From Voice Of Reason: Mr. President, Please Let It Rain Now

Akufo-Addo

IT'S SAID THAT, "POLITICS is an advance action of stolen goods". So please don't believe the hype.

Mr. President, I hope you're walking around with very limited sense of trust, which was eroded by your own party members years ago; during your several attempts to run for the presidency .This time around your trust should be granted and retailed cautiously and judiciously--don't believe the hype! .

Well over two years ago, (during the NPP honeymooning time )I penned an opinion piece in which I put forth some propositions(suggestions) to you ;Your Excellency!.

My piece was deemed by some to be mean-spirited, preposterous ,politically patronizing and downright wacky. I essentially said the following:

1."Your Excellency, right off the bat, beware of your own people and surround yourself with people who can always tell you what you don't want to hear but need to know. And, remember that those who are singing hallelujahs now are the same people who will cry for your crucifixion four years from now".

2."Mr.President ,I hear (and I'm sure you also heard)a lot of weeping and moaning during your campaigning season across the land about the state of the country. Their dissatisfaction has three main related causes: Firstly, the government does too many things they don't want it to do. Secondly, every time the government does something, it ends up costing them too much money. In other words the cost always out weights the benefits. In essence, the people who pay for the government are the same people whom government seems least interested in serving. Thirdly, their MPs(politicians) take them for granted after the election. You could say that the electorates are not mad at the government--just the people who run it. If you don't believe them take a trip to our seaports, hospitals, DVLA offices and other government's institutions, etc. These are positive and healthy expressions of honest, righteous grievances from the folk who were baked in the sun for hours just to vote for you and your party ".

3."People say we're wasting our votes if we don't vote for a perceived 'winner'. Actually I think we waste our votes if we support and vote for a politician and ask nothing in return(I don't mean a personal favor, as most Ghanaian electorates do in our neighborhoods).We can be supportive, yet very critical--to maintain objectivity necessary to make our candidates make good political decisions that affect all of us. In other words, in a free society like ours, anything that in a way affects the lives or the welfare of the public at large should never be precluded from continuing critical scrutiny, examination and criticism."

4."We don't want mother Teresa to rule Ghana. We all have our weakness so look deeply within yourself and see how you can turn your weakness into advantages which can benefit Ghana. Mr. President, don't be afraid to admit to Ghanaians when you screw -up badly( which you will do once in a while).Once you do that your fan club membership will soar into the stratosphere".

My logic was simple: Preponderance of what was about to happen in a future that would rouse public outrage. Because the social media is now buzzing with the "conspiracy theories" about everything of which the public doesn't have the full disclosure.

Well, not to boast or brag about being right, especially concerning two back- to- back issues (the new Chamber for our MPs and PDS debacles) ,that have galvanized the country on a manner that we have never witnessed before( not even the death of President Atta Mills or the supreme court decision on the election on August 29th 2013),which sort of prove my theory. But alas, both incidents within a month are not enough to cause the flagstaff house and Parliament or every concerned citizen of this great nation to act.

However, I guarantee you this: two more such mess will over -shadow the political capital NPP has accumulated over the years.

Paradoxically , every generation has its defining moments. The generation before us fought for our independent. What are our defining moments?

Sadly, our defining moments are to outspend our neighbors and 'Hummer' our worldly toys around town on our pot-hole -stricken and armed -robbery roads. Our defining moments are to design cockamamie schemes to rob the nation with impunity. Our defining moment is to "cook the books" so as to accumulate zillions of cedis before our party is out of power.

Indeed, the next generation would be proud of our " accomplishments'. We would be definitely remembered for our selfishness, greediness, shortsightedness, acquisitiveness ,meanness, egotism, sharpness and inability to prioritize our 'wants'(which have turned into our 'needs').

Unfortunately, our defining moment would be how we let the entire generation's future exploded into flame whilst we stood by with watering can.

In fact, some citizens are beginning to question and wonder as to what they had done to deserve the inhumane and ungodly treatment the Ghanaian politicians are dishing out to them; by making life in Ghana so unbearable for the majority of Ghanaians.

And the self-imposed economic exiles, who want to live and ultimately die in Ghana are wondering how long are they going to be globetrotters?

I'd like to take you back to 1903,what W.E.B Du Bois wrote in "THE Soul of black Folk": ".....all races advance by a surging forward of the exceptional man, and the lifting of his poorer and duller brethren to his vantage ground."

I submit that as a race or a nation have we paid enough attention to Du Bois' admonition? We could certainly take a lesson from some of the Asian countries.

The question is this: If our politicians and community leadership were successful and working for our interests, then why are the problems supposedly , they have dedicated their lives to solving still with us and indeed have worsened in many instances?

To my mind, it's a lack of involvement on the part of the leaders and policy- makers in the uplifting of our country that is holding us back, not deep-seated institutionalized power structure somewhere that has thwarted our efforts to develop fully.

This brings us to what happened in Rwanda on the 14th of August 2019.Iam saying this with a heavy heart because I'm emotionally drained as I write this piece.

Rwandan's President Paul Kagame met 3,000 young people of his country to plan for the next 25 years."The gathering was aimed to provide the opportunity for the president to engage the youth on the national aspirations for the next 25years"---hallelujah !!

The significance of this story is that we're talking about once a war -torn country which was ruined by tribal infamy and yet it has able to get up and be counted as one of the pillars of Africa; all because of great leadership skills and good policies. Let it rain on this side of the planet, Mr. President.

What went wrong on this side of the planet.? Mr. President, what went wrong in Ghana? Our youth wants to see the rain, so please engage them on the national aspirations and agenda.

With all that, I 'm advocating for you to let it Rain on your leadership. It may not make sense to you right now, but hear me out. While at times such suggestion may feel trite or meaningless, you have to make sure that your generation turns the lights off when it leaves the room because the youths' inflated (and perhaps unrealistic ) expectations can never be negotiated or contained when things fall apart.

Thank you once again for your attention and time.
Kwaku Adu-Gyamfi(voice of reason)
Someret,Nj, USA