Let's Overcome Irrationality And Make Better Decisions

President Nana Akufo- Addo

"Mr Speaker, I am indeed in a hurry. The time in which we live demands that we all be in a hurry to deal with the problems we face". These are (were) the words of President Akufo-Addo. But when facing a crisis, it's important to take an approach fitting to the situation. Leaders who make very quick decisions or who have urgent need for closure may be more likely to make a decision based on poor judgement. This is what we witnessing under the current President Nana Akufo-Addo.

Prudence, they say has two eyes, one that forsees what one has to do, the other that examines afterward what one has done. The great Aristotle, defined prudence as "recta ratio agibilium", right reason applied to practice. Prudence demands openness to the whole truth of the situation, including our long held beliefs, prejudices and agenda. We are still paying the price from poor decisions taken decades ago. The challenges facing us as a result of certain reckless decisions taken in the past must urge us to think carefully through decisions we take before getting ourselves entangled in unnecessary crisis. The current administration's excessive speed without analysis the potential consequences of their decisions is dangerous not only for the present generation, but the generation to come.

The best practice is clearing the land, mark the farm lines before planting. You don't plant before clearing the land. This was the reason behind the former administration concentrated on infrastructure development, invested in the communication sector, started naming our streets and roads, extended social amenities across the country etc. Zoomlion, started working on the Digital Address System and did that without taking a pesewa from Government but did that on from the company's coffers to support their waste collection operation. Why is government reneging on its major duties and channelling millions of dollars on a project already started by a private entity. How is this project going to benefit our rural folks who are still drinking from the same river source with animals, who have no health facility, good roads etc. How is this project and the millions the administration wastes on jamborees and launching of policies going help our village folks the necessities of life that exist in the cities. Our hardworking rural farmers are still living in huts.

Our focus should be how to replace their huts with decent houses and free them from the fear of rains tearing off their roofs and make sure we help them get reasonable income from proceeds of their farms. Like the former President Mr Mahama once said " in the face of the yawning gap between the toiling farmer and city officials, how could we possibly think of a nation that is welded together?. Why spending $2.4 million on digital address system when millions of our hardworking folks are living in darkness, drudgery and poverty. The Bible says in Proverbs 14:29 "He that is of a hasty spirit exalteth folly".

Not understanding how we make our decisions can have profound consequences on the masses hence the need to rethink how we make decisions, and recognise which repeated decision making process don't serve us well so we can learn to avoid them. Gaining insights into our irrational motives that affect our development is a good place to start. Government is spending billions of dollars on trivialities to the detriment of the poor and the hardworking Ghanaian.

Projects started by the last administration in our rural areas and others in our cities have been abandoned in the name of regime change, newly trained doctors have not been posted, teachers are demanding their arrears, contracted have stopped work, fertilizer now being sold to our cocoa farmers, embargo placed on nurses recruitment, the finance minister says the economy is in limbo but government is still spending millions of the tax payers money on policies that have no direct benefit to the chunk of the populace.

The previous administration introduced the rural pay phone project, ICT for sustainable fishing, the e- learning project, post office connectivity, community information centre, rural telephony project, the hope city project etc all as part of its city- rural connectivity initiative. We still have huge infrastructure deficit to clear, under President Mahama Ghana was rated the best in the subregion in terms of human development index but we still have a lot to cover. These are the areas we must channel our meagre resources.

To make use of the digital address system easy, you need to improve your infrastructure to enhance connectivity and movement.