Another handout?
Ghana is facing dire economic and financial challenges or simply put; Ghana is broke! That is the fact! This point has been corroborated by no less a person than the President himself.
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Indeed, President John Mahama has confirmed this on many platforms. The economy of Ghana is dying!
This is why the government and indeed the President should not try hard to give out or promise to give out what it does not have. The point is this; “YOU CANNOT GIVE WHAT YOU DO NOT HAVE…PERIOD!
It is okay if the President and his team have dreams of rolling out a programme to supply free sandals and shoes to schoolchildren using the Defence Industrial Holding Company (DIHOC) footwear division, formerly the Kumasi Shoe Factory as the main production centre.
It is also fine if the government wants to give out free school uniforms, free sanitary pads and free “whatever”. But seriously, Ghana does not have the money to undertake those “free projects”!
No wonder, we had to take a dollar loan to fund the free sanitary pad supply to school girls. We cannot take a loan to fund government handouts because it only goes to increase government borrowing which is contributing to the strangulation of the economy.
Government handouts are simply welfare or charitable gifts, and they may take the form of money, food or other necessities which require money to provide. But where is the money?
Some may argue that the fact that Ghana is broke does not mean that its poorest citizens should be left to die. Well, there is no doubt that some people who do not have food to eat may be given some "handouts" as happens under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme.
This social cash transfer programme provides cash and health insurance to extremely poor households across Ghana to alleviate short-term poverty and encourage long-term human capital development.
Under this programme, however, there is some form of means test where eligibility is based on poverty and having a household member in at least one of three demographic categories; single parent with orphan or vulnerable child (OVC), elderly poor, or person with extreme disability unable to work (PWD).
The question is; is the government applying means tests in the determination of eligibility for all the free, free and free things that it has lined up to give to the people?
The government should clearly show that it is more concerned with developing the fundamental structure of the economy. It must fix the energy problem, the bad roads, the poor water production and supply system etc.
Some of us do not want to believe the government is dreading the restriction of benefits to the masses because it fears that would weaken its political support.
Really, what the people need now is for the government to give them a "hand up” by creating the environment for agriculture and industry to grow so that more jobs would be created for the people to take care of themselves, which is more dignifying than constantly throwing “handouts" at them and keeping them in a state of poverty.
What the people need is “workfare” or the “welfare to work” and not welfare that will put shoes on their children’s feet and still keep their roads so bad that they cannot cart their produce from their farms to the market on time to sell to make some good money in order to determine for themselves the kind of shoes their children should wear.
Indeed, the government must be reminded that universal benefits are very expensive, and though some may be necessary, there is simply no money to fund them. We must be bold to face that fact.
Aha! Now that we have managed to raise $3 million dollars and airlifted to Brazil to pay our (already) rich Black Star players, will any donor country be prepared to help us to fund our “FREE” programmes? Just asking!
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