The New Ghana Government In Review

Our very best wishes to the Akuffo-Addo and Bawumia families, the in-coming first families of Ghana! As Ghana moves forward with a new government coming January 7, 2017, one cannot help but wonder what to expect. In his first few public appearances, Nana Akufo-Addo, the President-elect, noted that once sworn in as President, he will need time to set things in motion, and asked for help from all Ghanaians. This is laudable because as President of Ghana, he will be duty-bound to all Ghanaians from North to South, and from East to West; and he will be obliged to fulfil his promises to all Ghanaians foremost.

While many might view Nana’s election promises as mere election gimmicks, one needs to take a critical look at them individually in order to understand where he might be coming from. Since Nana cannot fulfil all these promises alone, it is obvious he will delegate the work to his ministers or special task forces. From the look of things, future Presidents of Ghana will not enjoy the same privilege of simply being non-performing and get away with it, because the people who are tired of being taken for granted will not be as forgiving as they seek accountability and transparency. With Nana’s government being non-exempt from this type of scrutiny, those seeking to hold leadership positions within Nana’s government should brace themselves that things will not be easy. For this reason alone, those delegated to fulfil his campaign promises should expect to be applauded after they have completed their tasks. For non-performance, Ghanaians will expect them to face the music and explain what happened. No one should be allowed to piggyback on Nana Akufo-Addo/Dr.Bawumia ticket without putting in the needed work.

Nana’s “one village, one dam” promise undoubtedly stems from his awareness that quality water supply is essential and a must for all Ghanaians. This promise should be seen from the viewpoint of recognition of barriers that towns, villages and cities in Ghana face in their efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in water supply. The key words are “town or village” and its “environs”. The Ministry that will be assigned this special project should work from the perspective of possibilities of tapping into water sources by way of water harvesting or building of water dams in villages and towns and their surrounding areas, where there is abundance of water flowing downstream into rivers, without cutting off other benefactors of the same water source. This will not be a job to envy unless one is well versed and an expert in this field. When it comes to free education for instance, even though Nana did not stress so much on this premise this time, has always been clear and simple. Ghana’s education strategy should aim to enable every child to learn to participate fully in society through education. Care must be taken not to get into political vindictiveness, ie., if NPP changes anything within the education system, there being a likelihood opposing political parties will feel slighted and therefore will wait for the opportunity to change that same system again. What is it with our people? Ghanaian children should never be made a pawn in such childish political games. Ghanaians do not need that, and NPP should show the way and focus mostly on what they need to do to make the education system great and effective without any overhaul. Whether children take 12 years or 13 years to complete their education is beside the point, it should be rather a matter of restructuring the education system and equiping children with the right skill set needed to achieve self-determination and be able to compete socially, economically, intellectually and globally as well.

Nana’s biggest election platform; his call for an agenda for change and jobs; and creating prosperity and opportunity for all Ghanaians was compressed into a much touted, “one district, one factory”. In an attempt to come up with the appropriate maxim that will explain what the NPP is going to do for Ghana, the party fell short of explaining all its capabilities. With a good budget and careful planning, one district, one factory is such a small promise when you think in terms of a whole big county such as Ghana. Ghana can do better to assist individuals with existing companies that have potential to expand. Whichever outfit will be responsible for "one district, on factory" should help create not only large scale factories, but also provide successful entrepreneurs throughout Ghana with loans and grants, and publish the names of recipients within the first 2 years and not at the end of the 4 years so that all Ghanaians will see what has been done. The emphases should be on production. It was mentioned in certain quarters that the “one constituency, one million” promise was going to be by far the easiest, however it is not yet clear in what form this will take. Will the one million cedis funding be provided as an award to one recipient or severally within the constituency? Will the funding be awarded to the Member of Parliament or to NGO’s or to private businesses? What are the rules that will be in place to execute such a plan. Transparency will be of utmost importance.

A good leader is one that delegates. The new Ghana President should preside over all and should expect his Ministers to produce results not excuses or they should be relieved of their assigned positions. What this new government should avoid is the unnecessary arrogance that is sometimes exhibited by some politicians. They should abhor corrupt practices, avoid being their own law enforcers and leave law enforcement to the police. Most importantly, people should avoid speaking on behalf of the government, unless they have been delegated to speak, otherwise it will create an impression of weak leadership especially when the person doing the talking uses insulting language. While Ghanaians cannot completely control who become part of this new government, it is obvious they gave the mandate to only Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia.

As the nation moves forward with a new government, this is an opportunity to wish all of Ghana success in the years ahead. Merry Christmas to all!

Bellinia Asiedu-Young
Richmond Hill, Ontario Canada