Opinions of Wednesday, 4 January 2023

Columnist: Robert Dambo

Ghana's economic woes: Akufo Addo is a failure

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

The morbid economic challenge confronting us as a nation is the inability of the President to take hard and biting political decisions to save the country from economic turmoil and to also save his party from a postponed crisis.

A vote of NO confidence is already passed and it is instructive for the president to listen to his party people albeit being deafened to the calls of the ordinary Ghanaian and other voices of dissent.

The majority group's press conference is an indication that the government has lost touch with its people and a clear indication of a power play that if not surmounted would have dire crippling political consequences.

The president's continuous praise-singing of appointees that are performing woefully equally indicts the council of state with regards to the kind of counsel the president receives if he is adhering to any.

Ken Ofori Atta is exhausted of ideas and calls for his sacking or reassignment are a good call to instill, confidence, hope, and breath of new ideas to drum home the demands of the people.

The skyrocketing prices of goods and services are an indication that, without the cosmetic approach of borrowing to meet our dollar demands, we have no thinking outside the box to assuage the challenges we face as a country.

The fundamental challenge we face as a country is a result of our inability to elect thinking leaders who would collapse the fixated status quo and engineer a new narrative of building relevant and reasonable industries based on the resource endowment of a particular community.

The President touts building over 170 industries but what has been the state of those industries and their contribution to the economy?

The President promised heavens on earth, Milk, and Honey but he Ghanaians are living in abject poverty, finding it difficult to afford a meal a day.

The president has over-borrowed to unsustainable debt servicing levels against the promises he made in opposition.

Ghana is in serious times requiring bringing to the deck people from different backgrounds, CSOs, political parties, Think-tanks, professionals and other different ideas to ameliorate the plight of the People.

I commend the majority group's boldness against the decision of the president to maintain Ken Ofori Atta in the face of gross incompetence, cluelessness, and misappropriation of funds.

Ghana needs bold and daring leaders to fix this country.