Time to put on brakes
This week I would like once again to talk about the economy because it is central to the country’s development and also dear to the hearts of the people who live in it including myself.
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The state of the economy has to be discussed time and again, a situation much akin to Chinua Achebe’s allusion to chameleon faeces which refuses to go even when washed.
Else, how do we explain the calidris canutus into which the country finds itself today. Have we been caught unawares? No, I do not think so.
We are one of the fastest growing economies in the world, let us not forget that. We were also recently enjoying a single-digit inflation and had everything going for us, including spending lavishly, not quite long ago.
Warren Buffet, the American billionaire once said “only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked”.
And that is very much the case now after we have come to the realisation that the coffers have run dry and the meat has been consumed leaving the bones.
It is time we faced our mistakes and learned something from it rather than bury our heads in the sand just like the ostrich and behave as if that is how it is supposed to be.
When did the government come to the realisation that the country’s youth no longer needed laptop computers? Or have all the children in our secondary schools and tertiary institutions received theirs?
That might certainly not be the case and it smacks of discrimination if you ask me.
We need not go into other expenses that were made during the latter part of last year which were quite frivolous.
There were some spending in the past and are still ongoing which clearly show our lack of imagination, planning and self-worth.
Otherwise, how do we explain all the millions spent on the tree planting and guinea fowl projects in the north that point to an enterprise that may be struggling to pull through.
Now we hear a constant refrain that for the past several years the global economy has been unbalanced. And also that the West, from where we get much of our donor funding, has too much debt.
And oh, China does not have enough consumer spending and so is scaling back on investments and so on. The idea sold is that because of the scenarios above, our economy and budget had not been infused with the required solutions to make it buoyant.
Considering the paradigms for growth, old models do not work anymore and so should we not be finding new ways to make ourselves relevant in the scheme of international economics and refuse to rely on external contributors to keep ‘alive’?.
The harm has been done; we are cash strapped. Now is the real impetus for change. This country urgently needs to have a turn around and do things differently.
For me, the ones who compound the situation for everybody are the serial contributors on morning radio and television shows. They take entrenched positions and refuse to recognise the positions of their opposers even if they are right.
What is worse is that by their attitudes, many experts are reluctant to appear on such shows because either one such expert had earlier been castigated on such platform or is afraid to be placed under suspicion of belonging to one party or another.
Clearly, the cross roads the country is at now will need all hands on deck to get it out of the woods. That is why the partisan colouration to which statements and personalities are tainted must be expunged from our political system so we can make fast progress.
The politicisation of everything has been with us for so long now because the country lacks a strong civil society group.
A strong civil society group would by this time be leading the discussions on the economy and be having meetings with the people and groups that matter to map out the way forward and not leave it in the hands of radio discussants who practically have little knowledge of what has been put before them for discussion.
That is not to say that people should not express their opinions. By all means let us do, but be dispassionate about it, and not attack each other like enemies, more so when we are in the same boat.
I think it is time morning show hosts on radio and television stations invited experts and subject leaders onto their programmes to help provide answers to the myriad of problems facing us or stop completely the morning noise on air.
Many people and institutions have expressed their disagreement with the move by government to increase taxes on a number of commodities.
Tax hikes in themselves are not a bad idea, but when you consider that quite a number of the commodities being considered for tax increase are found in the ordinary course of people’s lives, that makes it hard to take.
To increase taxes on slippers (charley wote), machetes, condoms, outboard motors and the like is just like beating someone up and refusing him or her to cry.
I am sure the people will welcome it gladly if the taxes could be graciously reviewed down. Times are rough!
Sticky points with Jojo Sam / The Mirror / Ghana