I wish to start with a sincere welcome to Manasseh Azuri Awuni, from his long hideout and political exile which was very necessary under the circumstances. At least, he’s back and gained his thoughts and voice back at a time, President Akuffo-Addo has practically lost his political claws to strangle him once more. He’s welcome to contribute his bit to enrich Ghana’s democracy, and he can be rest assured that President Mahama will never sent him into exile.
Just as I indicated in my earlier episodes, I, Kudus Gbeadese, will find it very difficult to forgive Manasseh for one amongst many reasons; the fact that he was unconscionable enough to have published his so called Ford Expedition bribery allegations on President Mahama on the day, the latter’s mother passed. I know I am not God to have forgiven his sins, but I cannot seem to get that feeling out of me. That in itself does not take away my love for his writings and his work with the Fourth Estate.
I was only thinking that, Manasseh will rather apologize to President Mahama and to the good people of Ghana for his contribution to the current mis-governing and the economic crisis we find ourselves. He cannot exculpate himself from liability for bathing and whitewashing President Akuffo-Addo to Ghanaians at the time Ghana was about to jet into economic prosperity. Manasseh equated President Mahama to a “Sheep” and made the case that he would prefer to vote for a Sheep than to vote for President Mahama in 2016. If he has revised his notes about this position, it is only right and natural for him to state so other than seeking to justify his position then.
It is very natural and part of the way of life that all of us cannot see a round ball from the same angle and perspective. That is why on any subject matter, each one of us has an opinion quite distinct and different from other’s. On this score, I do not seek to take away Manansseh’s right to have an opinion about any policy proposal put out by President Mahama including the 24Hour Economy. It is only fair that he does his critique from both ends of his head, so that, this too shall not fall as one of his usual dismissive attitudes without proper introspection.
I wish to submit on this score that, just as Manasseh got it wrong in believing that President Akuffo-Addo was a saint and therefore helped to campaign and ultimately installed him as President in 2017, same way he’s getting it all wrong with this 24Hour economy. I would not discount totally, his aversions to this policy, but he is practically getting it all wrong to start with.
Reading his submissions on this policy, I gathered that his main challenge is that even the 8 hours we do as the labour laws require us in Ghana, it is still not being optimally utilized, with many state institutions being redundant and unproductive. He may be right, but that cannot be a reason the 24Hour Economy cannot be realized.
Manasseh was one of the champions and mouthpiece for the Free SHS policy. Even in the midst of the challenges, he has not run down the policy in its totality. While he’s applauding President Akuffo-Addo for the FSHS policy, the basic schools are suffering with payments of their capitation grants. Indeed, there are still basic schools under trees and under worse situations while the FSHS in implemented.
In fact, while Ghana is being applauded for the numbers under the FSHS, some Senior High School students still take their meals under trees while others sleep in verandahs converted into rooms.
So, it goes to say that, even where there are challenges with a particular established system like the current 8 hour shift for the public sector, one cannot stand on that to berate a proposal to run a 3-shift economy. It is a matter of choice, will, and a deliberate policy to recalibrate the system in order to change the structure with one stone.
It is the case that, the Association of Ghana Industries, the Ghana Federation of Labour, the Trade’s Union Congress and other groups in the context of the Economy, have described this policy proposal as the game-changer, given the current economic climate Ghana finds itself. Nobody said, and not even President intimated that it is going to be all rosy within the short time. But like Lee Kuan Yew did in Singapore with a deliberate policy and the political will, it has to take someone to do same for Ghana if we ever want to get our economics right.
The Youth of Ghana can no longer wait for honey and milk to flow in our rivers in order for our political leaders to fix us. In fact, we can no longer wait for many more excuses from our political leadership to delay our destinies. The time is now, and we expect leadership to cut down on their taste for luxury and then sacrifice to make Ghana better. It takes just a leader with the will to do so. The increasing patronage, the political clientellism, the tribal bigotry, the politics of fear and the deliberate pursuit to compromise independent state institutions and other private institutions that should put government to check, are contributing to destroy this country.
Although, we still don’t have the benefit of the NDC 2024 manifesto and not a policy document yet on the 24Hour Economy, but with the snippets of information from President Mahama and other speakers on this proposed policy, it is very easy to reason and resonate with it. It is about time, independent people like Manasseh stop the wholesale whitewashing of proposed policies and come to the table for reasonable discussions.
A policy which is intended to be rolled out in some selected public sector agencies like the Passport Office, the DVLA, the Ports, etc. and to be opened for the private sector to subscribe to with the intention to engineer economic activities cannot be written of with a skewed opinion. Indeed, there is the demand for this policy given that the unemployment rate is around 14.7% according to the Ghana statistical Service.
So, I am analyzing a proposed policy that is meant to increase our workforce by 2-folds. And I only think that we must support even if we have to all come together to refine it to fit for purpose, we owe the people that duty. Manasseh had the benefit of experiencing other countries where he had his time on exile, some of those countries run 24Hour economies, so, we can only implore him to bring his experience to the table for us to take one step forward.
I have read from President Mahama on this policy. My takeaways from what I read are that, there will be tax incentives for companies that will sign up to the 24Hour economy to boost their capacity to employ more young people and to increase economic productivity and growth given their current capacity. Also, companies that do not have the capacity too will be supported by the government to increase their capacities for the purposes of operating 24Hours. In fact, such companies will have cheap power at off-peak hours of the day with relatively cheaper utility charges with other utility services.
I want to humbly submit to Manasseh that this is achievable if we undo our quick cynicism and critique without reasoning deep and reflecting on how we can get going as a nation.
Yes, Ghana’s economy is facing challenges, and we are not in isolation as far as these challenges are concerned. But Manasseh cannot tell me that it is not the case that part of the reason we are having to to face these challenges is the government’s deliberate mismanagement of the economy and the fleeting of our public finances on fanciful projects and discretionary expenditures on themselves other than on capital expenditures. I can bet with my life that If Manasseh is given Ghana’s economy to manage today, it won’t take rocket science to reset it and to get going seamlessly. It will just take one click—cutting down on the waste and pilfering of state resources and re-channeling same into productive ventures that will get this economy back on its feet.
Even in the midst of the challenges, the government of President Akuffo-Addo and Dr Mahmoud Bawunia is still bent on spending more on consumption related activities. We are still servicing several amorphous agencies like the Free SHS secretariat, One-District-One-Factory Secretariat, the three Development Authorities with their amorphous agencies at the behest of the Presidency and the relatively elephant-size government ever in our history in the 4th Republic. Lest I forget, we still haven’t had the economic benefit of spending as much $58m on the world most expensive hole in the heart of the capital, Accra.
So, if anybody should argue that, expending funds on such “useless” ventures do not contribute to our economic mess, I would have to look twice before assessing the person’s sanity. Indeed, Manasseh cannot argue that re-channeling such funds into the 24Hour Economy or the $10bn BIG PUSH or on setting up the Women’s bank is a no-brainer. We need the 24Hour Economy now or never in the future.
I will humbly request Manasseh to come again and perhaps, come to the table with his ideas to make the 24Hour Economy a reality.
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