THE BUILDER MIGHT JUST BE FORGOTTEN -ASK

Many tenants would not bother themselves establishing the ownership of a house when seeking a room to rent until the facility has become an issue of interest that threatens eviction.

In putting this piece together, I pray the ideas I intend to share would motivate the political actors especially the administration of the former president, John Dramani Mahama and his party to begin looking at ways to deal with the difficulties that would emerge if the party is to make an impact in the coming years.

Before proceeding to delve deep into the main issues, permit me to state that the logic to be expressed in this piece is hinged on an analogy drawn by Honourable Alhassan Suhuyini, Member of Parliament for Tamale North.

In an interview he granted to an Accra-based radio station, he admired what seem to be a position of double standards among the Ghanaian elites and especially those with traveling experiences. He was marveled at the way such individuals would not hesitate to refer to remarkable landmarks and the beauty they present to facilities in areas like America, Dubai, Canada, Germany, China of recent times and other countries that are classified as developed.

In his position, these people do not spend any time to admire the food on their tables. They do not take images of the food they eat when they visit such countries, but rather spend time taking images of themselves in magnificent facilities built by governments of the said countries with the taxes of its citizens.

I was in a discussion with a friend recently. In her narration, there was a lady who gave her a lift recently to the house. Interesting enough, they drove through the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange but the significance of that projected seemed to have eluded her.

Apparently, the lady who gave her the lift had just returned from Dubai on a holiday. She was recounting the beautiful sites in Dubai and how they have changed the city.

Anyone who followed the history of Dubai, would be marveled at the transformation in that country over the past few decades. Indeed, the building of Dubai had taken pain and toil, taxes as well as sacrifices to build. That is the only thing citizens can do for their country. Indeed, it is better to have delayed gratification than to satisfy the exigencies of today and live in perpetual difficulties.

The sharp contrast is that people who would visit Dubai like the lady who gave my friend a lift but who would not admire the likes of the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange, would have no problem paying to be transported to watch and praise a similar structure in Dubai. We have gotten to the point where we feel we have nothing to be proud of because we have virtually condemned that which should be making us proud.

These countries did not reach where they are in a day. They also did not get here without the sacrifices of their citizens. Indeed, they have not gotten here with their citizens smiling at them all these years. The story of China and its emergence from a third world to a developed country should marvel all of us here in Ghana and Africa. We would have to do what the Chinese have done if we must become what they have become.

As a matter of fact, we have, as a country, brought projects we must be proud of. The likes of the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange, the Kasoa Interchange, the Ridge Hospital, the Legon Medical Centre, the Maritime Hospital, and the many others, are significant landmarks we must be proud of no matter who built them. The issue is that today, John Dramani Mahama has become a former president. However, the projects he brought have remained and would remain with us.

In the same spirit, if the new president, Nana Akufo-Addo would proceed in constructing the proposed bridge across the Volta Lake, the Tema Motorway expansion as well as the Roundabout, the Amasaman Interchange among other things, that would equally add to the stock of strategic landmarks of Ghana. This is how we must go.

The difficulty I can foresee is the challenge the NDC would have in projecting the impact of its projects under the John Dramani Mahama administration. It goes without denial that the people of Ghana appreciate his delivery in the area of infrastructure. However, there remained a fact that nurses were on demonstrations for government’s inability to employ them after they completed school. Newly trained teachers were equally up against the government.

As stated in my opening comments, the Ghanaian nurse may rather remain grateful to the one who granted him or her the opportunity to work as in the one who employed them as against the one who built the structures to make it possible for their employment. It would become difficult for me if anyone would assume the provider of accommodation had done better than the one who had the vision to establish the building in the first place. However, that remain my point of view. Others see and understand the same things differently.

However, that is the difficulty the NDC is likely to be faced with. The party would have a huge task in making these employed nurses understand that without the provision of hospitals like the ones named earlier and the numerous ones outlined during its campaign, nurses could not be employed en-mass.

Indeed, the party would have to point out its difficulties in the employment of nurses based on the zero record of the New Patriotic Party in building regional hospitals in the past when it had power. The party would have to point the baggage handed them from previous administrations and justify the need to ensure these hospitals had to be built, fitted with modern equipment before proceeding to employ to fill them.

That would be a justifiable thing to do before they lose out on their impact on the citizens. In looking deep into the preamble, it would be appropriate for the builder of the house to take the credit for having the foresight to establish the house before thanking the one who gave a room out of the entire house for one to sleep in. The process in that is for the strategists of the party to establish.

ASK

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