Where are the solutions to our problems?

Being interested in how a country is governed should come naturally to any patriotic citizen. A good citizen must show interest in how his country is run and by extension all the conversations that lead to the selection of the people to whom the running of the country is entrusted. The motivation for this piece is driven by my hunger for good quality discourse in the period leading to the elections on December 7, 2024.

Ghanaians have become so polarised on almost every matter other than football and it appears every conversation finds its way into having an NPP side or an NDC side. The absence of a clear national development plan universally accepted by the political parties, and binding on elected leaders has led to a rather uncoordinated, checkered, paleoconservative development for the country.

While citizens desire so much, we increasingly become frustrated by the delivery that we get from the two political parties that have dominated the governance of the country since the return to democratic rule in 1992.

A clear case in point is when the larger majority even desired amendments to the constitution to allow for more transfer of power to the local people through the elections of MMDCEs but the two political parties conspired to frustrate this process and made it impossible to happen even after holding the required referendum because the two parties differed on whether such elections should be along partisan lines or not.

Back to the elections of 2024, Ghanaians are confronted with two very familiar candidates, both of whom make the choice very difficult not because they are presented by the same holders of the duopoly that have governed the country since 1992 but by the very detail of what they are promising the electorate. We are yet to see any proper manifesto from any of the parties and one wonders why they would want to even produce such an important document a month to the elections.

Looking at the problems confronting the country right now, manifestos of the political parties should have been out now, four clear months ahead so that citizens, journalists, think tanks and the academia can interrogate policy proposals being made to solve our problems but what do we see and hear -insults and slogans that only excite the party supporters. In some circles, verbose statements and grammatically correct statements are applauded and in other circles, vitriolic, acerbic, war-mongering rhetoric is applauded. The question I am asking is “Where are the solutions to our problems?”

Many people have different expectations of whichever candidate wins the December elections but some critical issues cannot escape the list of desires on the mind of the average concerned Ghanaian. Unemployment is very high in Ghana. This has prompted the exodus of many well-meaning and qualified professionals to leave the country and there are still many qualified people sitting home without jobs several years after school.

There are a significant number of youth who are jobless without requisite skills for the job market but who still need to have some jobs so they do not become delinquent and fertile grounds for crime. Blame the educational system for producing these graduates or the very high cost of credit that even prevents those who want to venture into entrepreneurship. So far none of the two parties has suggested what they would do about this pressing problem.

Another diaphanous dilemma is the debt-stricken, stunted growth, the fiscally antithetical economy we have. Our debt levels are high and the World Bank has forecast that the country will have to depend on treasury bills in the medium term for financing. This is not sustainable because the government will continue to crowd out funds for the private sector and with a government that became a barber a few years ago, investors are still being careful with the Ghanaian economy. How do we get a fiscally responsible economy, run a balanced or surplus budget and reduce the size of the ever-increasing public expenditure to rein in the size of the debt and gradually return the country to a path of self-sustainability is missing from the plenty of English being spoken by the politicians. This is a very crucial subject that will confront any of the candidates as early as Q1 of 2025.

I have listed just two of the many undebatable problems we have but there are many ranging from national security, corruption, misaligned education reforms etc. In the past, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has organised political debates for the political parties to articulate their promises. While I concede the IEA platform has not been the best ( ayaricough disruptions), it is still better than nothing.

I know most Ghanaians now may not be interested in rhetoric and debates because the current administration has shown that promises made on campaign platforms can be abandoned after elections. Despite all these imperfections, I would rather we had plenty of well-thought-through campaign promises addressing the myriads of problems facing us than the current set of populist statements that do not address the core of the solutions we should be discussing.

To you, my fellow Ghanaian, foot soldier, party apparatchik, and journalist let us put a lot of our energy into sanitising the airwaves as we head into the elections. We do not need violent language (A medal in violence and takashie is not needed). For those who get access to the airwaves, please use your platforms to demand answers to our problems and do not incite headlines that draw traffic to your pages because of sensationalism. Let us ask the people asking for our votes, the most difficult questions and let us evaluate their responses. Even if we are not hopeful of their delivery, we can have something to compare with when they finally get to win power, and we can hold them against something. I have been so frustrated with the discussion so far and I do hope you will do your part so we get something exciting that will lead us to make the best choice on December 7, 2024.

Until then, goodbye from me