Reading through a BBC online magazine story about an interview that the British Coalition government's Business Secretary, Vincent Cable, gave to the Guardian newspaper, I was struck by the difference between Mr. Cable's candour, about the tough times the British people are going through, and will have to continue doing so for a period, as a result of challenges the UK economy faces, and the dissimulation engaged in by Ghana's political class (across the spectrum!).
Our politicians have failed spectacularly, to be straightforward, and spell it out clearly to ordinary Ghanaians, that the nation must, of necessity, go through hard times - whiles the process of re-balancing our nation's public finances is carried out.
All of those politicians (across the political spectrum!) know that there is no alternative to the responsible fiscal policies being pursued by the Mills administration, to eliminate that deficit it inherited.
And all of them also know that Ghanaians would still be going through exactly what they are going through today, had the New Patriotic Party (NPP) currently been in power, instead of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime of President Mills.
Yet, to listen to the hypocritical noises coming from the "Enkoyie Brigade," one would think that Ghana would have become a paradise by now, had the NPP, which had literally run the economy aground by the end of its tenure, as a result of its recklessness, irresponsibility and profligacy (and destroyed the very gains that the veritable windfall of debt relief gave our nation as a result of all the above!), been in power as we speak.
Both Ghana's politicians (across the spectrum) and large sections of its media, have also failed to make it clear to Ghanaians that a whole gamut of tough choices have to be made, and very difficult steps taken, to create the conditions that will enable the private sector grow sufficiently over an extended period, to create enough jobs to bring Ghana's unemployment figures down.
Instead of always seeking to paint a rosey picture of our nation's prospects, Ghana's politicians and the media, ought to be honest enough to tell ordinary Ghanains that no matter which political party wins power, the living standards of ordinary Ghanaians will not suddenly and dramatically change for the better overnight.
As Nana Akufo-Addo has been bold and responsible enough to point out, it will take a minimum of a decade to transform the national economy.
Yet, Ghana's mostly unprofessional media, have, for partisan reasons, deliberately failed to make that fact known to ordinary people, and to make them aware of the reality of our actual economic circumstances and the predicament we face as a people and nation.
In stark contrast to the opaque and Byzantine situation in Ghana, even the Governor of the Bank of England, has told Britons clearly, that their living standards are falling dramatically - and will fall even further, as inflation eats away at the value of their wages and savings. Ditto several members of the Coalition government, including Prime Minister David Cameron himself.
The British media is full of such stories - yet, here in Ghana, media houses (such as that headteacher of Ghanaian media dissimulation, the Statesman newspaper!), are deliberately using statistical figures, for example, which they are sufficiently intelligent enough to know, result from the necessary and vital fight, to reduce the deficit (created by the profligate and greed-filled stooges for neo-colonialism, whose interests they serve), to deliberately give the false impression to ordinary people, that the NDC government that is achieving the impossible, given the economic shambles it inherited, is failing Ghanaians: when the plain truth is that, in fact, it is laying a solid foundation for a prosperous tomorrow (in the selfsame 10-year time-frame that the honest Nana Akufo-Addo, is decent enough, to admit, is required to transform our national economy). Incredible.
Yet, it is extremely important that ordinary Ghanaians understand clearly, exactly what our national circumstances are, without any ambiguities whatsoever: for the sake of the stability of our nation.
The Ghanaian public needs to understand that ordinary people will have to continue facing hard times, until there has been sufficient and sustained growth, over an extended period, to enable the private sector to generate enough wealth, to help create hundreds of thousands of proper and well-paid jobs, in Ghana.
The story about the British Coalition government's Business Secreatary, Vince Cable's Guardian interview, was culled from the BBC (21 May 2011). Please read on:
"Hard to explain how bad economic crisis is, says Cable
21 May 11 02:02

Business Secretary Vince Cable says it has been a challenge for the government to explain to the public how bad a state the economy is in.
He told the Guardian the country was poorer because of the banking collapse and recession - and from a "squeeze" from the changing world economy.
Britain is no longer one of the "price-setters" in world markets, he said.
"We have had a very, very profound crisis which is going to take a long time to dig out of," he warned.
Speaking about the state of the economy, Mr Cable said: "It is a challenge to us to communicate it better. I don't think it is understood that the British economy declined 6 or 7%...
"We are actually a poorer country, mainly because of the banking crash, the recession that followed it and partly due to the squeeze we are now under from the changing balance of the world economy."
He added: "Britain is no longer one of the world's price setters. We take our prices from international commodity markets driven by China and India.
"That is something we have got to live with and adjust to. It is painful. It is a challenge to us in government to explain it. The political class as a whole is not preparing the public for how massive the problem is."
'Model that failed'
"Ultimately it comes back to this defensiveness and an unwillingness to accept that Britain was operating a model that failed... it makes it more difficult for us to get through to the public about the scale of the problem. That is to everyone's loss."
He said Britain's deficit was "only one of the symptoms" of the financial crisis.
"We had the complete collapse of a model based on consumer spending, a housing bubble, an overweight banking system - three banks, each of them with a balance sheet larger than the British economy.
"It was a disaster waiting to happen and it did happen. It has done profound damage and it is damage that is going to last a long time."
Culled from the BBC (21 May 2011)
So there we are dear reader. If only our politicians and our mostly-mercenary media, were just as honest, principled, patriotic and nationalistic.
If they were, surely, our homeland Ghana, would be a place under the African sun, which though tough to survive in, one could at least bear to exist in, because it had serious, capable and honest leaders?
Ditto journalists of integrity to help the nation's leaders explain succinctly to the citizenry, why they had to go through tough times? Pity.
Our educated urban elite had better wake up, or one day they will wake up from their slumber themselves, to discover that ordinary people had risen up to seize control of the destiny of their homeland, from the hands of the greedy and corrupt incompetents into whose grasping hands it had fallen.
And they will then finally bring to end, the domination of Ghanaian society, by a largely unprincipled ruling class, who had deceived them, with their endless divide and rule Kokofu-football-politricks for decades, so as to steal in broad daylight, their birthright from them, with impunity - using platitudinous phrases like "the rule law" and wrapping the concept of democracy around themselves, as a cloak of convenience, to hide their perfidy.
The question is will they change before it becomes too late for them: just as time run out for those corrupt Arab leaders, swept away by the force of the anger of their oppressed people: because their greed, cruelty and dishonesty, put them on the wrong side of history? One hopes they will. A word to the wise...
Tel(powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, which actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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