A lot of things are happening on the country’s political landscape.
While some of these are not new, their repercussions have been felt before when they were first played out.
Some of these occurrences have left in their trails unpalatable tastes for Ghanaians because they were rolled out for selfish reasons.
Decisions are taken in response to certain developments, the outcomes of which actions serve as significant templates for future use. This holds for positive motives not otherwise.
We have observed that over the 68 years of our history as a nation, successive governments and juntas took actions which citizens were told sought to address specific challenges. Time however, showed that the originators of such actions merely groped in the dark, dangling what they told the citizenry were solutions.
In the end, these turned up to be window-dressing after sapping huge public resources.
It is for this reason that the efforts of the current government to ostensibly seek solutions to challenges would not be different from what the country has gone through before.
Until those at the helm acknowledge what was achieved by their predecessor government and build from the bricks laid already, the same game will be played out with nothing achieved.
Government being a continuum, the practice of re-inventing the wheel as it were, does not inure to the interest of the state.
Driven by a passion to present predecessors as villains won’t yield the desired positive outcomes, which is what the nation needs to progress.
In a world on the fast superhighway of complex technology, we cannot afford to remain on the lane of destructive bad-mouthing, political mischief, primitive ethnocentric sentiments and others.
Have we not as a nation been treated to the dose of the establishment of committees to dissect our myriad challenges and for those experts constituting the bodies to fashion out solutions?
How many times shall we talk about the need to export more and import less as a major means of addressing our foreign exchange deficit and strengthening our local currency?
What were the measures adopted by the previous government to address the economic challenges of the nation? Are we sweeping these under the carpet when the figures are available for reviewing?
Why were able to register a trade surplus of some GH¢44.7 billion in 2024 even with the repercussions of COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian war not completely off the table?
Shouldn’t we acknowledge the positive strides made and pick useful lessons from the template? No, we won’t because mischievous partisan factors won’t allow us to. Sad for a country which is expected to have matured close to seven decades of post-independence experience.
When those at the helm, in their early days of holding the throttles of the ship of state continue to lament in order to win sympathy for their inadequacies, we wonder what would be achieved during the four-year mandate.
With no prejudice to the recommendations of the economic forum, we dare state that little or nothing would be achieved when we stop the importation of such items as cereals, chewing gums, toothpicks and others which a dedicated ‘One District One Factory’ can achieve and therefore significantly reduce the import bills.
As for the forums, they are simply put, déjà vu, their recommendations joining others before them on the shelves at the seat of government.