I was born in the Zongo, grew up in the slums and only managed to leave the poverty bracket courtesy of education, dint of hardwork and the grace of the Bearded Old Man above. Yes, I’m not wealthy but I will be showing ingratitude to my Maker if I classify myself as poor.
I will, however, always fight for the downtrodden because I continue to see and feel the hardship my kith and kin go through. Even the mere mention of the word ‘hardship’ always reminds me of my suffering days in Niikrom.
I was therefore excited when the country woke up last week to witness the actions of “#fixthecountry” movement. “My folks have finally woken up from their slumber,” I soliloquized.
But subsequent events have made me wonder if the conveners of the movement are as patriotic as they want the whole world to believe. Seeing folks from the Umbrella stock among the leadership makes one wonder if the intention is not to make the Nana Dee government look bad in the eyes of the masses.
The call for government to fix the country is not a bad one. Indeed, it is an imperative call. But I find the focus too broad and vague. What about the country do they want government to fix now? Not being specific makes the call very vague because we all know no government can fix everything at a goal.
The vagueness of the call notwithstanding, any objective observer will agree that the Nana Dee government has, since coming into office, tried its best to stem the tide of deplorable economic conditions. The efforts of the government to ease the suffering of the masses by providing free water and reducing electricity tariffs at the height of the Covid-19 menace are ample proofs.
It is no secret that acquiring a new passport or renewing an old one was a very Herculean task prior to Nana Dee’s ascension to the presidential throne. But the ingenuity of Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Foreign Affairs Minister, and the foresightedness of the Economic Management Team led by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia have colluded to make passport acquisition and renewal very easy. Yes, I can testify to it because I renewed my passport in only eight days in 2019.
The argument of the so-called ‘fix the country ‘ campaigners is that cost of living is high because the prices of goods and utilities keep on rising. They however, forget to compare such price increases with corresponding increases in incomes. So the best way to make a proper analysis is to look at the relative rates of change.
Let’s look at the relative changes in the prices of fuel, for instance. From 2009 – 2012 under President Mills, the average increase was 29%. The average increase was 24% between 2013 to 2016 under President Ogwanfunu. But the average increase was only 8% under Prez Nana Dee from 2017 to 2020. So, you see, only mischief-makers or those ignorant of the facts mentioned above will scream “too much hardship” or “fix the country now”.
Abusuapanin, no one can deny the fact that there is hardship in the system. Indeed, hardship has been with us since independence and it will continue to be here. But the question to ask is if the Elephant government is making efforts to ease the hardship. The obvious answer is YES.
As Dr. Bawumia intimated recently, the business of government is to fix things and the Nana Dee government wouldn’t shy away from that responsibility. A government that bears the cost of secondary education plus feeding is definitely fixing things.
We all live in this country and shop from the same markets. Any rise in cost of living affects us all with no regards to political colours and social status. The current state of affairs is not limited to any section of the people but all of us. So no one should let it appear as if nothing is being done about it.
The truth is that the Nana Dee government is already fixing the country. But we should remember the Biblical passage that says it is easier to destroy than to rebuild. Nonetheless, “fix the country” is a welcomed call because such agitations act as catalysts to development.
See you next week for another interesting konkonsa, Deo volente!