Opinions of Wednesday, 30 December 2015

Columnist: Bombande, Emmanuel

An open letter to the flag staff house

Mr. president, greetings from my corner of the world. I can see that you take the title PRESIDENT very seriously and very personally-almost like a bonafide title to the extent that it forms part of your instagramme account. That is very great! You deserve it. After all, you worked very hard for it. “kudos” to you for your hard work.

Mr. President, having acknowledged your hard work, I write today’s piece with a deep sense of sadness. I am very sad because I am being compelled by my conscience and instincts to take my own “edey bee keke” government to a platform like this. I am really tired of these concatenations here and there.
Mr. President, it is a hazardous enterprise; for I am fully aware of the dangers to which this open letter will expose me in case I am misunderstood or deliberately misreported or better still mischievously quoted out of context. I can no longer hide my pain as I admit that I looked forward to completing a great task when I first arrived from my mother’s womb. Indeed, the joy and smiles that I saw in the faces of relatives who stood by my mother’s hospital bed encouraged me further that I had come to meet mankind that would help contribute my quota and also help accomplish all the dreams I had since the day of my conception. What about the gratuities that persons who came to my father’s home to congratulate my mother brought? I must admit that they further added to my hopes and I was encouraged to dream further.
Mr. President, this compassion and sympathy vanished into thin air like “turpentine” right from the first day that you took an entrench position that you have developed A DEAD GOAT SYNDROME somewhere in AFRICA.
I write to you about the rate at which companies retrench their employees. You are aware that an opportunity to work remains a lofty goal for everyone, especially the youth of our beloved country (Ghana) it is very important to remind you that you are in your last year of the NDC’s second term as president. However, many workers are loosing their jobs whiles others face threats of layoffs.
Your Excellency, many Ghanaians have invested resources in educating their wards with the hope that one day they will enjoy the benefits of their investment. Unfortunately, “had I known” appears to be the watch word of many parents. for the first time in the history of Ghana, there is an association of unemployed youth. This is really unprecedented, shameful and disgusting.
It is very interesting to consider why we are in this mess. The fact is that government alone can not create sustainable jobs for all its citizens. This explains why the national youth employment programme, now GYEEDA was an intermediary between training and the main stream work. Nonetheless, government has a responsibility of creating the enabling environment for business to thrive.
Inflation and interest rate for instance, are macro-economic indicators that affect the health of businesses. High rate of interest and inflation would naturally put stress on businesses. Mr. Commander in-chief of the Armed Forces, it is quite not easy to force these economic indicators to remain at the expected levels. Only prudent management of the economy can help the situation. The situation is exacerbated by the erratic power supply known in our local parlance as “dumsor”. This has opened your administration to streams of bashes from a greater segment of our Ghanaian populace. Many including myself have described you as insensitive since you superintendent over the power crises for far too long.

Your Excellency, with the greatest of all respect, make good use of the “grey matter” in your coconut, crack the whip and walk the talk as well, for your children are thirsty in the abundance of water.

I hope that this piece of writing will meet your favourable considerations and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Bombande Emmanuel