President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday presented his maiden second-term Message on the State of the Nation to Parliament, amidst the usual pomp and pageantry that have always characterised such dignified occasions.
As the President observed in his opening remarks, the mandate he requested from Ghanaians for ‘4 More 4 Nana to Do More’ has materialised, and for reasons he and all Ghanaians must feel excited about, in joining hands and shoulders to work together to improve lives and livelihoods in the next four years ahead of us.
Post-COVID performance
The ability of his government to raise funds and manage such funds under the strains and stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the commitment of Ghanaians to stand with government in supporting the fight against the pandemic through creativity is an indication that the people are behind the President as he prosecutes his agenda of restoring the economy.
As the pandemic has brought to the fore, but for the bold policies initiated by the government, Ghana, just like most African countries, would have encountered shortfalls even in food security, wrecking our ability to feed ourselves.
Thankfully, around the time of the pandemic, both local and global business entities investing in Ghana and creating jobs for the masses of our youth developed enough strategies to stay afloat – with minimum losses in jobs. This was certainly aided by the good policies of the government and the other several intervention programmes put in place by the government to mitigate the effect of the pandemic on business activities.
Transformation agenda
There is no doubt that the Akufo-Addo government has set out to execute an ambition transformation agenda for the country.
To achieve this, in the long run, makes it imperative to build the youth population into effective human resource base. That is why the government has remained steadfast in the implementation of the Free SHS programme that has brought a huge relief to parents and guardians in their quest to educate their wards.
Significantly, as the President highlighted, the first cohort of Free SHS graduates, despite the headaches of the pandemic, showed how committed they were in appreciating the government’s vision for them. They were therefore motivated to study hard, thus making good grades to qualify them for university and other tertiary institutions’ admissions.
Also, through an effective national data construction and management, and equally judicious use of state resources, the government is synergizing all sectors to make planning and execution of projects more convenient, as we strive to lead West Africa as a cashless economy.
That would, of course, enhance efficiency and reduce costs in productive activity across all sectors, effectively reducing corruption and waste, aside of the gains of job creation that comes with those pieces of transformational initiatives.
Support
Together with the various road projects expected to be executed in its ‘Second Year of Roads’, the government’s plan to open up the nation through its integrated approach to development should offer greater hope to all Ghanaians that they have a President and a government that are truly seeking to take the nation’s development to the next level.
The President, in particular, has a big vision for the development of the country, and it is our prayer that the entire nation offers him the required support to deliver in his second term.
But because he has been given the mandate by the people to lead our development effort, we want to advise the President to always keep his appointees in check, and take prompt actions where they are seen to be going astray. This is very critical, against the background that whether he will succeed or not will largely depend on the attitude of the men and women he has appointed to help him prosecute his vision for the nation.
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