How the sunshine of hopelessness penetrated our clouds of hope

During the 2016 general elections, the entire country was thrown into an unprecedented euphoria by the charismatic and compelling characters of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his then running mate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. They captured the imaginations of the masses and won their confidence.

The two were convincing and the oratory skills of Akufo-Addo coupled with his rendition of “I am incorruptible”, “we have the men” and “I will not run a family and friends government”.

Ghanaians were convinced that Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia were the answer to their prayers. Ghanaians were reminded of his energetic fight against the introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) with his “Kume Preko” demonstration and how he abhors nuisance taxation that raises cost of living. During that time he granted an interview to the (AP) news agency where he said “The policies that the government (Rawlings NDC) are introducing, are policies that do not find favour with the general mass of our people and that the mass of our people have been systematically impoverished”.

However, after Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia have been given the mandate, Ghanaians have seen nothing but a complete retrogression of their individual lives and the development of the country.

In the last 8 years, Ghanaians have seen scandals and corruption deliberately orchestrated to enrich the government appointees and their cronies. The last 8 years have birthed the cash for seat scandal, BOST contaminated oil scandal, the Australian Visa scandal, the Power Distribution Service (PDS) scandal, the shameful and the embarrassing Agyapa deal that sought to “will” the royalties accrued from our natural resources to the families and descendants of those we have elected to govern us. We have seen the disgraceful and unethical attempt to sell six profitable hotels belonging to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to a member of the ruling government.

In the last 8 years we have seen the deliberate collapse of Banking and Financial institutions belonging to those who are purported to pose threat to the sustainability of the government, we have seen the killing of 8 innocent lives in Techiman South during the 2020 elections; we have seen the killing of a journalist for exposing corrupt government officials.

In the last 8 years we have seen unemployment move from 7% to 14%, inflation from 13% to 57% and subsequently coming down to 23.7%, we have seen the depreciation of the Ghanaian currency against the dollar from USD1 to GHC3.6 to GHC16 for USD1, we have seen the national debt stock ballooned from GHC122billion in January 2017 to GHC650billion under the current Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration. They current government do not take into account the day-to-day sufferings of the masses when making decisions, hence the decision to waste USD58 million in the national cathedral.

The NPP and Akufo-Addo whiles in opposition mounted platforms and complained about the exchange rate being $.1 to GHC4, and promised to bring it down, today $1 is to GHC 17, they complained about a ball of Kenkey selling at GHC.1, today it is GHC.5, under the presidency of Akufo-Addo and Bawumia.

A bag of cement was selling at GHC 20 in 2016 but GHC110, today, a gallon of diesel was GHC 18 in 2016, today a litre is selling at GHC 16.60 therefore a gallon is GHC 61.42 (from GHC 18 IN 2016 to 61.42 in 2024) under the so called competent team. The debt to GDP was 54 % in 2016 and was vehemently criticised as a sign of incompetence on the part of H.E. John Mahama, today it is 104% under president Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

On corruption, the NDC has performed far better than the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government. According to the Transparency International’s released corruption perception index (CPI). The NDC’s worse performance is 43 which is better than the NPP’s best performance of 41.

In the last 8 years, prices of goods and services have increased about 900% averagely, cost of living have risen astronomically, the average Ghanaian have become poorer whiles members of the current administration have become stupendously rich overnight.

Life has become unbearable for the Ghanaian youth, the civil servant, business community and all other Ghanaian citizens. Clearly, the little hope Ghanaians had have completely evaporated leaving Ghanaians helpless.

In the midst of all these unprecedented suffering, the ruling government is only focused on clinging onto power and not addressing these challenges. They are busily shouting “breaking the 8” instead of fixing the mess. It is clear that they have no respect for the citizenry. They simply don’t care about us, we are not their priority.

It is for these reasons that, we must take our destinies in our own hands and end these 8 years of misery, agony, trepidation, poverty, suffering and hopelessness by voting against the NPP in the upcoming 7th December elections.