In conformity with article 67 of the constitution of the Republic of Ghana , the President shall at the beginning of each session of parliament and a dissolution of parliament deliver a message on the state of the nation, on the 25th of February this year, the President discharged his role credibility by pinpointing the flashy areas of the economy, aligning his administrative plans in the years ahead, his address was full of hope and inspiration likely to defray the economic challenges confronting nation.
The President in his address tackled all the critical sectors of the economy rolling out policies and programmes which will create and maximise job opportunities for the teaming population.
The need for change was uniquely instrumental in the President's address, indeed there is a need for change both in attitude and mode of thinking, as Ghanaians there's a need to re-strategise towards utilising our human capacity and intelligence to solving the challenges confronting the various sectors of the economy.
The attitude of Ghanaians is a major contributory factor which has undoubtedly undermined our development. For instance the attitude of Ghanaians towards state owned properties and assets are quite disheartening, government properties are placed under the mercy of their respective users who virtually attach no importance to such properties because afterall they never spent a dime on those properties, hence such properties get damaged beyond recognition and repair. The attitude of public service workers are so provoking and damming, a situation which places the future of the nation in a very bad light.

A lot of state corporations have collapsed due to attitude of government employees. This is certain expecially in areas where the private sector offers alternatives, Ghana Commercial Bank is one of the state banking institutions that presents a very gloomy future in respect to how their respective customers are treated. This is a place where customers are serve not in dignity but with impunity and disrespect .
In a very busy day the tellers or call them cashiers, may leave their counter unceremoniously without saying a word to the frustrated customers in long queue and no one dares to complain for the fear of being delayed further, cheeky answers and frown faces are normal greetings. This situation has forced a lot of businessmen to terminate the services with the bank.

At the political front the situation is worse, Ghana is interestingly rated among few countries in the world fortunate enough to have lot of scholars in a business of politics so the expectation had always been higher interms of critical thinking to support economic growth, utilisation of such great talents of Intelligence to developing the nation is sure but tweaaaaaa...politicians in Ghana are in a different forms and style, it's not uncommon to have whole bunch of Intellectual having same strict opinion on issues for partisan conveniences and considerations which turns out to satisfy their greedy instincts. The situation brings to bare the total disconnect between the book intelligence of our scholars and the intelligence required to build the nation, intelligence required to fix a broken economic.
No wonder the whole of NDC will support an idea and the whole NPP will go against such same idea but these are the same people who sat in same class for academic degrees.
The negativism which drives the physche of a larger section of Ghanaians is hard to comprehend.
So the President was right when he called for a change, attitudinal change and behavioural remodelling is critical to our success.

Another issue which was critical in the message was the commitment expressed by the President to address wealth disparity, a situation which has bedevilled most African countries mostly because of greed,corruption and the will to steal.
The LEAP policy which was introduced erstwhile in Kuffour's administration, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty has been appreciated by the Mahama administration who is currently championing the goals which saw the implementation of the policy.
Currently the beneficiaries of this policy are around 74,000 a number which is projected to hit 100,000 by the end of this year and 150,000 by 2015.
The government deserves commendation for taking such a bold steps to walk in the path of its predecessor to reduce and eradicate poverty.

The programme offers the opportunity for the disadvantaged, the poor in the society to access quality healthcare, portable water and feel a sense of being a Ghanaian.
Wealth disparity can completely to be erradicated from our society by creating the opportunity for the people, rolling out policies which will promote and accelerate economic growth, equipping the youth with quality education which will help mould them to be economically resourceful not only to themselves but to the nation.

With the advent of gender,children and social protection ministry, the citizenry expecially the poor, the oppressed, the vulnerable including women and children in the society have come under certain umbrella of protection where they can thrive successfully and make positive contribution to the growth of the economy.
Empowering the vulnerable to become economically viable and resourceful will definitely help to alleviate the dependence rates in the society.

The gender ministry incollaboration with several other bodies have been embarking on a vigorous campaign seeking to promote the welfare of the vulnerable in the society.
This validates the government's vision of making the poor and oppressed live in dignity.

There seem to be no venture lucrative as investing in the health of your people, aside government's plan to build additional 1600 chip compounds to the existing ones in an attempt to bringing quality healthcare to the doorsteps of the people especially in the remote areas, the government has not relent efforts at ensuring massive infrastructural development and expansion of health facilities across the length and breadth of the country as promised, construction of new district hospitals which will be equipped with modern health equipment when completed are under construction in places like Dodowa,Gani Tamponi,Secondi and Fomena.
More Nursing and Midwifery Training and Medical Assistants Training institutions are being opened. This means that more skilled personnel are being graduated to serve in the health sector. So far, more than 3,000 medical personnel have been trained. These include, medical assistants, midwives, public and community health nurses.

Work is ongoing on a new teaching hospital for the University of Ghana. When completed, this new hospital will make quality tertiary healthcare readily available. It will also ease the pressure on the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. Work is ongoing to upgrade the Ridge Hospital into a full-fledged regional hospital to serve the Greater Accra Region. Work on the Upper West Regional Hospital in Wa is progressing steadily. The Phase II of the upgrading and expansion of the Tamale Teaching.
The health sector has seen a significant improvement under Mahama_Amissah Arthur led administration, symposiums and seminars are purposely designed to help build capacity of health workers, a platform where human intelligence is being trimmed to serve the intended purpose at the sector, indeed the government has shown enough commitment to serving the good people of this nation better.

But to the opposition the President's address was empty and was without hope as they have demonstrated in their various descriptions. The continual playing of mischief and hypocrisy by people who have had the opportunity to serve in government at different capacity, people who should know better by the virtue of the experience really makes us laughable.

At the educational front there are a lot of challenges which the President was expected to have addressed but were skipped . Indeed most of my expectations at the educational sector were missed, l was particularly expecting the President to address the mismatch between what is being taught in our universities and the job readily available at the job market. Concerns have been raised about the misplaced of our academic priorities, a situation which makes it impossible for the educated elites to be absorbed into the job market.
Poverty has taken a good percentage of African population solely because the various universities are chunning out graduates who are only good for mesmerising the foreign tongue. The intelligence cultivated at our universities are not conducive for economic prospects of the nation.
There is a need for syllable redesign in an attempt to bridging the gap between the job market and the book knowledge.
The government should collaborate with other stakeholders of education to design educational programmes which will make university graduates useful on the job market.

Despite several challenges confronting the delivery of quality education, the sector has seen a substantial improvement interms of infrastructural development and expansion works within this short period under Mahama_Amissah Arthur administration.

Per the campaign promise of the NDC government, a sod cutting ceremony has been held for the commencement of the first batch of 200 Senior High School by the President .
Several doubts have been expressed by many expecially the opposition npp about the feasibility of the promise thereby bastardizing it as empty promise.
But the reality is sure, the commencement of the project only puts the opposition in bad light, no wonder they cannot rest.
Another interesting development in the educational sector which has become a tsunami in the npp's team cup is the progressive introduction of free SHS scheduled to hit the streets in 2015/2016 academic year. A constitutional provision which became the anthem of the twice-defeated flagbearer of the npp, Akuffo Addo.
According to the npp, Mahama and the ndc government has stolen their leader's vision, a comic relief though but need to be placed in the right perspective.

With the implementation of these two policies there is no doubt that the npp's hands will completely be tired to their backs going into 2016 elections. Notwithstanding the noise the party and its surrogates make, defeat is the only visible item Ghanaians can reward them going into 2016 general elections .

At times certain happenings in the npp make some us doubt if indeed the party is a serious political party that should be regarded as alternative government at all.
The npp campaigned on free SHS, an unfortunately for the elephants Ghanaians rejected them and their free SHS, the Mahama led Ndc after almost a year in office has saw the need to implement what the President describes as progressive introduction of free SHS after preparing the grounds fertile for a triumphant survival of the policy but now the npp's rhythm has changed, Mahama is a thief..
But If the npp's partisan inclined logic is something substantial to go by then they should first label themselves thieves in capital letters because the Bui power and the Bui city poject which was started by the Kuffour's administration and was finally completed by the Mahama administration was Dr.Nkrumah's idea, when Kuffour saw the need to implement those great ideas of Nkrumah which was on paper, nobody accused him of theft unless they are telling they consulted Nkrumah in the dead land for his tarcit approval.
The Mahama government has always been congratulating the previous administration for the bold steps they took towards the implementation of the project which is currently generating several kilowatt of energy into our national grid.
The complex presentation of our politics possess a big threat to patriotism.

It's strictly impossible for the President to solve all the challenges confronting the nation within this short period, what is required is patience, support and trust and l can confidently assure the good people of Ghana that Mahama will deliver.
Contrary to what some clergymen in the Methodist Church are suggesting that Ghanaians should stop praying for the government because according to them the government is corrupt and the President should not be trusted, Ghanaians should ignore those detractors who have willfully failed God in their capacity as men of God.

Instead focusing on what they supposed to do, they rather use the media to make the headlines for themselves. About 99% of souls in the church are likely to slip into pedition on judgment day, fornication, adultery, alcoholism, drug peddling, occultism, witchcraft, nepotism etc has infiltrated the church and this is not a worry for them?
Constructive and genuine criticisms are appropriate, it cushions whichever government in power to be responsible and accountable to the people but what is being suggested by those party apparatchiks in cassocks is appalling.

They have forgotten that the various people serving in different capacity in government who according to them are corrupt belongs to the church. The simple interpretation is that the church has failed in its teaching to developing the moral fabrics of the society
The church has become a commercial entity where monies are extorted from unsuspecting members, the money accrued from these financial moping exercises does not benefit the poor and the oppressed in the church but rather church leaders and their families. God remains the good judge and He will definitely come.

Time has come for us to be engaging in intellectual instead of tivial politics which has driven lots of charlatans labelled "men of God" into hypocritical corridors of partisan politics. I shall return but until then remember that he who comes into equity must come with a clean hands, the Bible is my witness.
Happy birthday to Ghana.