Opinions of Friday, 9 December 2022

Columnist: Raymond Edem Tamekloe

The failed 138

The writer, Raymond Edem Tamekloe The writer, Raymond Edem Tamekloe

The unprecedented economic upheavals witnessed by Ghanaians in recent times, as supervised by the Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori Atta, have most grievously destabilized all facets of our lives.

Like bullets fired from the barrels of a gun possessed by a lunatic, the shockwaves have been indiscriminately distributed, almost lethal upon impact to the pockets of the governed. While the financial market has been rattled over a sustained period, affording a 3 square meal in any household today is a thing of luxury, a mark of affluence truly.

Prices of commodities on the market have seen sharp upward adjustments while wages and salaries continuously show symptoms of growth deficiency. In measurement, the Finance Minister, by these happenings, has shown to be woefully incompetent and lacks the know-how to turn things around. Ironically, Ken Ofori Atta himself is bloated in self-confidence and has absolutely no sense of self-awareness. He is shameless and simply unreasonable, to put it bluntly.

Cloaked under his artistic impression of humility, Ofori-Atta stretches and deepens our woes to his own amusement. The cries from our ordeal are music to his ears, and his databank empire thrives off the backs of our pain.

In all of it, the elasticity and limits of our fledgling democracy were put to the test once more, when it mattered the most, at least so I thought, MPs from across the aisle agreed that the Finance Minister was a disaster that needed to be mitigated with a certain sense of urgency.

Seemingly, this occasion easily passes as a watershed, a defining moment in our body politics when all sophistication surrounding political transactions is disarmed and the common good of the Ghanaian masses is valued.

This make-believe was short-lived as it turned out it was a plan hatched from a place of expediency to tap from a certain political capital by MPs of the New Patriotic Party, who in no way have any regard for their constituents. It was business as usual, a sumptuous opportunity to wash the soiled reputation of their political party and buy it credibility.

Staging a walk-out in a critical decision to censure the Finance Minister implicates them as accessories and enhancers of our predicament. It is an endorsement of Ken Ofori Atta’s incompetence and an ugly slap to our faces. It speaks of a self-indulged group who’d rather be in the good books of a failed President than stand firm in righting the wrongs of the system their own party supervised.

I am appalled by their cowardice as should any other Ghanaian and wishfully think that they be stripped of their titles as “Honorables”.

More so, the annals must make entries of a sheepish 138 who could not stand in solidarity with their constituents, who could not protect the common good of the people when it mattered most, an affront even posterity will dare not forget.

This sheer treachery cannot be forgiven. We must determine to send the NPP, its key actors, minions, and enablers into incarceration and bid them good riddance!