Gloomy Prognosis

In this age of International Monetary Fund (IMF) refrain, especially on the lips of National Democratic Congress (NDC) propagandists, a negative picture painted by the Bretton Wood institution should be heart-wrenching for the government.

More work is being done to cover up the truth than moving the nation forward as major infrastructure deficit and unprecedented power crisis taunt the nation.

We recall remorsefully President John Mahama's promise to fix the battered energy sector and not manage it as others before him did. Interesting talk: big in words but deficient in substance and sincerity.

A few days ago the IMF, which name especially after the announcement about the arrival of the first tranche of the bailout sounded sweet in the ears of government, presented a gloomy painting about the country.

A naked David, as presented by Michael Angelo, could not have been clearer in nakedness than the picture about the country's economy.

The message from the picture according to the IMF is that all is still not well about the economy – an ironic reality government would prefer was not served the people of Ghana.

The role of the debilitating energy crisis in the fast deteriorating economy cannot be marginalised: for some the sleep deprivation factor is what is worrying but that is an infinitesimal part of the picture. Industries are collapsing and the roll-call of the unemployed on the rise. That is the most daunting.

For how long can we countenance the horrible scenario as propagandists continue to apply salt to the injury inflicted on Ghanaians?

The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has demanded for a timeline for the end of the energy crisis. Its demand is based on the assumption that challenges such as energy crisis must be subjected to a treatment for which policymakers must be able to make projections regarding their end.

A situation where nobody knows when the curtains are going to be drawn over the crisis cannot be acceptable and suggest ineptitude.

We have observed rather painfully the tendency to resort to killer taxes to shore up the depleted government kitty. This is a lazy way of managing an economy by those who are bereft of ideas in dealing with crises such as energy.

The energy sector is the engine of growth, the oxygen required by the country to stay alive. Starving the country of this vital source of life is to be deliberately and gradually pushing it to a state of comatose.

With more and more industries winding up compulsorily, the state's ability to rake in the proceeds of taxation to pay wages and engage in other economic activities is diminishing.

Government must show sincere commitment in resolving the challenges posed by the energy crisis. It is not a joking matter or campaign trail issue. It is a serious business, the mishandling of which can prompt all manner of security challenges.

We ignore these at our peril as a nation. We would continue to use our pens to call the attention of stakeholders and those who hold the ignition key of the engine room of state to respond appropriately and in a manner that can yield positive dividends. That is all we can do.

The last thing we should allow in the country is a strife spawned by the inefficiency of government such as not being able to fix a tattered energy sector.