President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is going to speak to the nation tomorrow.
He was making such addresses frequently during the times COVID-19 was doing its worst ravaging.
Tomorrow’s address may be the President’s own idea but would be taken to be in response to calls to him to tell the nation about what his administration has in store to resolve the present economic hardship in the country.
It is more than fresh in the minds of all Ghanaians that some Members of Parliament (MPs) have attributed the continuously rising inflation, the diarrhoeal depreciation of the cedi against the dollar and ever-rising prices of things, particularly food items, to the incompetence of the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, to stem the tide and called for his sake.
So far, the President has had and continues to have meetings with stakeholders like universal banks, forex bureaux, the Association of Ghana Industries, and transport operators as their roles are critical in finding the collective solution to the biting hardship.
Some people have expressed the opinion that the President’s address is long overdue, but we believe the most important thing is that at long last, he is speaking.
Others are expressing views which are clearly partisan and giving the impression that the government has failed and so must not be given even a dog’s chance.
Much as we do not want to be told the oft-repeated stories about the devastation of COVID-19 and Russia-Ukraine war, which have become trite and mundane, we would like to appeal to all the nation to give the President the needed attention tomorrow.
This is important because it is an opportunity to take the first-hand information from him so that those who matter can have it for their discourse anywhere or proffer suggestions for changes in or improvement of whatever plans the President would put in the public domain.
The truth is that anyone who wishes to make capital, political or otherwise, out of the present hardship can be described as unpatriotic and one who is probably in a secure position for which he or she is not affected in any way by the hardship.
This is not about someone being rich or poor; the current situation affects everyone in one way or another.
On that score, we expect every Ghanaian to make the little contributions they can to help bring some solace to the entire nation.
But as usual, we expect those who have a bigger stake such as the country’s managers (politicians, as well as other public officials) and the private sector players to make sacrifices that can result in remarkable changes and bring some comforts and joys.
Towards that end, we expect President Akufo-Addo to talk about plans like some public officials, including himself, sacrificing certain allowances; steps to stop and bring down the depreciation of the cedi; deliberate actions to stop the speculation and cause reduction in prices of goods and services; a cap on public expenditure, fuel prices and plans to support industries to ease operational difficulties.
We believe when we become positive about the solution to the hardship in the country, we will congratulate each other at the end of it all.
