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Opinions of Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Columnist: Pobee-Mensah, Tony

Our Greed Is Setting Our Country Back.

Not too many years ago, Ghana, barely had middle income class. I remember back in my younger years having a refrigerator in your one room qualified you for middle class. If you had a telephone in your home, you were rich. In a very short time, so many people have become not only rich, but millionaires yet the country continues to have many places with no potable water.

One curious thing is that many of the richest people in the country have either worked at the highest levels of government, are top party officials, are related to people in the above groups, or are close friends of with people in the above group. There is daily mention of corruption all about us, yet no one seems to take it upon himself or herself to declare how he or she got so rich so quickly.

If you make 100,000 cedis a year, you have to work for ten years to make one million cedis; you have to work for 20 years to make 2 million cedis. This does not take into account the fact that you have to pay taxes and that you have to pay for your daily living. I don’t believe that Mr. Rawlings was making 100,000 cedis a year 20 years ago. Today, I believe he is among the millionaires in Ghana.

I do not know how Mr. Akufo-Addo became a millionaire (according to reports) working as a lawyer in Ghana and working for Ghana government. I know that if he has something spectacular that he can do for Ghana, he would have suggested it to President Kuffour when he was in his government. Otherwise if he had that spectacular and idea for the country and he loves the country like he claims he does, he would have presented the idea to Ghana in the two election campaigns that he ran such that Ghanaians would have crowned him with the presidency far above Mr. Atta-Mills or Mr. Mahama. Barring a spectacular idea, I can only assume that he wants to be president just because he thinks he should be and not because he has anything spectacular to offer Ghana.

At the time of our independence, Ghana was richer than South Korea. Today some wonder why we haven’t improved our lot like South Korea has done. The reason is easily found in the recent ferry incident in South Korea. The Prime Minister of South Korea, far removed from the operations of the ferry, has resigned over the incident. How many of our elected officials would see in their minds’ eyes that their jobs are even remotely related to the ferry operations if they had the job of the Prime Minister in South Korea and see that if even as a gesture to tell the grieving families that, “we at the higher levels of government have heard your cry.” How many people in government resigned when a brand new mall collapsed in Accra? Not even the Accra Mayor resigned.

We have politicians who don’t know when to say when yet we see no ideas that we can say will take the country from point A to point B. Nana Akufo-Addo is an example of our problem in Ghana. We cannot say that I gave it a good fight and it is time to let someone else try. Nana Akufo-Addo could never be like the South Korean Prime Minister because his mind could never see how as a Prime Minister, his responsibility is related in any way with the drowning of people on a ferry just as he cannot see why he should go away. I do not see what is so attractive in the presidency that all dignity has to be thrown out if it is not personal riches or bloated ego.

I must say before I end that President Mahama has himself not offered any ideas on how we get from point A to Point B. He is now offering welfare checks that I see as bribes for votes. So far he has said his is paying 70,000 people and looks forward to increasing it to 240,000 people and that will solve Ghana’s economic problems. When, oh when.