On the campaign trail, the President, Mr. Akuffo Addo, made a boatload of promises to voters and now that he is safely ensconced in the presidency, they sure are going to hold his feet to those promises.
Traversing the nooks and crannies of the country, Mr. Akuffo Addo, told voters he could provide answers to their financial and economic problems. They believed him, and handed him the keys to the Flagstaff House.
With accusations of plagiarism well behind him, Mr. Addo is off to an auspicious start as the nation’s chief executive. He has filled ministerial positions and created new ministries all in an effort, he says, to jump-start the economy and get Ghanaians working again.
Job creation is topmost on his agenda I would presume, but how fast he grows the economy to enable it produce jobs to absorb the thousands of young Ghanaians anxiously waiting for opportunities, remains to be seen.
Mr. Addo has been quick to remind Ghanaians that he inherited a contorted economy, an economy with many holes in it, he says. Well, while that may ring true, the fact still remains that he chose to run for the highest office in the land, and fixing the “broken” economy is now his sole responsibility. If he fails in this department, fails to produce results, Ghanaians may not be so forgiving in four years when they go back to the polls.
There is a general consensus in the country that the economy is troubled. And we all agree that something “drastic” ought to be done to put it in a stronger position. But that “drastic” measure does not entail the creation of additional ministries which will only add to the layers of bureaucracy already in place and duplicate functions already being performed by some ministries.
The president may mean well with the creation of six new ministries, but it is misguided policy. Misguided because at this critical stage the economy needs a huge jolt to pull it out of the doldrums. More ministries will just complicate matters. Truth be told, the nation does not need to add more workers to its already bloated public pay roll, which ultimately will be a heavy drain on our overstretched national budget.
I had hoped that on assumption of office, the president will demonstrate frugality when it spending. It may be recalled that during the campaign for the presidency, Mr. Addo was very critical of the former NDC administration for being profligate with the nation’s finances.
He, in fact, talked about installing a lean government. But it appears Mr. Addo is prepared to go on a spending spree to right the economy and appease some of his constituents, which brings me to the mind-boggling idea of creating four more regions, a huge undertaking that will cost the nation lots of money it does not have.
Let’s be clear-eyed here: the government is bowing to pressure from certain tribal groups that feel marginalized and therefore want a region of their own without considering the impact such a venture will exert on the nation’s finances and tribal cohesion.
In the face of an avalanche of criticism of his ministerial appointments which at last count was a staggering 36 minus the deputies and his intention to create additional regions, the president justified his actions on the grounds he is doing it for the public good.
“It is restructuring the governance system to ensure efficiency in the public sector and to bring governance to the doorstep of the people,” he said.
The president is just being your typical politician; politicians will say anything to justify their outrageous actions. Our struggling economy has to start clicking on all cylinders to give meaning to the president’s huge expenditure. Or else, Mr. Addo will have a lot of questions to answer.