That the current government of the New Patriotic Party has benefitted a fair segment of the national population, across the regions, districts, communities and ages, is a feature that is singular with the Akufo-Addo administration.
From crop and livestock farmers in the various agricultural belts, through youth entrepreneurs and extension officers, who were sitting home because the erstwhile John Mahama government failed to create jobs for them, to small-scale processors, the numbers in the value chain have been huge.
The same picture is found in the health and education sectors because of government’s remarkable initiatives, which have led to the employment of many hitherto jobless professionals trained with the country’s scarce resources.
For both sectors, the government managed to find the resources to bring them into the public sector job market, after the National Democratic Congress, under Mahama, had ‘lied’ to them that the government had been prohibited from employing them because the nation was undergoing an IMF programme that was blamable on the same incompetent former President.
Perhaps, the greatest investment has been in the cocoa sector, and rightly so, on account of its global importance as a key strategic sector earning Ghana most of its foreign exchange resources. Here, too, the numbers along the chain and lives and livelihoods are equally huge.
Women leading the campaign
Particularly along the cocoa value chain and the public sector employment opportunities, including those in forestry and export, as well as the oncoming cashew, mango, coconut and palm tree initiative, the numbers of women are still huge: farm hands, wholesalers and retailers as well as farmers and semi-processors.
That is why we agree with the National Women’s Organiser of the NPP, Kate Gyamfua, when she urges women to come out in their numbers and join the campaign to ensure that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia are given ‘Four More To Do More’ when Ghana goes to the polls on December 7.
As we would also admit, because of the sublime role women play as homemakers, they tend to bear the brunt of socio-economic pressures that are mostly related to housekeeping and informal economy activity trade, apart from the stress that arises from managing the home on shoestring budgets in our part of the world.
As parents or, for that matter, mothers who have to keep supporting young women who should be working, but have found themselves locked out of fair opportunities because of previous government inertia, the life-saving initiatives the Akufo-Addo administration has put in place are major relief to women.
Reciprocate
As the campaign heats up, we join the NPP National Women Organizer in encouraging women, who are also major beneficiaries of the NHIS and Free SHS policy, because of the ripple effect in the social protection initiatives, to join the effort in securing ‘4 more for Nana to do more’.
With what the current government has done for them, and what is ahead of the country, we need not remind them that the greatest sacrifice they can offer Ghana and President Akufo-Addo is join the campaign at the grassroots level in returning the NPP and the President to power come December 7.
That every single home in Ghana with a woman and kids has been touched by the transformational initiatives is a fact that should spur our women, for the first time in the history of general elections, to let their voices hit a positive crescendo that will silence the lying General Mosquitoes, Sammy Gyamfis and their choirmaster John Dramani Mahama.
Our women must do this for love of God and country as well as our kids and succeeding generations.