John Mahama, before his victory, promised Ghanaian voters that he would lead the country and reset the development path toward the ‘Ghana we want.’ We want to believe that most voters did not read his manifesto—most people don’t anyway. Ghanaians were not consulted. He wrongly assumed he knew what we wanted. Eight months later, we dare say Mahama’s agenda is increasingly out of touch with hardworking citizens, and Ghana remains adrift while partisan rot persists.
Unfortunately, Ghana continues to move painfully, aimlessly, and almost helplessly into one of the most dangerous and chaotic partisan periods in its history. The economy swings from one extreme to another. On paper, inflation is down, but prices on the streets stay the same. In some cases, prices have increased by nearly 10 percent.
More school leavers are seeking jobs. The promised manufacturing jobs and others have yet to appear. Meanwhile, the hopes and dreams of our people are being crushed by the actions of party thugs armed with guns, who parade around and arrest people in the name of national security.
Economic problems never start with economics. They have deeper roots in human nature and politics. They do not finish at the GDP either. What we face today is not a crisis of liberty and freedom, but the reign of state control and the thieves who preach it. No country can flourish if its economic and social life is dominated by crony capitalists and no rule of law. The cause of our shortcomings does not lie in the ordinary citizens who work hard for their money. Our problem is a leadership that uses the power of the state to steal from the people.
In this context, the slogan Resetting Ghana only serves as an attempt to transfer the responsibility for our economic and social crisis onto the population, while the government avoids confronting its own failures, such as uncontrolled public spending and a lack of economic planning.
Our current state-run economic system creates charlatans and results in a much lower level of prosperity and happiness because it doesn’t trust in incentives and opportunity. It is built on partisan dominance rather than human dignity and freedom. We hope that our leaders — those who claim to be social democrats — will act like social democrats in other countries and stop trying to prove their redistributionist strength by constantly taking from the public treasury.
Of course, reducing further State control of the economy will not alone restore our confidence in ourselves, because something else is happening to this country. We are witnessing a deliberate attack on our values and culture, a targeted attack on those who aim to promote merit and excellence, and naked bigotry in treating opponents as dangerous national threats. The trend is clear.
If the trend persists, our multi-party democracy could become the most dangerous period since independence. The most frustrating part is that the main architects of our decline — our elite politicians — lack programs or ideas to reverse it. Divided, leaderless, blind to reality, and empty, our politicians continue to offer the same dull policies inspired by the IMF and World Bank, fully aware that they will not help develop this country.
We hope that the ordinary Ghanaian is watching and reading the signs of incompetence and the ongoing series of disasters that keep unfolding. It is time to tell our incompetent politicians that we have had enough. Ordinary citizens should rise and declare that the incompetence and confusion must end; this directionless drift must stop; we need to demand accountability and proper wealth creation policies before we slide irreversibly into the abyss.
Ghana is rich enough to avoid remaining poor and underdeveloped. The black star of Africa does not have to be poor; Ghana does not have to stay impoverished. The ordinary Ghanaian should take it upon themselves to seek out leaders and individuals with the ability and capacity to lead, stop, and reverse the economic decline and the disorder that are overwhelming this country.
The ineffective socialist central planning and partisan policies of our leaders reveal the logic behind the acrimony and division; the politicians are not interested in a united, developed Ghana; like colonial conquerors, they want riches, gold, oil, cocoa, timber, and bauxite to plunder.
Unfortunately, the same old partisan strategy of winning an election and taking control of existing taxation methods, while condemning the opposition and macho actions, persists, with no real commitment to individual rights. Societal norms are being dismissed and weakened, truth is being pushed aside, and ultimately, known thieves and rogues are given jobs due to blind partisan loyalty. Unrestrained partisanship causes us to overlook our responsibilities to all law-abiding citizens.
We are continuing a conversation and a debate. What does Ghana really want from its people? Clearly, the unchecked lawless partisanship must stop. Citizens of this country should pressure our leaders, and those who seek to lead this nation in 2028, to engage in meaningful debate. From Ghana’s rural areas to the Jubilee House, we should begin to seriously discuss a broad, long-term vision of what the Ghana we want should become. The debate should reflect core values, goals, and ideological direction — state control or free-market capitalism?
Together, we can offer a new beginning for Ghana.
By Kwadwo Afari
