First episode of Better Ghana Agenda Two

When I cast my mind back to better Ghana agenda one spearheaded by president Atta Mills of blessed memory, the activities that predominate all other activities are; the distribution of free rlg mini laptops, MASTES scholarship, the Woyome saga, single spine salary structure, sporadic labour unrest, power rationing, distribution of free uniforms to selected pupils of some selected basic schools and judgment debts. I was very happy about the onset of better Ghana agenda one because MASTES scholarship was part of the events that ushered it in. But somewhere in the line I had mixed feelings about it. The opposition was very excited about some of these activities but silent on others. The success and benefits of these episodes however are left to the objective-minded Ghanaian to judge.

Following the saddened demise of president Mills, his second-in-command , John D. Mahama stepped in to serve the unexpired term of better Ghana agenda one. Not much was done in this diminutive tenure as he was charged with a very huge responsibility of retaining his party in power as the uncontested standard-bearer. He was neither chided nor reproached for not achieving much as the time available for him to operate was too close to the 2012 general election. In the run-up to the December, 2012 election, one thing that heralded John D. Mahama’s government and for that matter better Ghana agenda two was edey bee k3k3 which somehow appeared to me like a sign of better better Ghana agenda two approaching though I did not know the meaning of edey bee k3k3. The vim with which it was disseminated suggested so.

Contrary to the happiness that came with the ushering in of better Ghana agenda one, better Ghana agenda two slapped me in the face with restlessness by way of pervasive labour unrest, intermittent outages, acute water shortage, drastic increase in fuel prices(if you like in prices of everything except salary increment for ordinary Ghanaian workers) and worse of it all grave shortage of gas( for cooking) in my current capital town of Cape Coast, the hometown of the first deputy speaker of parliament and member of parliament for Cape Coast north constituency. I ranked the gas shortage as the worse of the adversities because of the very high cost of living in Cape Coast, the town in which my university, UCC (university of choice) is located.

It is needless to tell you how much I spend on average a day without cooking because of the unavailability of the gas but this has exposed me to so many kenkey and “guabey” sellers to such an extent that they now know me as a perpetual “patroniser” of their food. And you think I like this? In fact, they are milking us with their poor food. But what can we do? That is the first episode of better Ghana agenda two binding us all. Let’s pray that the next episode will be better.

This may be distasteful to diehard supporters of this government but the fact that these adversities exist at the moment is unquestionable. Though the other side of the coin may be shining, I am yet to glance it. Thanks for reading. Many more to come, watch out. Bye.

Nantomah Mustapha UCC. [email protected]