“Dear Nana-Addo….” A Citizenry Epistle From Afar

Our elders say “He who walks miles to heal the sick has no time for pleasantries” so let me skip the formalities...

Dear, Nana Addo, I have watched documentaries Joy News showed about your promises and what you said in 2016 ahead of the elections and how disappointing some parts of Ghana are. I have seen Kayayei’s in continuous deprivation. Others beg for small pieces of land to raise kiosks. I have seen School children prostrate to write in the sand; Reptiles competing with Teachers and Pupils in abandoned classrooms. We have Communities competing with animals on leech–infested stagnant water bodies; security unrest and how we fear; I have seen how journalists in a broad day are plug–uglied for filming. We see how people break the law and get away.

We saw footages of the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency by-elections and the violence it emitted to the people. Someone asked, “If by-elections can be this under a man we voted for, a man vouched for to have held himself in high integrity, what will characterize 2020 general elections?..... If we have masked men kicking other fellow men like football and whipping others like a chariot for battle in a by-elections, what will the general elections in 2020 portray?” We woke to hear parts of the ‘Short’s committee report’ were rubbished by the Ministry of Information headed by the eloquent Kojo Oppong Nkrumah. Sad isn’t it?

Many Ghanaians know for the fact that Ex-President John Dramani Mahama lost the 2016 general elections because Ghanaians needed a respite from hunger and the aggressive wanton dissipation of public funds, the careless mismanagement of the economy and the ‘misleadership’ mantra. So Ghanaians needed someone who in a way will help salvage the leftover. But, are we to say we are/were wrong?

Mr. President, we wore white to churches hearing your triumphant trampled over Mahama. We celebrated and jubilated but perhaps we were wrong. We have witnessed unrest, hooliganism, pick to clear syndrome, pen and armed robbery. We have seen the broad day kidnapping, Killing and the consistence attack on journalists.

I have a request and I want to use this medium to tell you, Mr. President; Why Ghanaians trust you as a President; the Man we voted, and the man we desired to emancipate Ghana from the continuous fear, greed and the rebarbative issues bedeviling citizens.

Mr. President, use your position to cease the molestation and abuse of offices. Let us know you stand for integrity and understand what leadership means. Make the world see the Presidency enviable and remarkable. And as you do this, remember your last manifesto in 2016. In that manifesto, I sat by a radio and heard Cindy Thompson sung “Ewurade Kasa,” I heard Evangelist Diana Asamoah taking the hungry but cheering crowd through an emotional thrill. That day, you begged to be President and I was teary. I saw the humility and the desire for a man to arrest a failing Country. At the time I had written many uncomfortable but revealing articles and compendiums on social media and the conventional media about how the current government failed us and the need to replace. The sage is right…. “The mouth used in getting a loan is not the same in paying.”

I humbly ask for one thing here again. I want you, Mr. President, to have control over this country and run it like your home. I would like you to see Ghana as your extended family where you bear in the need of every member. I am sure you wouldn’t allow any of your family to be kidnapped. I am sure you will be restless when your family goes hungry. I understand, you’ll not allow your youngest daughter to wander the streets of Kumasi looking for non–existing jobs.

I want us fix our broken or build the non–existing bridges, I want us build our Roads and Schools. I want us all as humans see the Schools as Parents (Not politicians) and build it.

“God bless our homeland Ghana….”

Wisdom Bonuedi
[email protected]