In our modern football, we entered into each tournament with an agenda to score one goal in order to beat our opponents. We succeeded at some points but when our opponent offers a little resistance or has an urge over us, we lose.
This psyche emanates from our national behavior as people. We always have one agenda, one goal, and only one mission statement when developing national policies. We don’t offer any alternatives.
Look at the introduction of the E-levy just a few months ago. We were made to understand that, it is the panacea to our economic challenges, and once introduced, we shall succeed as a nation. We closed the doors to road tolls and other sources of revenue. What really happened afterward?
The dreamy state of making it with one goal of achieving all our revenue targets failed woefully. Then, the government officials grudgingly agreed to go to the IMF for $3 billion. Negotiations are still underway. Once more, we have made it appear as though this is the only alternative to solving our economic woes.
We don’t consider reviewing all revenue leakages, we don’t consider cutting down on the government expenditure, we don’t consider the word of our respected Dr. Sam Jonah that Ghana is not holding any shares in any mining companies in the country, we don’t consider changing the mining and oil exploration laws to inculcate local share-holding, and worse of all, we are destroying our cocoa farms in order to mine gold illegally in the land.
As a nation, we should have multiple sources of revenue, and stop the “one-goal project” approach. The development partners could and would only help, but they are not responsible for solving our problems for us if we don’t develop that national agenda of improving our revenues, cutting down on wastes and costs, improving work ethics, and eschewing envy that collapsed local companies at the expense of foreign ones. Will you tell me that all foreign banks in the country are doing well except the local banks that were collapsed?
Either hibernating or half-asleep, we don’t have the ability to awaken that national consciousness in our citizens to action. Thus we paralyze every fabric of the governance structure with systemic failures; drawn from inactions and lukewarm attitudes.
Awake, my nation. You have a lot to offer the world than hitherto you have done. A national disgrace and international laughingstock is what you have become. Look up to your peers like Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea, who all started on the same footing as you, and see how backward you have become. Please stop comparing yourself with the smaller countries around you. In any case, these smaller nations are able to manage their resources better than how you are faring. Therefore, they don’t seem to be in the big mess that you find yourself in. Yes, they have their own problems, but they look up to you as a nation…!
Wake up from your slumber as a nation! Suspend your one-goal agenda and develop a multi-faceted approach to the national building. Innovate, cut costs, and improve your ways of doing things.
This is to any government in power or yet to come to power, not to any political parties.
