We Cannot Wait For Action

One of the key attributes of a true democratic system is that government is a product of the will or consent of the people expressed freely and under conditions that are conducive to the free and fair participation of all qualified and willing parties.

It, therefore, follows from this that such a government must not only be responsive to the needs, interests and aspirations of the people but must also actually be accountable to them.

A government (the executive) which exercises the right to steer the affairs of state on behalf of the people does so on the strength of a social contract it has reached with the people.

This contract, among others, implies that government, in the exercise of this mandate within a stipulated period, is enjoined to act in a manner that would help maximise and efficiently use resources to promote a qualitatively higher level of well-being or to secure the barest minimum level of deprivation and suffering possible.

Thus, using the manifestos of political parties, on the strength of which they get elected into government, the people who are the original owners of power can and oftentimes do hold government to their promises.

This obviously keeps governments, all of whom seek the renewal of their mandates, on their toes and push them to endeavour to deliver.

Since our adoption of this system of governance nearly two decades ago, our political parties which contest elections to form governments, have largely functioned along these lines and with the electorate getting ever more sophisticated by the day, no government that cherishes a renewal of its mandate can afford to toy with such ‘sacred’ commitments as contained in their manifestos.

It should be noted that in the process of fulfilling such pledges, development projects such as the building of roads, bridges, railways, hospitals, schools, industries and the provision of jobs are brought to the society.

In what appears to be a re-affirmation of his determination to redeem promises made in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) 2008 manifesto for a Better Ghana agenda, President John Evans Atta Mills has declared 2011 as a year of action.

According to the nation’s Chief Executive, next year would see physical evidence of the Better Ghana agenda, especially in the area of infrastructural development.

We are happy that the President is focussed on redeeming his pledges and that his government has put in place a variety of measures to ensure that next year is one in which many development projects and programmes would see the light of day.

Any public-spirited person who hears and sees the prospects of more development projects and programmes being actualised must be elated because not only do our suffering people deserve them but also such levels of progress are sine qua non for a better life for the people.

We take particular note of key projects such as the Eastern and Western corridor roads and railways which are not only unprecedented in the country’s history but also hold a huge potential for opening up the entire country for efficient exploitation of our human and material resources and the uplift of the lives of our people.

Only recently we carried reports and pictures of very bad roads in the Northern, Volta and Western regions with many trucks carrying cocoa and foodstuffs having been stranded and the people of those areas issuing desperate appeals for help.

As the saying goes, the sweetness of the pudding is in the eating. Let the government, therefore, expedite action on those projects so that they can take off quickly to affirm that its pledges have been translated into concrete phenomena which bring the much needed relief to the people.

The people of Bimbila have said in reference to their bad roads that government after government had promised them good roads but none actually walked the political talk.

Will it be the same again? We cannot wait to see the action, Mr President.