Three days ago, the curtains were drawn over a spent year. As we take our first steps into a new year following that annual development, we must of course review how things went in the previous year so that we can take appropriate decisions which will inure to our individual and national benefits.
A lot of things occurred in 2018 in all facets of our national life. While some of these have been marred by our penchant for diabolical political machinations, others , for us the most outstanding, have been characterized by the many inroads being chalked up by the government.
Even though we would rather the negatives are confined to the backburners, there is no harm in summarizing the features of these just so we are primed with what have taken place this far.
Opposition politics has not been blessed with the constructiveness which underlines it because those engaged in the enterprise were consumed by hatred for whatever government is doing. Not even the free SHS was spared the bad tongues of opposition politicians. It remained on their line of fire even as they continued their project of distracting government from its core mandate with concocted tales.
In the twilight of the past year, the vile propaganda gathered momentum with many appointees suffering unsubstantiated allegations.
In his end-of-year engagement with the media, the President rightly wrote the allegations off describing them as distractions intended, as it were, to have government concentrate on responding to these and leaving important assignments. With time waiting for no man, the repercussions of concentrating on such allegations are glaring: failure.
During his end-of-year engagement with the media, the President shrugged off this political project as one intended to distract but which, as he put it, would not be entertained.
Perhaps had he set up commissions of enquiry for every nonsensical allegation the government machinery would have been bogged with these as the real execution of government business is left to meander in choppy waters, rudderless.
Opposition politics has from the foregone been characterized by an assortment of efforts aimed at inciting the Ghanaian public against government for electoral leverage.
By the end of the year 2018, these have not yielded the desired dividend for the opposition, thereby reducing them to a gang of political ruthless persons full of bile and mischief.
The tangible developments such as the resuscitating of the railway system and the free SHS and a relatively stable currency among many others all within two years of the government since assuming power are sufficient to push a frustrated opposition who could not deliver when it was their turn to regard all the apples on the tree as sour.
With ex-President John Mahama continuously presenting his scorecard as the best in contemporary governance for which he thinks he deserves another shot at the helm and more to come from him this year, interesting times are guaranteed.
In the banking sector, the regulator did the unprecedented by the consolidation of the subtly distressed banks.
It has been a year full of twists and turns. With just a few steps into 2019, it is our prayer that appointees would do their best so that encouraging dividends would be noticed.
As for the distractions, the President should ignore them with the contempt that they deserve. To our readers and our compatriots at large, we say many happy returns.