Losing Hope

The umbrage of Ghanaian workers could easily be gauged from the concerns they raised yesterday during May Day. They could not have been more incisive and blunt with their concerns.

Across the country their concern was basically about a fading hope in government's ability to fix the energy crisis as articulated by their umbrella body – the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC).

The leadership of the labour front, from the tone of its remarks, is overwhelmed by a mammoth dose of frustration – reality which if not reversed can have far-reaching implications on productivity.

From the Western Region ECG workers put the dumsor challenge at the doorstep of government as workers in the Brong-Ahafo Region demanded a timeline for dumsor.

It can easily be gleaned from the foregone that Ghanaian workers no longer hold government in respectable esteem and would definitely take any fresh promise with a pinch of salt.

Their purchasing power has plummeted to an all-time low as they are reduced to the real wretched of the earth.

Workers across the country did not celebrate the progress they have made in turning the economy around under the policy direction of the government. They rather lamented their predicament as occasioned by a degenerating economy.

We are still waiting for the arrival of the power barges which as we are told by government sources, would add more megawatts to our electricity generation. Sadly though by the time they would land our shores and activated, more damage would have been done the economy and individual businesses. Besides, their activation is not synonymous with a major economic turnaround.

When government is described as being mostly economical with the truth, it becomes difficult for it to convince the citizenry even when it switches over from the lying mode.

Elsewhere in this edition one of the country's celebrities, Yvonne Nelson, reportedly told the world through the BBC network that government is not telling the truth about the energy crisis.

She is only echoing what is generally known by most Ghanaians. For those who still believe in government they are doing so only because they are as insincere as the government to which they are attached.

It is worrying though that the Ghanaian story has gone to the international scene, especially the lying segment, about which so much has been said on the local political scene.

We have repeated the economy hymn for some time now. This year however, another stanza has been added as the country battles a debilitating energy crisis – stretching government to its seams.

We worry about the repercussions of citizens losing hope about the claim that there is light at the end of the tunnel, even as the promises of a better tomorrow continue to be showered upon them.