Ghana and Election 2008 – Issues should matter

I work in an industry where we receive regular security updates with respect to countries in the world. Based on these updates, I feel continuously reassured about my country Ghana. Recent reports from our beloved country is giving some cause for alarm – from the disturbances over electoral registration, through the killings and destruction at Tamale and Gushiegu to the clashes between the President's security detail and the private security of Professor Arthur Mills. This is not the Ghana I continue to read about favourably and the Ghana hailed by the rest of the world as being amongst the peaceful, if not the most peaceful, in Africa.

The situation is not being helped by the FM stations that appear to have weak, and in some cases, less knowledgeable programme hosts. What decided me into writing this piece is what I heard yesterday (Sunday 14th September) morning on Hot Digital radio, a London-based Ghanaian radio station. There was this rudderless lady hosting a 'confrontation' between what she described as NPP, CPP and NDC supporters. This programme was ill-tempered and poorly facilitated. I asked myself where our fledgling democracy is heading. I am, however, very much heartened by the calls by numerous national figures for peace, none so other than Dr. Degbe of the Christian Council and Rev. Dr Yaw Frimpong Manso. I am also reassured by the 'Ghana First' campaign being mounted some influential artistes. My hope is that people who have occupied the highest office of the land will also emulate these actions and not stoke the fires.

There are numerous problems facing our nation, Ghana, which are not being addressed at all with much seriousness during this period leading to the general elections. There is massive youth unemployment and no one is discussing seriously how this can be reversed. We have an educational system that has produced school drop-outs who earn their living darting between cars and lorries selling whatever they can find. Is no one thinking about them and the implication this has for the future of our country?

The bulk of our exports are primary products with no meaningful value addition. The likes of Dubai (a desert country) can boast of a gold souk (market) and we cannot make Ghana the centre of diamond and gold jewellery? Our annual budgets are financed by international donors to the tune of 40%, and with the current high oil and food prices, this is likely to grow in the immediate future. Despite this, we are promising jobs without demonstrating how we are going to shrink this deficit? Jobs cannot be created until we find means of growing our economy by increasing trade with the outside world. To do this, we must identify wants that can be competitively satisfied in both internal and external markets. How can we do this? This is the question that must be addressed by those wishing to lead us.
The quality and standards of education leaves much to be desired. The BECE pass rate is hovering around 60% even though this year's performance is being hailed as the best in about ten years. This is not acceptable and we should not rest until the situation improves. Are we really seeking the causes of this poor performance and what could be done to address them? The universities have limited places available. From statistics given at the Legon congregation, they were able to admit over 11,500 students, representing about 50% of qualified applicants. I am sure this may be the situation at the other public universities. Technical and vocational education has not been given much attention by policy makers over the years. This sector of education has traditionally been left to private proprietors with no effective monitoring of quality.

In terms of energy, we are over-reliant on Akosombo, which from time to time is affected by drought. The Bui dam and numerous thermal plants will add some capacity but Bui will be affected by the same factors that from time to time affect Akosombo. With the advent of oil production and the ambition to become a middle income nation, will we have enough spare capacity to cover any shortages were Akosombo and Bui to go offline? We appear to be flirting with nuclear energy but this would be very expensive in the short term and would require substantial financial provisions to cater for eventual decommissioning as well as secured and safe storage of active waste materials. I do not know how much we have researched into the feasibility of solar energy. We could at least investigate its feasibility for offices (both private and public) and traffic management (traffic lights and other traffic warning signs). I travel a lot through rural England and do come across “slow”, “stop” and “careful” signs that are solar powered.

Another area plaguing Ghana is the spate of armed robbery and other forms of criminal activities including paedophilia and sex tourism as well as drug and people trafficking. What is being done by the various campaigns to address this? Nana Akufo Addo initially appeared to be addressing this problem by promising to hire 25,000 extra police personnel. He, however, appeared not to have mentioned this again since the accusation by Rawlings that he wanted to turn Ghana into a police state. We live in country where a number of public officials ride in state-owned 4x4 vehicles, which the police could do with to prevent and solve crimes; but what do we see? The Police are without resources and cannot get to crime scenes in time yet they have had to endure the brunt of public criticism.

Health and safety too has not been mentioned at all this election year apart from the National Health Insurance Scheme and the eradication of malaria with money provided by George Bush. What baffles me is that we claim to have the aim of eradicating malaria but nothing is being done about the open and stinking sewers in our urban areas and the rubbish tips that are right in the middle of residential areas. The municipal councils collect their rates and property taxes without doing much about this situation. There is lack of clean and potable water in large areas of Ghana, especially in the northern and upper regions, yet I have not heard much about this.

Equally, there appear to be no political will in dealing with the numerous deadly accidents on our roads. A lot of these can be blamed on driver error, indiscipline and vehicles that are not roadworthy. What legislative measures are being promised to change people's behaviour and to ensure that only road-worthy vehicles ply our roads?

Ghana is an agricultural country, yet there is no food security. We continue to rely on favourable weather with limited use of irrigation and mechanisation. We cannot reduce post-harvest losses and are unable to store our produce for leaner periods. We are presiding over the situation where our markets are flooded with foreign agricultural produce that are cheaper than locally produced food. This has seen the marginalisation of local producers who do not find it profitable to grow some crops such as rice. The youth are not being attracted into farming because the returns are low, and due to the lack of mechanisation, they see farming as low grade employment.

No doubt there are numerous other problems faced by Ghana that I have not been able to enumerate here. How are these being addressed in the party manifestos and who is bringing the different approaches to the attention of Ghanaians for them to make informed choices on December 7th? - Nobody. The Press are only providing platforms for people to trade insults rather than ideas. This is creating enmity and bitterness between people on different sides of the political divide. The political parties themselves are only pursuing peripheral issues – reacting to alleged and actual events and occurrences and not engaging in the battle of ideas expected.

So far, the NPP have been harping mostly on education – extension of the school feeding programme; extension of free education up to senior high school and public university in every region. They have not demonstrated how they will pay for these. Setting up a university requires a lot of preparatory work and at best this cannot be seen as something which can be implemented in the short term. They have not addressed substantially other issues affecting different aspects of Ghanaian life even though they have mentioned pensions for farmers, and in some time past, have indicated the hiring of 25,000 additional police personnel to tackle crime. They should continue to flesh these out. I believe they should be demonstrating to the electorate what their achievements have been these past eight years. They should also acknowledge the problems and inefficiencies with present policies and demonstrate how they are going to iron these out or even make changes if given further mandate.

To me, the NDC have so far not articulated what they stand for and what they are promising Ghanaians. They have spent much time painting the other lot as corrupt and arrogant without offering any credible alternative. Whilst they have been good in identifying some of the problems, they have not offered any solutions at all. They appear very much confused in the messages they are sending. One day they are against the NHIS and disputing whether it is free and on another claiming that it is their brain child. As an opposition, there are several sticks to beat the government with, but these will not suffice. They should also be spelling out real policies that could address the problems identified. They should desist from accusations of bias against the EC and the security services. If they win power, they will have to work with them. By all means, they should criticise where there are failings but they should not drag them into politics. These actions are destabilising and if they win, they will have to live with the negative consequences.

The CPP too seem to spend much of its time harping on about the achievements of Dr. Nkrumah. Nkrumah last ruled Ghana in 1966 and most of the electorate do not remember what it was like. To keep dragging the electorate back to the days of Nkrumah will not pay many dividends. They seem to have a similar policy to the NPP, as far as education is concerned, to make education from Kindergarten to Senior High school free. They are also selling improved condition for teachers but they are not linking any of these to performance and quality. The title of 'Edwuma Wura' which the flag bearer is coveting is not merited. It has nothing to do with what he has done in the past but what the CPP, under Nkrumah, did. Soon after independence when the nation had to build its civil service and other institutions, and with relatively few people with the requisite qualifications, it was easy to create employment in droves. Today's era is different. We operate in a global economy where we are struggling to penetrate external markets or probably have no products to do so. Creating meaningful and worthwhile jobs for our people requires us to skill them up. Sloganising to the effect of job creation would not deliver jobs, unless we have concrete policies to grow our economy.

We have a little over 80 days to the elections. For these remaining days, the political parties have to widen their offerings to the electorate by addressing issues that affect all aspects of Ghanaian life. They have to demonstrate how their professed solutions can effectively tackle those issues.
The Press should endeavour to provide platforms for political parties to sell their messages rather than one where they invite reactions to alleged or actual incidents. They should by all means report illegal or unfair happenings but instead of inviting public reactions, they should rather be bringing pressure to bear on the Police to speed up their investigations into such incidents. They should educate the public on the different manifestoes brought out by the political parties so that the enlightened can analyse the contents to assess whether they could solve the problems of the nation and whether the promises are realistic and can be delivered.

The press should also use make use of neutral commentators and programme hosts who are knowledgeable in the various areas to examine and review manifesto pledges and their effectiveness in addressing national problems. They should by all means provide platforms for debates between different political parties, but this should be done on the basis of respect and civility. They should not invite onto programmes the rabble rousers who have nothing to sell but make the most noise. I believe all the political parties have people who can be civil towards each other and are prepared to debate issues in a calm atmosphere. The hosts of programmes would have to be strong and alert enough to cut off callers who are insulting and unruly.

Finally I pray that over the coming days we are able to show the rest of the world that Ghana's democracy is maturing and that we all love our country dearly. I hope we are able to show that if there is a battle, it is one of ideas to better the lot of everybody, and not one of hatred. The fact that we may disagree on issues should not mean that we cannot tolerate each other.
Long live Mother Ghana! God bless Mother Ghana!

By Dr Frank Ohemeng, Manchester, United Kingdom