The gloomy days prophets might have to reconsider their strategies – the budget statement they preempted having failed to come to pass.
It is a budget of hope, one which would stimulate growth and push us multiple notches on the development chart.
Coming at a time a major economic repair work is being undertaken to reverse the picture of hopelessness as etched by the NDC government shows the level of commitment and perseverance of the crop of Ghanaians at the helm today.
We are excited at the engineered effort at mitigating the pain Ghanaians have suffered as a result of skyrocketing cost of utilities notably electricity even when the service suffered its worst moments in living history.
With domestic consumers now going to enjoy a 13% reduced tariff coupled with a free SHS programme among other impetuses, the average Ghanaian will have enough disposal income to attend to other expenses they could not have thought of in previous times. That is what is meant by putting monies into the pockets of Ghanaians.
Physical distribution of monies to people in the constituencies is not only disrespectful but smacks of corruption in as much as it is intended to have beneficiaries change their voting patterns.
We have come a long way from the days of political primitiveness and so now able to determine when a government is being sincere and when it is not.
The NDC are not in any way exhibiting the qualities of sincerity and genteelness; two of the many of the hallmarks of political leadership, their shameless lying spree underpinning this description.
Even if we do not expect them to shower plaudits on the current managers of the country’s economy, they should not throw dust into the eyes of their compatriots as they are wont to do.
Even before the budget statement was read, the prospects they posted were anything but heartwarming, the objective being to incite the good people of this country against the party they voted massively for.
The day of reckoning has belied their many tales and they can only tuck their tales between their hind legs as mongrels would do when crestfallen.
What do we make of the reduction in the petroleum tax as a people? We do not need desperate politicians who swore not to restore nursing students’ allowances to come and lie about the effect of this reduction.
Yes, the Akufo-Addo government has prepared the grounds for a drastic reduction of the cost of petroleum products – something others could not achieve even when they used this as a ruse to come to power.
We have taken note of the bold steps taken to revive the private sector; moves which can only actualize government’s promise of providing the necessary impetuses for it to become a real engine of growth and to absorb the teeming unemployed youth in the country.
It takes a political leader with vision to tread this pedestal.
The Nation’s Builders Corps which intends employing some 100,000 when it finally takes off will go a long way in making a major impact in addressing the unemployment conundrum in the country.
We wonder if any budget statement has had such a far-reaching impact in contemporary times. Bereft of the usual propaganda and sophistication, it is too glaring for the ordinary man to require the intervention of economists to break it down for our consumption. The good times are here – let us relish them with the provision of the necessary support through active participation in the matters of our country. Sitting on the fence is not an option.
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