponsor the project for which the mission was necessitated. Are we serious? Ghana must be held accountable!

Anna Esi Hanson ([email protected]); esociocomm.blogspot.com