It is quite a sad spectacle these days to watch the President, Mr. Akuffo Addo and his subordinates look Ghanaians directly in the eye and claim with all the bravado they can muster that the national economy is doing extremely well, and that good times lie ahead.
While the president was singing his own praises in front of bemused Ghanaians at home, his special minister, Mr. Sarfo Maafo was across the Atlantic ocean in Washington D. C. in the United States, shooting his mouth off, telling expatriate Ghanaians that the economy is clinking on all cylinders and functioning for the benefit of all.
I wonder what the President and his busload of ministers, deputy ministers and special advisers think of Ghanaians. Like the professional politicians that they are, they are so detached from reality that they fail to see, recognize and appreciate the unbearable and excruciating economic and financial hardships ordinary Ghanaians go through every day.
Mr. Addo and his hencemen must be living on a parallel universe. Because when you walk down any street in a village, town or city in the country and talk to the average person, they will tell you in plain terms without any prodding that they are suffering mightily, that times are hard and unsustainable.
They will immediately count on their fingertips the number of financial problems besetting their families and conclude with the sad resignation that there is absolutely nothing they can do to rectify their miserly financial and economic circumstances.
Ghanaians sadly don’t know what to make of these claims, absurd and outrageous as they are: So, let’s look at some basic economic facts, facts that the president is deliberately ignoring/glossing over.
Inflation is very high, hovering around 16 percent according to some estimates, and particularly so in the northern and central regions;unemployment continues to climb as youth unemployment stands at a staggering 48 percent, and from the look of things, this picture will remain gloomily for the foreseeable future.
And, to make matters worse, prices of essential items, food, medicine and petrol are consistently out of the reach of many Ghanaians; so the question is: against this dismal background how can the president and his men and women proudly beat their chests about a vibrant and well oiled economy when the opposite is true?
Don’t look any further; all these claims are being trotted out by the President and his men and women with an eye towards the big prize, the 2020 elections. Political victory must be theirs at all cost, even it means throwing dust into the eyes of Ghanaians.
The strategy is to make Ghanaians feel good about an economic situation that isn’t really translating into prosperity for them and their children. But, if Mr. Addo and his men and women see Ghanaians as gullible, they sure have another thing coming.