The Choice Is Yours

The Ghanaian worker has never been so pushed to the wall by government-inflicted economic circumstances. He has been so impoverished that he soliloquises when no one is looking at him – a newfound trait symptomatic of stress and near hopelessness.

The tariff hikes and the now unannounced fuel price increases worsen his plight by the day. Some of his colleagues, unable to withstand the challenges, have embraced alcoholism as others take the abominable route of suicide. The rate at which people are taking this abominable route as well as spousal murders is alarming, both attributable to the difficulties flowing from the economic hardships.

Social interventions introduced by the previous government to cushion him from the economic challenges imposed by external forces have faded into insignificance.

Yesterday was May Day. We wish to congratulate the Ghanaian worker and to plead with him to take heart and pray for better times ahead. There is still hope for Ghana; her human resource base and natural wealth – extractive and agricultural – still in abundance but only waiting for better and visionary managers.

Let him not lose hope and take to abominable decisions which only expose his family to very serious consequences.

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As a routine, those whose stewardship of the state has led us to where we are now have spoken, painting a very beautiful picture of an economy seen by them only.

They think that it is in their interest to live in denial about the reality of the economy, continuously presenting it as resilient and robust. The truth of the matter is that the economy is in a dire state and requires occasional treatment in the form of increased taxation as in the almost fortnight increment in the price of petroleum products. Many of his colleagues in the private sector have lost their jobs, their employers unable to withstand harsh tax regime dictated by the government which is suffering the uncontrollable effect of self-inflicted bad economic decisions and corruption.

This year's May Day is worryingly significant. Taking place in an election year, government in a bid to have more Ghanaians vote for it will definitely engage in reckless expenditure, the effects of which would be transferred to the already indisposed economy, with the Ghanaian absorbing the brunt.

Paradoxically, government has already said it would not engage in the aforementioned economic anomaly associated with an election year. We have taken this with a pinch of salt: no government with a penchant for this alternative would say otherwise.

We congratulate the Ghanaian worker on enduring the difficult times this far. It is an election year and in a country democratic in nature, you have the power to alter your circumstances. Even as the political parties go about canvassing for your vote, you are in a better position to compare their records with a view to making informed choices. A faux pas in the choice of a political leadership can lead to rather regrettable consequences. The choice is yours.