President John Dramani Mahama began the third year of his administration of this country yesterday with an appeal to Ghanaians to help make the governance of this country a success.
On January 7, 2012, when he was officially inaugurated, President Mahama asked all Ghanaians to rally behind him to achieve the best for the country. Speaking shortly after the elaborate investiture at the Independence Square in Accra, President Mahama said Ghana�s past was defined by heroics of men and women, pioneers, visionaries and patriots.
In the opinion of the Head of State, even though Ghana had made modest strides �there is a tremendous amount of work that still needs to be done. I will do my best. I will give off my best, and I will ensure that my actions make a positive difference in the life of Ghanaians. I�ll count on you. I promise I�ll not let you down. I believe that in Ghana, with God on our side, all things are possible.�
He made a number of pledges. �I will work to erase the impression that our society is polarised. I will work to ensure that Ghana is a place where our citizens will have all the opportunities available to them to reach their potentials.�
The new Head of State promised to be an ally of the engine of job creation -the private sector- in engineering growth for this country. �This is our country. This is our moment. This is Ghana�s time.�
Two years down the line, there is not much to celebrate, with the exception of a few fleeting moments like the provision of water for the Adenta and its outlying community in Accra. Just before the Christmas festivities, water began to flow in the pipes at Adenta, a suburb of Accra, which has been without running water for about two decades.
The government has showered so much praise on itself about the new interchange at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra, as if it represents a monumental improvement in the quality of life for the average Ghanaian.
The official government website stated yesterday that President Mahama would spend the afternoon of yesterday, the Second Anniversary of the inauguration of his Presidency, on the farm of a young cocoa farmer at Assin Senchem in the Central Region.
According to the official bulletin, the President would join the farm owner and his workers on the farm, and use the opportunity to encourage more young people to go into large scale farming.
The idea of the President at work on a cocoa farm is an excellent thought, except that the timing is all wrong. If the President had benefitted from good farming practices from Fifi Kwetey, his Minister of Agriculture, better known for putting the records straight when the National Democratic Congress was in opposition, the Head of State would have known that the peak of the Harmattan season cannot be an ideal time to work on a cocoa farm. The harvest is done. The time to prepare the land for the next planting season is not yet due.
In any case, how is the President going to reach the farm with his usual presidential motorcade of 20 or so of the most fashionable four wheel drives in the universe? The road from Assin Nyankumasi to Senchem is not anything to write home about.
If you ask farmers in the area what they would most crave for, I am sure most would prefer an improvement in the quality of the road, as against working with the President, in any capacity, on the farm in the Harmattan season.
President Mahama�s leadership is turning out to be one huge joke. I am sorry, but I am unable to identify the seriousness which should normally envelope the highest office in the land.
For me, the whole gamut of President Mahama�s governance style is epitomised in a statement I received on my cellular phone just as I was writing this piece yesterday.
�President Mahama,� according to the statement, has said that his comment that the erratic power supply (Dumso) in Ghana will be banished this year was a prayer request and not a promise.
How can a presidential promise to Ghanaians for the administration to do away with the nation�s crippling energy crisis be a New Year wish? To refresh the memories of our cherished readers, President John Dramani Mahama joined the congregation of the Perez Chapel, formerly Word Miracle Church International, led by Bishop Charles Agyin-Asare, for the Watch Night Service on Wednesday, December 31, 2014.
In a church founded on the concept of miracles, President John Dramani Mahama announced, without any prompting, that the crippling power crisis would be banished to touch this New Year. �Now, this is the interesting part,� the Head of State began. �It (2015) will be one in which we will banish darkness from our land, and put an end to Dumso forever.�
Read the presidential lips further: �The year 2015 will be one filled with fruitfulness, joy, peace, good health and development.� One could only imagine the joy that filled the hearts of the congregation. I was not at the Perez Chapel auditorium at Dzorwulu in Accra that night. I could only imagine the loud applause that greeted the presidential promise.
Long before the mid-night service, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, President Mahama�s newly-appointed Minister of Power, had sounded even more optimistic, pledging to end the power crisis within the first six months of the New Year.
How the firm pledge has become a mere wish, tells much about the fantasy underlining what should be a very serious business of administering a nation in crisis.
On Tuesday, President Mahama courted more controversy by telling Ghanaians that the reduction of fuel prices in this country by a paltry 10 percent, when the international price of crude oil has been reduced by more than 50 percent, was the most appropriate thing his administration could do.
Barely six months ago, in July 2014, crude oil was being offered on the international market for as high as $110 a barrel. At moment, the price per barrel is hovering just below $50. According to President Mahama, reducing the price by 10 out of 100 could be termed �drastically.�
On Tuesday, former Deputy Minister of Energy Mr. Kobina Tahir Hammond issued a statement in Accra asking the government not to continue to squeeze Ghanaians to paper the cracks of incompetence in this administration.
�Ghanaians have suffered enough, and cannot continue to be used as guinea pigs by an administration that has clearly lost its way,� said the Ranking Parliamentary Member on Energy in his statement calling for a drastic reduction in the prices of petroleum products in Ghana.
Throughout the course of the first two years in office, the government has claimed to be on course with its Better Ghana agenda. Quite recently, there has been roof-top publicity about government achievements on the road sector, the construction of the University of Health and Allied Sciences at Ho, and the 200 community schools to be completed before the end of Mahama�s first term in December 2016.
Snag is that the infamous Suhum-Apedwa stretch of the Accra-Kumasi Highway is still in limbo, and not one of the so-called 200 community schools is in session, half way into the President�s term.
As you read this piece, Ghana�s total debt stands at close to the GH�70 billion mark. When deceased President John Evans Atta Mills walked to the podium at the Independence Square in Accra on January 7, 2009, the total debt in the books, standing in the name of the Republic of Ghana, was GH�9.5 billion.
Mahama�s government said one academic has been battling with severe crises, which have brought untold hardships to Ghanaians. �This is a government that has suffered severe crises over the last two years. When we talk about governance, we are simply talking about demonstrations and protests, which are not necessarily politically motivated.�
Dr. Sekou Nkrumah, son of the first President of the Republic of Ghana, is more scathing in his criticism of this administration. �Aside the failure of the President, he has, unfortunately, surrounded himself with amateurs, who have virtually killed his political future.�
Ernest Owusu Bempah of the National Democratic Party sums up the President�s performance thus: �President Mahama can only be credited as a talkative and not an action-oriented leader.�
Speaking on Oman FM�s Boiling Point, Mr. Owusu-Bempah explained: �The wait is over, and it is becoming unbearable for Ghanaians to hear unfulfilled promises from President Mahama. The only significant development attributed to the Mahama regime is unprecedented corruption.�
As leader of this nation, the half term report on President Mahama is not encouraging. To be brutally frank, the President has flopped badly in his mid-term report.
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