Somebody Should Tell Freddie Blay And The NPP That The Patience of Ghanaians is Wearing Thin.
Freddie Blay, the National Chairman of the ruling NPP sure has some nerves; he is urging Ghanaians to give his party time to put things together economically, then bingo, jobs will be plentiful and everyone will be happy.
Well, Mr. Blay has another thing coming if he and his party think Ghanaians have the time and patience to wait after all the promises that were made by the NPP during the height of last year’s election campaign.
After six months in office, the NPP has realized to its chagrin that the economic transformation of Ghana takes more than sound bites and political rhetoric. It requires the formulation of sound economic policies; it requires being brutally honest with Ghanaians; it means telling them the hard, bittersweet truth about our anemic economy which has been in the doldrums for years.
Besides, it requires reminding Ghanaians that effecting the transformational economic and financial changes they so desperately want will not be an easy undertaking and that it will take years if not decades of hard work and dedication from everyone, not just the government, to truly make the economy sound once again.
But the NPP has been derelict in this regard. Eager to push its fierce political rival from power, the NPP sold Ghanaians a bill of goods—-put simply, the party deliberately and conscientiously pushed falsehoods about being better equipped than the NDC to fix the ailing economy.
To this end, it devised a political strategy of constantly hammering away at the alleged incompetence and corruption of the then ruling NDC, and offering itself to Ghanaians as the better alternative, the right political party with the right solutions to their protracted economic problems.
Ghanaians believed the hype and gave the party the keys to the Flagstaff House when they made it their preferred choice in last year’s elections.
But the economic miracles Ghanaians had hoped for, yes those the NPP shamelessly promised are yet to materialize. If they ever will come to pass at all is a whole different story. Harsh realities are beginning to stare Ghanaians straight in the face.
The economic problems they mistakenly thought they had left behind with their election of the NPP are pervasive; jobs are still scarce and hard to come by as unemployment continues to climb high; transportation is prohibitive and prices of common goods have skyrocketed. Put together, these constitute a drain on the meager financial resources of Ghanaians.
It is not a stretch to say that frustrations with the slow pace of economic progress are palpable and widespread thus the hurried and pathetic exhortation by the NPP to Ghanaians to bear with the party as it struggles to put the economy on the right footing.
The patience of Ghanaians, Mr. Blay needs to be reminded, is wearing thin. They want results, and they want them now. They have endured economic hardships for far too long. Ghanaians want to be uplifted from poverty altogether. And they thought they had put in power a party that claimed to have the answers to their problems.
Therefore, any explanations as to why things are still stagnant, why the economic miracles the NPP profusely and steadfastly sold on the campaign trail are yet to appear, will be unacceptable.