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We leave on our trail a large number of children behind while we migrate from one place to another in search of jobs
We leave on our trail a large number of children behind while we migrate from one place to another in search of jobs

The expectation gap

The Expectation Gap is an audit and assurance terminology that explains the gap that exists between what the public, especially users of financial statements, believe auditors must do and what the auditors actually do.

It comes about when the expectations of the users of the financial statements are not met.

For example if a company goes into bankruptcy shortly after it has been audited, the users of the financial statements might think the audit conducted was not up to the standard required.

There are so many of such gaps that exist between various relationships in our day-to-day activities.

For example, there are expectation gaps between husbands and wives, employers and employees and the ruled and the ruler, among many others.

Expectation Gap in politics

This is the gap between what political heads and leaders can do and what their supporters and followers perceive they must do and can indeed do.

Party supporters believe and feel that their political leaders are super human beings and can change their entire social destiny and turn their economic woes into prosperity overnight.

Immediately their party is in power, they cannot find any reason why they cannot enjoy the fruits and largesse of their long-awaited opportunity.

This is where the gap is created and is being widened day by day. While we cannot blame the supporters for their huge expectations, we blame the leadership for not being sincere with them.

Since independence, whether by military coups d’état or civilian rule, the reasons for any military intervention or change of government through the ballot box has been corruption and injustices culminating in massive unemployment.

In all these changes, we have not yet seen any government that has managed to stop corruption and injustices and deliver jobs to the teeming youth.

It is clear from our past experience that corruption still persists, whether ruled by coup makers or by any group of elected members.

Abuse and misuse of power for personal gain to the detriment of the ordinary man on the street is still the order of the day.

In fact, those who are supposed to stop corruption are the direct beneficiaries of the supposed corrupt acts.

Bridging the gap: the role of the citizenry

Political leaders are supposed to inspire the citizenry to aspire to innovate so as to create from their God-given intellect and talent to provide for themselves and for others.

It s high time leaders declared what they can do to their followers with all sincerity.

Our leaders should not take all the blame for the woes of the masses but let them know that they have an individual role to play to change their own destiny by exhibiting a positive attitude and positioning themselves in a way to take advantage of government policies and interventions.

The attitude of Ghanaians in so many ways will not bring prosperity to us as individuals and that of the nation.

We are sometimes irresponsible and indulge in promiscuous lifestyles that lead us into a child-bearing spree.

We leave on our trail a large number of children behind while we migrate from one place to another in search of jobs.

Have we ever asked why China, where we import almost everything from, started with the one-child policy?

Can we consider a policy like that in Ghana?

If not one-child policy we can have three-child policy.

We need to think about how many people we can take care of so that we can plan for our future.

We must as a matter of urgency adopt an economic model of any emerging economy and use it as a guide to chart a path to prosperity.

By so doing, our attitude as a people must change so that our development goals may be attained.

We are on the chase for certificates that do not offer us job skills, claiming we are unemployed graduates when in actual fact we are unemployable.

Our dilemma

If we do not speak honestly and clearly about our true state as a nation, we would one day find ourselves in what I will call the dilemma of the beans - ‘If you eat the beans your father dies and if you do not eat the beans your mother dies”.

Postponing tough decisions and going around the reality will not be sustainable and it will soon dawn on us that we will have too much to deal with.

One day we may get into the dilemma of the political parties where “you vote for the NDC, your father dies and you vote for the NPP, your mother dies”.

When we get to that level, there will not be any alternative apart from chaos and anarchy.

This will be the critical time of reckoning that we may not have time to act or even plan and may not be able to contain the consequences thereof.

The Writer is a Chartered Accountant & Businessman,Email; [email protected]

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