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Opinions of Saturday, 28 October 2017

Columnist: Iddrisu Abdul Hakeem

What is the motivation for these fruitless, hasty decisions taken by the government?

Iddrisu Abdul Hakeem Iddrisu Abdul Hakeem

The last time I stormed this platform with my Open Letter to the President of the Republic many who could not put their mediocrity and gullibility aside and decided to just walk through my article without their sixth senses intact thought I was staging a verbal war to grammatically harass the president in order to cascade his efforts in making our homeland Ghana worth living for her citizens.

Some even marketed their intellectual myopia when they accused me of being not worthy enough as a student to alert the government of their brilliant attempt to poison the minds of the good people of this country with the obvious unsustainable projects that they hide behind to carry out the diabolical agenda of looting the state with impunity.

Others also thought it was a slap on the face of the president when I used the “concubine analogy” to challenge him with numerous brilliant questions regarding the government ability to maintain fiscal discipline they promised despite the wanton expenditure showcased in their attempt to fulfil the mouth-watering promises they made during the historic 2016 elections that won us the accolade of being the beacons of “Abraham Lincoln” with enviable democratic credentials in Africa.

I never accused the president of being corrupt personally (he’s been in wealth since his childhood) or having concubines as understood by few who read my previous article with political lens. I only asked him questions per what is trending among the rank and file of the citizens.

What is, however, crystal clear is the fact that, no man, unless with a dysfunctional genitals, can be in the position of the president as a son of a full Head of State during his salad days as a young man without having to select the best among the many women who, undoubtedly, used to queue for him. He could have had a stable libido as a young man but there was no where he could escape the inescapable reality of many ladies flirting around him to catch his attention as a son of a Head of State, both abroad and at home.

The point I want to make here before my mid-semester exam is that, the President, in my humble opinion, might have foreseen his death as a septuagenarian and want to chew more than he can swallow by embarking on the honouring of all his promises, so that, in an event he is unable to finish their implementation and happen to visit the silent ones, he would go with the accolade of being the best president under his belt for successfully marshalling the country in the right direction which many could not do for donkey’s years, though his inheritors may not be able to sustain them.

The president would never be forgotten in the memories of both living and unborn Ghanaians if he is able to sustain the massive projects he is embarking upon with his team.

However, if not something is after the president, aside his claim of being in “hurry”, many Ghanaians don’t see why he should be gambling with the destiny of our dear nation by attempting to kick, head, and chest different balls at the same time!

The Titanic struggle of the government to implement all their policies within one year of the four years mandate Ghanaians gave them is something fishy that no concerned Ghanaian requires a dwarf from Pluto to point out to him or her.

When I read in the media that the president, immediately after restoring the nurses and teacher trainees’ allowances, cut the sod for the famous one-village-one-dam project I vividly recalled the twit of John Benjamin, former Britain’s High Commissioner, when after experiencing harmattan in Ghana thought someone had commissioned it which party foot soldiers of the then ruling party thought his comment was a mockery of the restless commissioning of uncompleted projects by former president Mahama.

The hasty struggle to lift Ghanaians from the pit of poverty and underdevelopment by His Excellency, President Nana Ado made me think far. The widely appreciated dictum that “to whom much is given, much is expected” could be at play in this scenario because many think the tax payer’s meagre resources must not be used to feed fat government in vain.

They must work for the tax payers.

But aren’t the government under an optical illusion in their attempt to develop the country overnight? What is the motivation for this deception?

Truth be told, the activities of the government is not only heartrending but mindboggling and I want right – thinking readers, not those who normally comment in the direction of their stomachs and conveniently refuse to consult their mental faculties, to consider this “commonsensical” analogy: assuming you have been tasked to convey furniture out of a room within four hours, would it be uncommon intelligence exhibited on your part to put your locker, television, sofas, kitchen utensils, etc. on your bed in order to push them out at once?

Even if you are able to push the bed with all these other items on top, would you find your way out of the room without the door thwarting your effort?

Is that not exactly what this government is doing?

I am a scholar and I want the rapid development of Africa not Ghana alone. But for someone to attempt to develop it in a quite suspicious way that would end up creating the false and stinking impression of doing something profound is what I am against.

We wish the President well though in his big dreams even if it is deception. A good and forward looking leader dares!
But the president should convince us of the feasibility of these hastily “massive developmental revolution” he is bringing to us because politicians and diapers as one scholar said, have one thing in common: they must all be checked and changed at all the time and for the same reason. It could be a delusion to galvanize the brains of gullible Ghanaians in 2020. Because his communicators shall not miss the opportunity to enumerate all these projects whether they are successful or not, and “any idiot can borrow to come and build and brag”, as Manasseh Azure wrote, likewise “any peasant farmer can cut the sod for gazillions of unsustainable projects promised in campaign manifesto” without the slightest clue on how to bring them to fruition! (I won’t use “any idiot”).

The biggest question still begging for an answer is “what is the motivation for this seemingly fruitless hasty decisions taken by the government?”

Won’t the government be earning more enemies than sympathizers with these political gimmick of implementing plenty projects at the same time, if Ghanaians don’t see any manifestation of the government’s efforts in the end as a result of their inability to sustain them?

How many government workers are in arrears starring the government in the face to pay them what is their due? Why would the president force down his own throat what is optional?

Mr. President, Ghanaians trusted you in the first place and gave you the mandate to be the custodian of their affairs and Ghanaians with Ghana at heart, would not have accused you of peddling campaign falsehood if you decided to undertake some of these projects in your second year after mobilizing the requisite resources. By undertaking almost all the projects you promised in the first year of your term calls to attention the shenanigan analysis you made about the state of our economy which you claimed was on its knees!

It is therefore clear that something “callous” is behind your track load of confidence and undiminished enthusiasm to get your campaign messages all implemented within one year and I don’t need PhD as an observing student to call your attention to this, Mr. President.

Mr. President what you are doing is “over competence and confidence”, and everything too much as you know, is dangerous. Because you told us, through your able Vice President in his multiple economic lectures as a running mate then, about the dangers associated with the “reckless (too much) borrowing” of your predecessor!

Mr. President, I am one of the many youth of this country waiting for our turn as next leaders and we would not sit aloof and watch you gamble with our destiny!


By: Iddrisu Abdul Hakeem

MCF Scholar, KNUST.