The Lies, The Realities

President John Mahama
We are being told to be optimistic when there is no cause to be. The signs are portentous: the factors on the ground point to a declining state of the economy as those at the helm continue to live in denial or just being pretentious.

We are unable to get it when in one vein President John Dramani Mahama encourages us to have hope as things are going to be alright, when in another the likes of Felix Kwakye Ofosu try abortively to present a picture of a land flowing with milk and honey under John Mahama's administration.

Listening to a cross-section of Ghanaian callers a day after the deputy minister – we hear he is being pencilled for elevation to substantive minister – presents a scorecard of the NDC government as none of them was charitable to the managers of the economy.

If the government thinks the propaganda performance of the deputy minister at the Information Ministry last Tuesday presented adequate answers to the questions raised by the middle-class concerned Ghanaians when they marched to the Flagstaff House recently, it has missed it.

The government's propagandists would have to be more ingenious to be convincing when plying their occupation. Given their present modus operandi, there is no way they can alter the impression created in the minds of most Ghanaians about them.

The drawbacks are many. Suffice it to point out the issue of scholarships ostensibly for needy senior high school students next year when we have been assured of a free SHS education countrywide at the same time. Scholarships for this level of education would not be necessary if indeed government was really sincere about a free SHS next year. See what we mean about lying being a worrying feature of this government?

The Cedi's momentous fall continues unabated as the GH¢3.5 is approaching. Government appears to have given up hope of arresting the decline, leaving us with the fear about a possible GH¢4 mark or even more to the dollar by the end of the year.

Cement is on the verge of becoming an endangered item on the market. With an almost prohibitive price for the item, the prospect of house ownership is gradually eluding many young persons in the country.

Prices of foodstuffs are responding accordingly, leaving the ordinary Ghanaian panting for breath; for the middle-income level persons the pressure for support from the downtrodden is mounting. The speed at which things are falling apart is beyond expression.

These are the realities on the ground and not the supply of sanitary pads to female students or projects such as the construction of schools and provision of potable water to areas without the life-sustaining fluid.

Which government since the Union Jack was lowered and replaced by an independent Ghana's, has not built schools and constructed feeder roads? Assembling the media and pointing at project A or B is balderdash.

We are talking about surviving these restive times when we are not beholding any good sign in the horizon.