Ever heard of a Nuclear Meltdown before? This is exactly what is going to happen in Ghana in the very near future. With a national debt running to ninety billion Ghana Cedis(GH¢90 billion) which constitutes 67% of GDP and still counting, there is nothing good to write home about as far as the economy is concerned. When a country is heading towards a meltdown mode and people seem not to know what to do and the leadership of the country continues to lie, the only solution is prayer. It is now abundantly clear that the fire is out of control and things are going from bad to worse. Absolutely nothing seems to be working right in this country as the citizenry painfully trudge on but not knowing where the next meal will come from.
For nearly four years, the energy crisis has graduated into energy messes. Workers are being laid off while businesses are folding up day after day. Even when torrential rains led to the flooding in Accra and elsewhere in this country, the River Volta, the source of hydroelectric power for the Akosombo Dam has refused to reach the level where all the six turbines can work effectively. Those who are worst affected are the manufacturing companies, industries, newspaper houses, cold stores, hospitals among a long list of businesses. In a desperate move to save the serious situation, the John Mahama-led administration created a Ministry of Power to be headed by Dr. Donkor who was the former Deputy Minister of Power and Energy. If the man had any clue, why could he not help his boss who was heading the then Ministry of Power and Energy? And as if to thump our noses, he told Ghanaians that if he was not able to solve the energy crisis he will resign by the end of the year which is barely five months away.
Inflation continues to hit the sky while prices of goods and services are beyond the reach of the poor worker whose take home pay cannot take him to the trotro station not to talk of getting three square meals a day. To worsen the situation, the see-saw trend of the pricing of petroleum products has left the worker confused as to how to budget for the month. Transport owners and their drivers are the worst hit because they will have to combine the increasing prices of fuel despite the downward trend of the price of crude oil worldwide, to the increasing prices of spare parts and lubricants.
When the dollar started running away from the cedi like Hussein Bolt, all what the government could do was to pump in twenty million dollars a week into the economy in order to stabilize the cedi, forgetting that it cannot be sustained for a long time. Managers of the economy do not think outside the box as they try to use propaganda to rule the country. When you tell them that the economy is not being ran well, they point to high-rise buildings and the springing up of fuel stations as an indication that the economy is doing well. They have not sat down to reason and come to the conclusion that since the cedi is not stable, people prefer to invest their monies into real estate business which always appreciates rather than putting them in the banks. Because of the high cost of farm inputs due to the continuous rise of inflation, farmers are hard hit. Prices of fertilizers, cutlasses, chemicals and other farm inputs are beyond the reach of the poor farmer and so production continues to fall.
Corruption is so endemic that people have even stopped mentioning it since the situation has ran out of control. Ministers, MMDCEs, Civil Servants and even the Presidency have become so corrupt that one wonders if another government comes to power, people will not go to jail. History must guard Mr. Mahama and his corrupt officials and they need to look back as historians do. When Kufour took over from Mr. Rawlings, top ranking members of the Rawlings regime found themselves in jail because of their corrupt practices when their government was in power. Names like, Ibrahim Adam, Victor Selorméy, Tsatsu Tsikata, Kwame Pepra, Sippa Yankey and many more found themselves wearing prison uniforms and languishing in jail at the Nsawam Prison. Instead of learning a lesson, President Mahama appointed some of these jailbirds to sensitive positions and only God knows what will happen to them again if another government comes to power because if even a tiger sheds its spotted skin it is still a tiger. The funny aspect of this story is that as hard as the Mills/Mahama administration tried, not a single NPP minister has been jailed for one offense or the other. And they have been in power for nearly seven years!
Today in Ghana, apart from the military, police, CEPS, Immigration, farmers and a few group of workers almost all sectors have gone on strike or demonstrated against the government. For the first time in the history of Ghana, prison officers demonstrated at Kumasi and old men and old ladies hit the streets to demonstrate against the government. In fact, for the first time in the history of Ghana, an Unemployed Graduates Association of Ghana has been formed. Habba! My cherished reader, do you understand the term “Konongo Kaya”? In the olden days we used to have men who immigrated from Niger and Mali who worked as porters or what is today called ‘kayayees’. Konongo in the Ashanti Region used to be a big market center and so these porters were in abundance in Konongo. When you asked a Konongo porter to help you with your load and his charge was too high for you and you decide to contract another one for help, you would be inviting trouble for yourself. The first porter who refused to accept what you intended to give him will not allow the new guy to carry the load even though he may decide to take what you intended to give to the first guy. If you did not allow the first one to carry the load per the amount he charged, you may trigger a fight between the two porters. That is why the people from Ashanti Region coined the phrase: “Konogo kaya, se won nsoa twe wo ho na obi nsoa” (Konogo porter, if you won’t carry the load step aside for someone to carry it) The Mahama administration is acting like the first Konogo Kaya. They cannot manage the economy but they still want to be in power even though people who can manage the economy are ready to do so. From all indications, the NDC is more keen in ruling the country than managing the economy well.
In the NDC Manifesto, they promised Ghanaians that when voted into power they will use ONE HUNDRED DAYS to clear all the refuse that had piled up in Accra and other cities. Barely seven years down the line cholera is killing people like the way Sasso insecticide kills mosquitoes. Indeed, barely seven years down the line Ghana has been ranked the seventh dirtiest country in the whole world. The promise of getting rid of filth in the country within ONE HUNDRED DAYS IN OFFICE has become as illusive as trying to find a needle underneath the Atlantic Ocean. No wonder the sages say it is easier said than done.
As for agriculture, I wish I will not go there but since a soldier marches on his belly, I cannot complete this epistle without going there.
The sector is gradually collapsing. Since the removal of the fertilizer subsidy which was introduced by the Kufour administration, farmers are battling on daily basis to stay afloat. Burkina Faso and Niger are desert countries and yet Ghanaian traders go there to buy tomatoes, onions and even cabbages to sell in Ghana. The reason is that governments there subsidize farm inputs and knowing the erratic rainfall pattern they have introduced irrigation systems to promote all-year round cultivation of these food items. When Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi was the Minister of Food and Agriculture and used to boast that the government had created a food buffer zone, I always laughed at him. Where food buffer zone means what?
Go to Niger and see their maize market. They have stored maize so much so that if there is famine in their country today they can easily release enough maize to feed their people. And you know what? Much of the maize came from Ghana. If you go to places like Nkoranza, Techiman, Atebubu, Wenchi, Kintampo and other areas in the Brong Ahafo Region, silos which could contain more than one million metric tons of maize which were constructed by previous governments were lying empty. Not a single grain could be found in those silos scattered around the region. And somebody sits in Accra talking of food buffer zones when he had not gone to those places mentioned to inspect the silos. As for the cocoa mass spraying programme which was introduced by the Kufour regime, I shudder to broach that subject.
Anytime I become angry like this I feel like puffing my favourite cigar but since I suspended the habit I will simply drink a cup of water and just be.
By Eric Bawah