If Ghanaians Would Vote Based On Their Frustrations, President John Dramani Mahama Would Lose 2016 General Elections; But To Whom?

When President John Dramani Mahama (then Vice President) took up the reins of governance on July 24, 2012 as the President of the Republic of Ghana after death precipitously took away then President John Evans Atta Mills (May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace) I was one of those people who thought that it was a mixed blessing. Do not ask me why. To the “chief mischief makers,” you can chose to interpret my use of “mixed blessing” to conform to your monkey business. But before you continue to advance your monkey business as far as the sad and sorrowful demise of former President J.E.A Mills is concerned, I would urge you to look for the most recent media reports on the issue. You may chance on what Mr. Cadman Mills (brother of late President J.E. A Mills) had to say on the demise of his late brother. I guess that would cure your mischief. Let me hasten to add that the import of this write-up is not to stoke up the hubbub surrounding the demise of former President J.E.A Mills but to draw the attention of “the powers that be” especially the President to some of the heartrending issues that have the tendency to euthanize the citizens of Ghana before 2016. Without wasting time I would love to concentrate on the weight of my writeup. Well, the major poignant hurdles that are likely to put down Ghanaians before the 2016 general elections are not very new neither are they idiosyncratic to the administration of President John Mahama but he has a serious problem with the management of these social mishaps. Some of these social mishaps include but not limited to unemployment, the fitful power supply christened as

“dumsor- dumsor”, inflation, corruption, supercilious and flashy lifestyles of some of his appointees, unstable exchange rate, and many others.

In this article, however, I would love to home in on the stomach-churning unemployment situation in Ghana which has rendered many able-bodied Ghanaians especially College and University graduates hopeless and frustrated. I would love to deal with only unemployment because if I mean to deal with all the social mishaps that the President seems to be struggling frantically to manage, I would end up writing a book.

Unemployment has been with Ghana and even with the developed worlds since time immemorial and the current unemployment situation is no news but its debatable inimitableness under President John Mahama’s administration is what beats my imagination. Well, there is a school of thought that argues that government has no business doing business. This school of thought holds the view that government should create the conducive environment for the private sector to create the needed jobs to cater for the teeming unemployed citizens. To an extent, I agree with the ideology of this school of thought but is the Government of Ghana creating the conducive environment for the private sector to create new opportunities for the teeming unemployed youth of Ghana? Private businesses, obviously, cannot enjoy that enabling environment this school of thought envisaged in the wake of high inflation, unstable exchange rate, and the present fitful power supply in Ghana. Many private companies that rely heavily on the use of electricity for production have laid off and continue to lay off a good number of their employees not because such companies take pleasure in doing so but because such companies were faced and continue to be faced with Hobson’s choice.

I was rather gobsmacked when President John Mahama while delivering his speech on this year’s May Day averred that smart businesses are not laying off workers, but "are rather investing more resources to expand their production in Ghana." Is the President intimating that those businesses that have laid off their workers and continue to lay off some of their workers because they had/have Hobson’s choice were/are not smart enough? If the answer to this question is in the affirmative, then I dare say there must be a lot of morons somewhere in Ghana. And who could those morons be? You may judder to say what would follow this very sentence. But I have the guts to say the morons are those who have created and continue to create the problem of fitful power supply that has twisted the arms of the “stupid businesses” to take the excruciating decision of having to lay off their lovely and hardworking employees.

At the rear of all these job losses associated with the erratic power supply, the Government of Ghana under President John Mahama went ahead to place a blanket ban on public sector employment hence exacerbating the unemployment situation. Amusingly, Government officials keep driving us up the wall by telling us that it is not a blanket freeze on employment but a net freeze. By Government officials’ definition of net freeze, they mean replacement of retired, dead or resigned staff of public sector workers is still ongoing despite the ban especially for the Ghana Education Service (GES) and Ghana Health Service (GHS). But if you have eyes to see and ears to hear, you would realize that these Government officials in question are congenital liars or they know something which you and I don’t know. The refusal of “the powers that be” to post nurses and midwives from the various health training institutions across the country who did their national service since the 2013/2014 service year tells us that these Government officials are nothing but congenital liars. Aside this group of health workers, there are a lot of professional graduate nurses, teachers, pharmacists, medical laboratory technicians, etc who are sitting at home due to the ban that has been imposed on public sector employment. You can imagine the emotional trauma that these groups of unemployed graduates and their parents/guardians are going through because of some people’s recklessness and mismanagement of the affairs of the country. I am, however, happy that the blanket ban has been placed on public sector employment though I am affected by the ban because some people who have been employed in the public sector since 2012 have not received a penny all in the of name a jargon called “financial clearance” coupled with the payment of only three (3) months arrears irrespective how long one has worked. I would be happier to see the government stick to its guns as far as the blanket ban on public sector employment is concerned come 2016. Why employ people when you know you cannot pay them? In all these, devastated Ghanaians are told by a government official to keep quiet and suffer or, better still, vote against the government in power come 2016 if we think the sitting government is not doing enough to ease off our sufferings. What arrogance!

But do we have to blame such government official? The answer is a big no because the opposition parties especially the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which is a major opposition party are not keeping the government in power on its toes. The NPP which touts itself as a government in waiting doesn’t seem to be what it claims to be. The party is so much engrossed in its infighting to the extent that it doesn’t know the hell that the ordinary Ghanaian is going through and that alone tells the discerning Ghanaian that the NPP is never a force to reckon with when going to cast his/her vote come 2016. But anything could happen in 2016 since Ghanaians are being told a lot of untruths and half-truths by the sitting government which could trigger the electorate to say enough is enough. What the government in power has failed to bear in mind is that when you hide the truth from someone and the person struggles to unravel the truth all by himself, he hates you forever. I am, therefore, one of those who believe in Dr. Ransford Gyampo’s assertion that election 2016 is a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea.

…To be continued…
…SND…
Kpirko Wenceslaw