If you have been a sailor before like yours sincerely, you will understand that along the way on the high seas, sometimes your ship encounters bad weather.
At such times, the ship struggles to stay afloat in the turbulent waters. You can hear the Captain shouting orders like a mad man as he steers the ship from the Captains Bridge as his binoculars is focused on the approaching storm. Down below the Engine Room, the Chief Engineer and his team work beyond human endurance to make sure all the engines run properly.
Such situations bring all hands on deck to salvage the stricken ship. Any sailor who ever sailed near the Bermuda Triangle will testify to this narration.
The ship of state also sometimes faces troubled waters, and the boat is rocked. In such circumstances it requires the tireless efforts of managers of the economy to work beyond exhaustion to bring the ship of state safely on course. This was exactly what Ghana found herself in last year.
Sadly, Ghana was not the only country in the world to experience this situation because Ghana is not an Island when it comes to world economic shocks. Every continent in the world, especially Africa had her fair share of the shock. In some jurisdictions, salaries of workers were reduced, workers were laid off and common bread became a luxurious commodity. We had fuel shortages in Nigeria, Africa’s largest producer of the ‘black gold’.
The almighty US Dollar took full control of other currencies, and times became hard. Many countries, including Ghana are gradually coming out of the wood.
Ghanaians should be grateful to God for small mercies. If we follow the utterances of political power seekers we may unknowingly incur the wrath of God, the All-knowing. This year, anytime we go down on our knees, we should pray to God to continue to steer the Ship of State since He is the Captain on board. If we follow the conspiracy theorists and their prayer for God to rock the boat so that they will capitalise on it to come to power again, we are doomed.
When the Cedi experienced a nose dive early last year, some nation wreckers sung Halleluiah because left to them alone, the country will be brought to her knees so that they will use that to campaign for political power. They don’t care a hoot about the welfare of the common man on the street. All what they need from the common man is his vote.
Just around that time, fuel prices started hitting the roof and the country was on the edge. It was an opportunity for evil-minded power seekers to make noise, and make things look like it was only Ghana that was experiencing the hike in fuel prices.
History repeated itself because when Kufuor was in power, a barrel of crude oil did hit so high that the nation nearly went on her knees. In fact, for the first time in the history of crude oil prices, a barrel of the Black Gold hit $147.
When Mr. Kufuor took over power from the Rawlings administration, Ghana was left with barely two weeks oil reserve. The Gentle Giant moved very fast to salvage the impending doom. He contacted then President Obasanjo of Nigeria, and in a matter of days, arrangement was made for a 91-day credit to lift oil from Nigeria.
Ghanaians who were anticipating oil shortages were surprised when oil flowed. Then the world price of crude oil started hitting the roof. Kufuor’s administration worked so hard, and Mr. Kufuor who used to kick against the high cost of petroleum products was the first to apologise to Ghanaians that he never knew the situation was that bad.
He said when he took over power, he realised that the prices of petroleum products in neighbouring Ivory Coast, Togo and Burkina Faso were far higher than those of Ghana. He appealed to Ghanaians to accept the increase of prices of fuel prices, and because of the honest way he approached the issue, Ghanaians agreed without a cough. That saved the situation. History will record the name of Kufuor as the most honest president who ever ruled Ghana.
In the case of the Nana Addo-led administration, as the Dollar kept running like Ussain Bolt against the Cedi, and prices of petroleum products started hitting the sky, the Economic Management Team, led by the economic whiz-kid, Dr. Bawumia went to work.
They came out with the Gold for Oil batter deal and today, much as the Dollar is stable, the prices of fuel too have been stable. Whereas Countries like Nigeria, the largest producer of crude oil in the sub region is experiencing fuel shortages occasionally, Ghana is riding high, and those who were making noise about the issues are now silent.
In fact, we are experiencing deafening silence on the issues of the Dollar and fuel prices. Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free, so says the Holy Bible. You dare not screw with fine brains like Dr. Bawumia and his able and confident team.
Mr. Mahama shamelessly continues to criticise the Free SHS programme even when results indicate that graduates of the free SHS programme are performing well in the tertiary institutions. He still miserably fails to understand the Double Track system which was introduced to make sure no child is left behind in the free SHS, and continues to teasingly call it Traffic Light system of education.
People say Mr. Mahama is a communication expect but they fail to appreciate the fact that modern political communication has changed the dynamics entirely because we are in an ICT era. The reason why Mr. Mahama and the NDC are seriously against the free SHS is that, they still have the funny idea that it is easy to mislead the illiterates than the literates in the society.
Rawlings used that communist tactics to mislead Ghanaians until Ghanaians later realised the truth, and his Junior Jesus accolade became Junior Judas. That is why the Akans say, “If the fool wises up, the game ends. (Sɛ ɔkwasia ani te a, na agro agu).”
And listen to Mr. Mahama, somebody who has ruled this country before: “The purported good results of the WASSCE graduates were as a result of teachers buying questions for their wards.” How absurd! The man has insulted our hardworking teachers but sadly he has been blinded by his lust for political power so he doesn’t know.
Did I hear Mr. Mahama say Ghanaians should give him a honeymoon period before they demonstrate against his government in case he is voted to power? Did he think before making that infantile statement?
Who gave Kufuor a honeymoon period when he inherited almost a collapsed economy which Rawlings left behind after nearly twenty years of stultifying military and quasi military regimes? Give us a break, ex-president do little. If Mr. Mahama doesn’t want to drink from a poisoned chalice this year, he should weigh his words before vomiting them because I am on a warpath, wearing my shining armour of confrontational discourse, brash, witty, rough and ready!!!.
By Eric Bawah