Prez Mahama’s SONA 2016 - My sole disappointment

Opoku Gakpo writes: Prez Mahama’s SONA 2016 - My Sole Disappointment

The biggest challenge facing our country today, I believe, is what the Brits would describe as a “Cost of Living Crisis.” A never ending rise in the price of basic commodities and skyrocketing cost of indispensable amenities, resulting in the continuous fall in the living standards of the ordinary Ghanaian. A crisis, an end in sight to which appears to be non-existent.

Even in an election year when economic times are usually less tough.
With electricity prices up by more than 50 percent over the last three months, water prices same, fuel prices up by almost 30 percent, transportation prices up by about half of that, food prices soaring and more taxes on businesses and individuals, while wages are at a standstill; at a time when the cedi is on a record depreciating spree and businesses are collapsing, there is no debate about this simple reality that times are really hard.

President John Mahama can tell us that he is changing lives, and transforming Ghana, and laying the foundations for an economic take off, and that things will get better in his next term of office. But he cannot tell you that your lives are better off today than when he took office about four years ago.

And these are genuine stories of the everyday Ghanaian. Families cutting down on the consumption of three square meals a day, civil servants moving out of their self contain houses to live in compound houses, workers parking their private cars to become users of an unreliable commercial transportation system, fathers transferring their children from the schools they’ve grown up in to less endowed institutions; all as part of a survival strategy that is even not working.

And I get the sense this period has been one of the toughest in the 59 year life span of our country; even more difficult than in year 2000 when President John Kufuor doubled the prices of fuel soon after he took over power.

So when President Mahama mounted the podium in parliament the other day to deliver the State of the Nation Address (SONA), I was expectant that he would use the occasion to address these issues head on. I was looking forward to hearing my leader tell us what he knows about the cost of living crisis in the country today, and what he is doing, or plans to do to fix it. That’s what leaders do, they don’t dodge the tough issues, they lead.

But the president appeared out of touch with the everyday Ghanaian. And in a long, wounding speech that obviously was inspired by a desperate attempt to hold onto power, the president rather chose to spend virtually all the close to four hours he spent in the house on an infrastructural roll call tangent. It’s okay for the president to blow his own horn once the opportunity avails itself, but you know there is something wrong with the kind of work he has done as president if he always has to remind you of what he has done because you cannot feel it. If you want to talk about the real state of the nation today, it’s more about the cost of living crisis we are battling with, and honestly, less about the questions the president decided to set for himself and provided answers to on Thursday. That was my main disappointment with the SONA.

By the time an administration circles the sun four times (or eight years) as is the case of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, a lot of money would have gone through its hands in taxes, loans and grants. So when you build hospitals, schools, water infrastructure and expand electricity which we cannot even pay for, and tout all those as achievements we should carry you shoulder high for, then ‘did we go or did we come?’

And it’s not only about the president, but the entire government machinery. No one is offering us any real plans on how to fix this cost of living crisis. As if it’s not a problem at all. They keep telling us the future is bright when current conditions keep deteriorating and they appear to have run out of ideas on how to reverse the trend.

So when they tell us the medium and long term prospects are bright, I get the sense they are either consciously deceiving us, or they are not referring to us, the ordinary Ghanaians. They are probably talking about themselves and their cronies. Ordinarily, that should not be a problem. Because after all, their friends and cronies are Ghanaians too. But you know what problem here is? A deal by government that cuts out the masses and provides relief and comfort for only a few handpicked folks is a really bad deal.

With a cost of living crisis, and no plan on how to deal with it, those who call the path on which this country’s economy is trekking currently ‘progress,’ are defining the word upside down. There is nothing real about the successes they claim. Because the real test of our progress as a nation is not whether we are fattening the country’s foreign reserve or roping in more debt for future generations to pay. Real progress is when we are helping those hard working men and women with little money make ends meet, educate their children properly, feed their families three times a day, live a comfortable, dignified life, and save a little more for their pension.
I’ve never had very high expectations of any political leader. So, I’m never disappointed when things slip out of hand. But I’m always glad when the time for accountability is drawing near. It makes those in power sit up. And it creates room for the generation of ideas on how to deal with our country’s biggest problems. For me, the cost of living crisis we face today is the biggest issue the 2016 campaign should focus on. And that’s what will define where my vote will go. Many more people wouldn’t have to slip below the poverty line before we introduce fresh social intervention policies to lift them out.

May God bless our homeland Ghana.

By Joseph Opoku Gakpo/www.josephopokugakpo.wordpress.com