A Bone-Shaker On A Bumpy Road

�The bird may think it is the most cunning creature, but mere plantain fibre is used in trapping it��African proverb. I�m very angry, Abusuapanin. I seethed with anger as I lifted my pen to write to you. I�m so angry that I can easily break the jaw of a lion. But I would try to manage my anger because the tongue tends to lose control when one becomes angry. The source of my anger is not difficult to spot. If you live in this country and struggle to make ends meet like I do, then you would be annoyed with the current government for having officials who arrogantly rubbish the cries of the suffering masses. I liken the actions of the government communication team to a man who steps on your testis and still expects you to smile. Very nauseating, isn�t it? The �waton kyini� truck is not called bone-shaker for nothing. It is indeed a truck that shakes bones. Only a man who rides in a bone-shaker on a very bumpy road knows the ordeal he goes through. Such a man would feel insulted if someone told him it was a very comfortable ride. Why? The reason is very simple: A ride aboard a bone-shaker is anything but comfortable. It is not uncommon to hear government communicators say the populace have become agitated only because they are being incited by elements within the opposition Osono group. They are indirectly telling me and my compatriots that we are dummies who do not know what is good for us. How insulting! You see, we have a problem with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) not because some people tell us to blame ECG, but because we are not happy with their services. No one with brains tightly screwed to the skull would be happy with the �dumso-dumso� syndrome. Similarly, the populace is not happy with the managers of the economy because mismanagement, corruption and pure thievery have become the order of the day. I won�t bother you with many examples because the GYEEDA, SUBAH and SADA debacles are screaming examples. Time and again our ears have been inundated with the discordant �Better Ghana� tune. For my compatriots and I, better means an improvement in our standard of living. Better does not mean worsening our situation and making life a living hell for us. Perhaps those singing the �Better Ghana� tune have a different meaning for the word �better�. A new fund has been set up for young entrepreneurs with seed money of ten million cowries. They call it Youth Enterprise Support (YES) and are claiming that all are qualified to apply irrespective of political colour. They also tell us it is the best thing to have happened to the youth since 1992. But we know better. We all know this is just another avenue for the �greedy bastards� to milk this poor nation. We just cannot trust them because the tiger cannot change the spots on its skin. It is not their making; they just cannot change who they are. Have they accounted for the cowries wasted on LESDEP, GYEEDA, MASLOC and free laptop projects? Indeed, the tsetsefly�s head can never be rid of blood! Almost everything has gone haywire, yet they continue to tell us to be hopeful. It is good to be hopeful. But the situation on the ground tells me and my compatriots that any hope in this hopeless situation is a hopeless hope that cannot inspire any hope. There is no denying the fact that the country�s economy is like a bone-shaker on a very bumpy road. Dr. Mahmud Bawumia did say it some time back and he was taken to the cleaners. But recent events have vindicated him. His prediction that the dollar would expose the government�s propaganda economics has come to pass. But what do we see and hear? Pastor Mensah Otabil is currently being skinned alive by �babies with sharp teeth� for singing the same tune. They are calling for his head because he dared to call a spade by its real name. He is now a persona non-grata because he compared our wobbly economy to a sinking ship. The truth is indeed bitter! The revered pastor only spoke our thoughts. He is being called all sorts of names simply because he stated the obvious. Is it not true that the Cedi now runs faster than Usain Bolt? Is it not true that even statutory payments have been in arrears for close to a year? Is it not true that almost everything in this country is in shambles? I pray they listen to good counsel to avoid plunging our beloved country into the abyss. You see, those who want to pray for the Cedi can do so. Those who want to command it to challenge the dollar and its other trading partners can also do so. Those making propaganda are also free to play their game. But they should all remember that the Cedi has a mind of its own. All it cares about is prudent management, and not prayers and propaganda. To those who say we are complaining too much, my message to them is this simple proverb: �Until the troublesome Nsuta people get something to fill their bellies, the Mampong people can never sleep in peace.� See you next week for another konkonsa, Deo volente!