President Mahama, What About "Made In Ghana Christmas"?

President Mahama's call on Ghanaians to patronize Ghanaian made goods is patriotic and in the right direction as other countries like USA, Britain, Germany and others have embarked on similar missions to keep manufacturing plants in their respective countries surviving the onslaught of goods made in China. The President could have gone further by asking Ghanaians to patronize Ghanaian made goods and services. Yes, we need to curb our appetite for foreign goods and services but the President should be on the vanguard for such a crusade.

Did President Mahama intentionally omit services provided in Ghana? Is the President practicing what he preach? What about "made in Ghana Christmas"? Is he averse in spending his Christmas in Ghana since becoming President? Tourism is a big industry that a lot of countries like Kenya depends on and we in Ghana can do the same if we develop our tourist attractions in the North like Paga crocodile pond, the scenic and cultural sites in the Volta region, Kintampo waterfalls and other areas that can earn Ghana a lot of money but we cannot do this when our President keep spending Christmas outside the country. President Mahama in 2012 loaded his family into the taxpayers fueled plane and junketed to South Africa spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to prop up South Africa economy.

As if on cue, your Mr patronize Ghanaian goods President did the same during the 2013 Christmas by loading his family, nobody knows how many of his numerous children he took with him and bodyguards to United Arab Emirates and spent two weeks there propping up the UAE economy by dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars in not a couple of millions into that economy.

Couldn't the President and his family have spent their Christmas at Bole-Bamboi, his hometown and spend aabout ten (10) percent of what they spent in Dubai to help the struggling local inhabitants? He could have taken his children to visit all the interesting places around the three Northern regions instead of spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayers of Ghana dollars to help another country's economy. How can a President who call himself a Christian spend a Christian holiday in a moslem country, is it not a paradox?

First, let's deal with the INSENSITIVE issue. Do you think the Emir of UAE will take a vacation to Rome or Jerusalem during the Moslem holidays that come after their fasting and prayers festivities or do you think the King of Saudi Arabia will take a vacation in Jerusalem or Rome during the Hajj? This is an insult to Christians. Is Dubai the only city this President could have taken his vacation? Why should the father of the nation take a vacation outside the country during the christmas holidays? Couldn't he have taken his vacation to Bole and expose his children to harsh realities of life about how majority of Ghanaians live instead of taken them to Dubai like the rest of Ghanaians live like that.

Secondly, Dubai is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in or take vacation to when some of their hotel rooms cost as much as $6000 a room per night and a plate of dinner can cost as much as $495.00 a plate. How many rooms did Mahama and his entourage book for the twelve days he spent in UAE? If he and his entourage took ten rooms at an average cost of 2000 dollars per room per night, that is $240,000 just on hotel room alone without counting the food. This is really insensitive at a time some Ghanaians couldn't even afford a traditional chicken for christmas whilst the President and his family were living it up in Dubai, feasting on lambs and chickens ensconced in a cozy Dubai hotel. How much did President Mahama vacation in Dubai cost Ghanaian taxpayers or he is paying these expenses from his own pocket like the rest of us JOE BLOWS do when we go on vacation? This vacation I bet will cost Ghanaian taxpayers between $750,000 to one million dollars.

What is wrong with our leaders is that they are drunk with power they know what they should do to save our economy from total collapse but they don't want to make the harsh decisions that will reduce their stranglehold on the people because such decisions will reduce their powers significantly.

We need to reduce the size of government because no matter how much we patronize our home products and services, if we use 70% of all government revenues to pay government workers and need 40% of such revenues to service Ghc56 billion as interest on our national debt, we are already in a hole of 10% and there is nothing left for our infrastructure maintenance and development.

We need a leader willing to make the hard choices to get our economy on track not a President like Mahama who talks a storm and fails to rain.

Justice Sarpong

(CARDINAL of TRUTH)