Opinion: The Ongoing Crisis and What Mr. President Needs to Do Urgently

The truth is that even though the Akufo-Addo government has abysmally failed to live up to the expectations of the masses, the current situation cannot be entirely blamed on the incompetence of the government. Ghana is not the only country facing the challenges of a slumping economy, depreciation of local currency, high inflation, rising food prices and a scary youth unemployment situation. A lot of countries are in the same situation. Indeed, there is a global economic crisis.

But the impact of the global crisis on Ghana and Ghanaians should not have been as heavy as it has been if there was a sincere, humble, credible, accountable, frugal government. Instead, what Ghana has had in the Akufo-Addo government has been governance characterised by opulence, verbal ornamentations, corruption, intolerance to dissenting views, crony capitalism, wasteful expenditure, lack of policy credibility and a strange belief that a government can thrive on public relations gimmicks.

At this stage, things are almost falling apart. The President needs to act quickly and decisively to gain the required public trust, confidence and support, to go through the current turbulent storm. This is so crucial also because, the most recent Afrobarometer report revealed that the President has the lowest approval rating and highest disapproval ratings since the year 2000. Among the critical actions the President needs to take are the following:

1. Reduction in the size of government through a reshuffle. As the coach of the team, the President appears to be the only one who hasn’t realised that his him has conceded so many goals and requires substitutions. Until and unless the team stops conceding goals, the coach should expect the team owners to demand improvement by substitutions.

2. Removal of the finance minister to boost the confidence of the people. Giving the high confidence the President seems to have in the Finance Minister, he may choose to appoint him as a Finance Minister Plenipotentiary in the office of the President. People will be fine with that.

3. Dismissal of all ministers with Presidential ambitions to avoid their distractive activities. For example, while people are complaining and angry about rising food prices and costs of farming inputs, the Agric Minister is all over touting his credentials and praising himself on how successful he claims to have been as the sector Minister. The President needs to appoint people who will be focused on the job and not Presidential ambitions.

4. An honest address to the nation on the crisis; government’s awareness of the impact on people and an announcement of honest, credible steps that are being taken to address the challenge.

5. Convene a national forum on the crisis, bringing together specialists from all groups and political persuasions. This will help build national consensus and avoid the petty partisan propaganda about the crisis from mainly the opposition NDC, who couldn’t have done any better under the circumstances.

6. Take concrete steps to fight corruption, starting from the Office of the Presidency, which citizens say has the second most corrupt people in the country, according to the latest Afrobarometer report.

7. A significant cut back on public relations and rhetoric meant to manage the opinions and expectations of the people. This will help rebuild public trust for the government

8. Suspension of funding for all non-essential projects such as the national cathedral project

9. Announce a special value for money audit for all government contracts

10. A significant reduction in arrogance of power and disregard for the concerns of the ordinary people.