Opinions of Monday, 18 November 2024

Columnist: Justice A. Newton-Offei

Ghana needs progressive upgrade; not retrogressive reset

Flagbearer of NDC, John Dramani Mahama speaking at an event Flagbearer of NDC, John Dramani Mahama speaking at an event

When I opened my first bank account in 1988 at Standard Chartered Ghana, Tema community 1 branch as a student at School of Medical Radiology, Korle-Bu Teaching hospital, it was a nightmare going banking hall to transact business.

At the time, when in a queue in a banking hall to withdraw some coins but there happened to be a customer in front of you with bulk cash to deposit, then you'd know your waiting time was going to be endless hours. We often 'paid' for expedited service.

Even as late as 2014, under John Dramani Mahama-led NDC administration, a simple registration or renewal of NHI was such a nightmarish experience. I personally went to a registration centre at Asylum Down, 4weeks before being lucky.

Today, I can sit in the comfort of my home and undertake all my bank transactions with clients anywhere on earth; renew my NHIS subscription; apply for passport and settle all my utility bills. My light goes off at midnight and get it back in bed.

Those were the days we used to spend the whole day in queues at ECG offices just to pay bills, with frustrations inflicted on us by cashiers of the company. Personally, I don't remember the last time I physically went into a banking hall for anything.

All these unimaginable fears have been actualized by means of digitalization, and we have a bunch of dumb-ass with their brains floating in pools of concoctions of dog poo and cat fermented cat urine, claiming this has no effect on the economy!

On credit score: the reason we all agree that life in the advanced countries is easy, is because of easy access to credit to make purchases. The bedrock this is proper identification and credit worthiness; these two have been put in place.

So, for anybody to make pronouncements to the effect that, credit score system is worthless in Ghana, simply portrays conscious ignorance or unmitigated buffoonery. Today, they're questioning the relevance but will turn round to claim it later.

The height of economic emancipation Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia seeks to take our country, obviously, is something which these pipe-dreamers simply are incapable of comprehending, forgetting the global system now runs on digitization.

They are against doube-track system in our education front but seek to implement a non-existent '24-hour economy' where there would be 3 shifts of workers doing the same job; it appears they no longer have brains their mothers born them with.

We are talking about digital economy to leapfrog our country into the sphere of global economic system, and you are talking about 'nkoko nkeste nketse'. It's obvious John Mahama has nothing to offer, and he must be jettisoned on December 7.

What exactly does John Mahama have to offer, having been Assemblyman, serial caller, MP, deputy minister, substantive minister, vice president, accidental president, and last but certainly most unprecedentedly, the one and only one-term president?

Bawumia is the right leader for Ghana, in the world that runs on technology; we don't need a character whose thinking is firmly transfixed in archaic and analogue ways of doing things. Ghana needs an upgrade; we don't need old school retrogressive reset.