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It is a widespread and firmly established view across the globe that good leaders often shine in times of national calamity or adversity, or to put it in a different way, crisis brings the best out of national leaders. Hidden ingenuity or panache in solving challenging and intractable problems often becomes apparent as the leader steps up his efforts and outlines bold measures in resolving the crisis.

It is therefore not out of place for anyone to say that President Mahama in last week’s State of the Nation Address sounded like a leader with all the arsenals and the endowment necessary to resolving the nation’s seeming never-ending problems of energy.

With the CAN DO spirit akin to any of the greatest world leaders such as our own Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, President Mandela of South Africa and even the current American President Barrack Obama, John Mahama, in his state of the nation address last week stated what the situation on the ground is, what is being done immediately to ameliorate or resolve them and what measures are being put in place to ensure the nation does not go through such challenges again in future.

There is no doubt that currently the nation is immersed in two serious problems: ENERGY and the ECONOMY. The President has made open admissions in the state of the nation address on these issues and gave details with specificity on what his government is doing to resolve these intractable problems.

Across other jurisdictions in the world, especially in the US, the President traditionally uses the State of the Union Address to outline his administration's accomplishments over the previous year, as well as the agenda for the coming year, often in upbeat and optimistic terms.

As part of checks and balances in a democracy, our state of the nation address, just as the US state of the union address, is a communication between the President on one hand and Parliament/ Congress and the citizens on the other, in which the chief executive of the nation reports on the current conditions of the country and provides policy guidelines or direction for the upcoming fiscal or legislative year.

Just as the US Constitution, the Ghanaian Constitution, under article 67 states that “the President shall, at the beginning of each session of Parliament and before dissolution of Parliament, deliver to Parliament a message on the state of the nation.”

Energy

As the President himself said in the state of the nation address, the country and its people are agonized by an energy crisis that clearly supersedes various regimes since the 1990s and also defies various remedies. The solutions proffered in the past to the perennial problem, no matter how good intentioned, were proved inadequate and not far-reaching. To put it bluntly, they are short-sighted.

Adopting another minimalist approach towards confronting the problems of energy at this critical juncture of the nation’s economic development, in my views will, amounts to short-changing members of the next generation. This is because the problem will recur when the national economy expands and the population also increases. Therefore the President was emphatic in outlining the measures that he intends using to solve the problem once and for all and save the next generation from the agony that we are currently in. The President’s calculus is that 1000MW for the short term and 3800MW for the medium to long term will suffice to meet this objective.

Similar scenario of CAN DO SPIRIT can be gleaned in the United States after the September 11 attack in 2001.

President Gorge W. Bush of the US, despite his later inexcusable behavior of war-mongering and military adventurism, was able to use the state of the union address in 2002 to galvanize the people of his country towards fighting America’s perceived enemies in the so-called war against international terrorism.

While I do not intend going into the merits or demerits of President Bush’s wanton behavior of bellicosity against sovereign nations, his ‘axis of evil’ speech in 2002 gingered patriotic and nationalist fervor towards the necessity in taking the war to the enemy in its own backyard. Hence, his so-called doctrine of pre-emptive military attacks against perceived hostile states or non-state actors got overwhelming bipartisan support among both American elites and the ordinary citizens.

One of the hallmarks of good presentation or address to citizens in times of crisis is the theme of hope and optimism. President Barrack Obama used his first state of the union address in 2009 to give hope to the American people and businesses following the worst financial crisis in America since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The hope and optimism laced in that address and in subsequent ones helped brought America out of the morass of the then financial crisis. It was yet again another clear case of a visionary Democratic President clearing the remnants of the ashes of the Bushes after President Clinton had done the same in the aftermath of the disgraceful administration of Bush senior.

President Mahama’s state of the nation address of 2015 has clearly followed the footprints of these great world leaders.

“Mr. Speaker, as I present this State of the Nation Address, our nation is confronted with one of such hill; the challenge of providing adequate electricity to power industry, business and for residential consumption. The effects and frustrations posed by the power deficit are clearly felt in our work places, our homes, schools and hospitals. The storage of food, academic activity, and artisans such as barbers, hairdressers, welders, and health care providers are all feeling the pinch of the power shortage.

“Big businesses and industries are also suffering and threatening to lay off workers. As leader of this nation by the grace of God, I more than anyone else understand the adverse impact of this energy shortfall on the growth of our economy.

“We have been here before. In 1983, 1998 and 2006/7 we suffered a similar occurrence. In the past what we have done has been to manage the situation.
I do not intend to manage the situation as has been done in the past. I intend to fix it! I owe it to the Ghanaian people. I, John DramaniMahama, will fix this energy challenge.”

The above statement from the President portrays him as a leader who understands what his people are going through on daily basis as a result of the biting energy crisis and shows his determination to resolve the problem once and for all.

The President gave attention to the past, the present and the future in his solution to the problem. This is the President who understands all what is around him! This is the President who understands the feelings of his citizens and empathizes with them! This is the President who is not living in denial that all is right when indeed his people are in agony! However, he has assured them in the state of the nation address that the light will definitely be at the end of the tunnel.

The Economy

Apart from energy, the next most pressing challenge facing the Mahama administration is that of the economy. While significant gains were made in the past six months towards stabilizing the local currency, the President in the state of the nation address had signal that he is not relenting in his efforts until he has totally transformed the structure of the national economy. The President was emphatic on the medicine he had earlier applied to stop the bleeding of the economy which was apparent in the middle of last year as a result of the fast-depreciating currency. His intention is not to stop there but to work harder to ensure a sustained macro-economic stability and growth trajectory to propel the economy into the highest rank of middle income status.

His decision to sign on a 3-year IMF-supported macro-economic stabilization program at this critical political juncture is an act of courage because of the constraints the program would have on public spending.

Since 1992, we are all aware of the pressures on public spending that comes along with elections and given that an IMF program is antithetical towards this kind of behavior, the President has taken the bull by the horn in going for a program that would give him very little room for fiscal maneuverability in the election year. It portrays the President as somebody who would act in the national interest, regardless of the political consequences.

I will only urge the President to soldier on with his economic policies and the program with the Fund regardless of the election pressures that would definitely build up getting to the 2016 election.

However, in dealing with the Fund, the President should be mindful of some of the pitfalls on his way. For this IMF-supported program to succeed, he must maintain his eagle eyes on the need to RELIGIOUSLY adhere to the timely implementation of the macro-economic policies the nation commits itself to. Again, one important area that the President must not overlook is the POLITICS of the Bretton Woods institutions. While both the World Bank and the IMF are financial or monetary institutions, a lot of their actions are driven by POLITICS and DIPLOMACY and that is what the President must put at the back of his mind always so that the intended objectives of the program would be achieved.

For those who claimed they have weaned the country out of the IMF in 2006 when they opted out of a similar program, my question to them is if major and advanced European counties such as Greece could not wean themselves out of IMF, how can Ghana under President Kufuor, a low income agrarian economy and depending on primary commodities could claim to have weaned itself of IMF?

This economy has come a long way from 2009. The nation has witnessed the highest economic growth in the last six years than ever before: 4 per cent in 2009, 8 per cent in 2010, 15 per cent in 2011, 8.8 per cent in 2012, 7.6 per cent in 2013 and 6.9 per cent provisional in 2014. It must be noted that non-oil growth in 2011 was 9.4 per cent higher than the much-trumpeted growth of 8.4 per cent in 2008 under the Kufuor-led NPP administration.

If one observes the above figures cumulatively, it becomes obvious that no government has ever reached this level of sustained economic growth in the past. Similar growth trajectory pushed China to where it is today.

Bipartisanship

The visible defect of multi-party democracy as a form of government in Africa is the unhealthy ethnic and political tension it creates in many countries. Thus, bipartisanship and consensus on major national interest is often difficult to build in many African democracies. Ghana is not an exception. It is therefore gratifying to note that this year’s state of the nation address tried to chart a new course towards building bipartisanship on critical national issues. The President’s language and tone was appealing to the sensitivities of all Ghanaians regardless of political, ethnic, regional or any other sectarian affiliations. This arousing of the patriotic instincts of Ghanaians by the President was commendable and exemplary.

The Minority

The minority in Parliament, mainly made up of members of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and led by Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu have also won my plaudit for ensuring a ‘heckle-free’ atmosphere when the President was in the saddle delivering the state of the nation address. Just as in advanced democracy of the US, the President is shown respect and even in some instances applauded and given standing ovation by members of Congress while he presents the state of the union address.

What the American Congressmen understand is to delineate the person of the President from the institution of the Presidency. By all account, the Presidency is the most important symbol of American power, so any show of disrespect to the American presidency, especially when delivering the most important address to the nation through the Congress is not countenanced.

It must be emphasized that apart from emergency situation, the state of the nation address is the most important address the President of Ghana delivers to Parliament every year. Apart from the President and his vice, who represent the executive, the heads of other arms of government including the Speaker, representing the Legislature and the Chief Justice, representing the Judiciary, are also present in the august House and under one roof. So, ensuring decorous atmosphere devoid of heckling is a show of respect to the nation’s major institutions of power and not the personality of the President who delivered the address.
I strongly wish that this healthy democratic tradition of ensuring serenity in the House any time the President is delivering the state of the nation address would not only be maintained but would be built-upon, regardless of who is the President. And I also want to reiterate that despite my obvious disagreement with the politics of the NPP, the Minority in Parliament deserves a pat on the back on this issue.