Occupying the highest position as the leader of the country, the President of our nation is empowered by the Constitution to address the nation on its current shape and has the task of informing the public on a current assessment of the nation’s fortune or misfortune. Historically Ghana’s Presidents have followed a format of providing projected plans and accomplishments, rather than perhaps an assessment of the plight of citizens against measurable targets, initiatives or interventions.

This “State of the Nation Address” (SONA) was no different and saw the fancy dress parade of the political elite. H.E.John Dramani Mahama was at ease and showed an ability to command an audience. Much of the address was predictable however and was largely a “Business as Usual” address.

Close to 25 years of governance by the PNDC tradition out of our 56-year existence the President began his address pledging to “ work hard to place Ghana on the right path” and Many would say that we have heard all this before when the President says - “We will embark on an ambitious but realistic programme of building new roads and bridges; expand electricity generation to energize the economy and society; improve access to good drinking water and health facilities; and improve sanitation and human security.”

“We aim to transform our schools, colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age with emphasis on technological innovation”

“A well-designed and efficient public sector working in partnership with the private sector will be instrumental in our objective to deliver a prosperous nation”

The question many are asking is “Has the NDC not made similar commitments before, and have they not shown a similar sense of mission and social commitment before?, and yet we seem to have lost 20 years during which we have become bogged down in a culture of corruption, entitlement , grace and favour, political patronage.

The answers are straight forward. At the macro level the 2008 financial meltdown has globally removed any illusion of sustainable growth without state guidance. The finance sector’s excesses have exposed the myth of a benign market that is able to deliver society from poverty. The role of the state has thus been vindicated. On the micro level, the internal dynamics appear to be extremely negative .The NDC is racked with internal discontent on recent appointments, the main opposition is largely disengaged , while service delivery dissatisfaction is at an all - time high, public outcry against the failure to deliver on basic amenities, water and electricity, grows by the day.

The NDC government’s “Better Ghana Agenda” with some minor re-emphasis still hinges on four thematic areas :

• Putting People First; • A Strong and Resilient Economy; • Expanding Infrastructure; • Transparent and Accountable Governance

These themes go all the way back to the NDC’s 2008 Manifesto and thus rather than largely repeated intensions on Education, Health, Youth and Sports the President’s Address should have tackled the impact on citizens of their policy focus and interventions.

PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST

Education, Health, Social Protection

Are NDC social interventions leading to the “Social Transformation” of Ghana? Overall the Educational sector isn’t working and the government needs to focus on the fundamentals that make the educational system more effective and efficient.

• Address BECE failures • Ensure the Circa 500,000 children of school going age not in school get into schools. • What plans NDC has to repair 25% of existing schools that are crumbling and need major • repair? • What plans NDC has to put water in 43% of our schools without water? • What plans NDC has to put toilets in 52% of our schools without toilets? • Our schools are overcrowded, standards are falling and there is a shortage of trained teachers. • Our schools are not child friendly and need to become more “Healthier”, “Safer”, “More protecting”.

It is only when they have addressed these major challenges that they can say the State of our Education sector is improving or safe in their hands.

We welcome intentions on provision of new hospitals, clinics and additional 1,600 CHPS Compounds but on the health sector overall the President’s Address should have touched on progress on expanding NHIS take-up and its equitability vis-à-vis the poor, with only 29% of those in the lowest quintile of our society insured with valid NHIS cards.

The CPP wishes to remind Government that good health is primarily about the provision of; Good Drinking Water, Good Nutrition and Good Sanitation, all of which it is currently failing to deliver on.

On Social Protection, this concerns the prevention of poverty in the population from reduction or loss of incomes during our life- cycle. The PNDC tradition was responsible for unprecedented retrenchment in our history during the 1980’s leading to massive loss of income to thousands of workers and their families, millions thus suffered a loss on income. 30 years on an NDC President from the same tradition notes that they are now going to “Design programmes to protect those who require permanent protection and empower through training and activation those who can be reintegrated into the labour market.”

They are now going to “Initiate a process to track, monitor, assist and address the diverse needs of the vulnerable in Ghana”

The Africa Labour Research Network notes that in Ghana and much of Africa Social Protection is based largely on the Social Insurance Model and limited to the provision of protection against the loss or reduction of income resulting from retirement, disability or death. Coverage is restricted to workers in the formal economy and only partial initiatives cover the informal sector. There is an increased casualization of employment in Ghana and our informal sector stands at 92%, thus agricultural and domestic workers are not covered by any social protection scheme. The President’s SONA offered no analysis or plan for addressing this.

Youth and Sports

We welcome the renewed emphasis on investing in sports as the CPP government did in the past and the intention on Youth Recreation Centres but the government should acknowledge when it borrows ideas from the CPP. It should also show that sports will not be politicised and that there will be less political interference in our sporting bodies.

SADA & Western Corridor

On SADA, The Authority needs to fulfil some of its remit which can serve as a basis for the Western Corridor Development Authority (WACDA) The government should certainly avoid the situation with other Development Authorities as with SADA where it initialled promised seed money of $200million; then grudgingly made available only GHC30million then subjected future funding to a Donor Conference and the attendant conditionalities that this brings.

STRONG AND RESILIENT ECONOMY

On the economy, every Ghanaian welcomes all efforts at sustaining our economic growth SONA should have acknowledged that our economic growth must relate directly to the standards of living of people. That economic indicators must reflect directly on the following areas:

o Improved living standards of people. o Eliminating or reduction in poverty. o Improved supply of goods and services that Ghanaians need. o Prices of goods and services must not outstrip wages and salaries, and rents must be within the means of workers. o Education and Health must be affordable by all. o Population below the poverty line must improve below the current 30% o Unemployment must decline. o Graduate unemployment must improve beyond the current 50% o Formal sector employment must rise above the current 8% as opposed to 18% when the CPP was in government.

The situation where our growth is jobless and amounts to an increase in extraction of our resources and increased profits for foreign interests and little benefit to our population must not be the future vision for this nation. A situation where 40% of our budget is donor funded and as acknowledged by the President, over 60% of our budget goes towards salaries is unacceptable. It means that for close to 40years governments in our country have not been able to transform our vast resources into wealth for the nation to develop.

EXPANDING INFRASTRUCTURE

The President’s address should have touched on progress made on this front after many years of targeting by the previous government and this government, and demonstrated progress against our huge infrastructure deficit. The promised use of information technology to support infrastructure development, urban renewal, land use management and environmental protection does not tell the nation anything

Importantly our public Transport system needs to be safer and to be more integrated. The quality of services from the huge investments in infrastructure leaves very little to be desired. Although the quality of roads has generally improved over the years the time travels has either increased or remain unchanged. Government must show some focus on improving the quality of services required from this investment.

Revamping of our railway is a long overdue intention, much talked about for years, very little progress.

Housing and Urban Renewal

Ghana’s housing deficit is huge and grows by 100,000 each year and yet a National Housing Policy is yet to be approved. Social Housing is still non-existent and the President’s SONA only touched on a pilot scheme to combine social housing with improved sanitation and water supply.

Mining

We welcome the Government’s intension to enforce the laws of Ghana on illegal foreign miners in the small-scale mining sector. We also welcome intensions to move towards economically and socially sustainable mining. The emphasis on the sector however should be about how we get more from our resources.

Energy and Petroleum

The SONA note of Government’s overall objective for the energy sector of ensuring reliable, stable and progressively cheap power for economic development in the country and the wider West African region is not believable against the current “dumso! dumso! crisis in the sector which exposes a lack of long term planning and failed promises.

On Energy the CPP approach is to assess long term need of the country and to plan to meet that need effectively. That is why the CPP had planned to build the Bui Dam after Akosombo followed by other smaller schemes. Today there is seemingly no planning; governments have waited till the country is plunged into darkness before using the excuse of “obsolete equipment replacement” etc. Energy is not simply the addition of wattage but the efficiency and basic functioning of the system. The perennial problems of power termination are a major problem and concern of Ghanaians. The problem is similar for water – shortage and disruption to the service.

TRANSPARENT AND ACCOUNTABLE GOVERNANCE

We welcome the strengthening of Parliament and Parliamentary Committees and implementing proposals of Constitution Review Commission (CRC) We would support the promotion of citizen-based monitoring and evaluation of public policies and programme. We believe that enshrining a National Development Plan in the Constitution is also important and crucial and something the government should change its mind on and implement

Decentralization of Local Governance The proposals in the SONA for Cabinet office to ensure that Cabinet meetings rotate between Accra and the Regional capitals is a PR gimmick which would add to the public purse and the already bloated cost of government.

We welcome and support the Election of Chief Executives but this must not remain an endless intention never to be implemented.

The Media We support the intention to that the National Media Commission should enact the needed Regulations that will establish an organizational framework and standards to ensure balance, fairness, access, opportunity and objectivity in the media.

Combating Corruption We welcome revising the Criminal Offences Act to redefine corruption to include the more expansive definition covered in the UN Convention Against Corruption and the AU Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, Implementing the Freedom of Information Act, Setting up a Committee of Inquiry to investigate untoward land dealings in the past especially in relation to public lands situated in Accra and Kumasi. The biggest challenge on this front however is to investigate as the CPP has called for, “Judgement Debts” during the 4th Republic. A request that the Government has not yet responded to. The Woyome Scandal and issues arising from the “cocaine to soda” and other incidents of reported corruption - e.g. the acquisition of an alleged new NDC National Head office building, does not point to accountable governance or a serious attempt at fighting corruption.

Watching the President’s address was a soul searching experience. The future of Ghana is very much dependent on this government’s plan’s but the credibility gap induced by past incompetence and corruption does not give one much hope. Indeed, the most telling is the number of intensions at thinking or planning stage. This begs the question: how much work is yet to be done on the detail for these intentions.

Can the NDC really deliver on its plan’s and finally build on a solid foundation for sustainable, meaningful and sound growth or will it prove to be just another example of grandstanding, another attempt to distract from the many areas of concern, particularly in energy and power, water, education, health care and job creation, that are distressing our society

Our country needs the bringing together of all social partners to combine resources and expertise, crossing political lines for the common good in a systematic and honest way so as to impart a sense of collective will and spirit to a society that is showing the symptoms of greater and greater stress. Only time will tell if the NDC is able to play an effective leadership role and defy the pattern of negativity that currently holds sway. Much will depend on the Mahama presidency’s performance over the coming months – it may well be a decisive watershed.

Long live Ghana!!!

Long live The CPP!!

Nii Armah Akomfrah CPP Director of Communication www.conventionpeoplesparty.org