Happy Holidays - And May 2016 Be A Better Year For All Ghanaians Than 2015 Has Been Thus Far

As the year 2015 draws to a close, one wishes all one's readers, happy holidays.

One's prayer for our homeland Ghana, in the coming year, 2016, is that the growing numbers of comfortably well-off Ghanaians, will follow the example of the membership of activist groups such as the Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM), Friends of Rivers and Water Bodies (FRWB), Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG) and  #OccupyGhana - by getting off the proverbial fence: and electing to take a more active interest in how our nation is governed.

Middle-class Ghanaians  need to stand up for the less privileged in society by demanding more accountability from state institutions and those who manage them - so that our nation will be better managed.

Let us also resolve to support local industries that provide jobs for our people in 2016 on a more sustained basis.

And may those who manage the national economy see the wisdom in organising regular trade fairs in all the nations of West Africa for Ghanaian manufacturing companies to showcase their products to the people of those sister nations.

There is no reason why the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and the partially state-owned downstream oil marketing company, Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL), should not collaborate to sell TOR's refined petroleum products - refined from oil supplied by the GNPC -  in GOIL petrol filling stations, in places like Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Togo and Benin.

It will  help improve our balance of trade and our balance of payments,  and thus help strengthen our much-weakened currency, the Ghana cedi, will it not?

At a time when global warming is impacting nations in Africa negatively, to ensure that present and future generations of our people can continue to enjoy a reasonably good quality of life, Ghanaians  must  not allow what is left  of our nation's natural heritage, to be destroyed by a greedy and selfish few.

Parliament needs to lead the way - by passing draconian laws to protect the natural environment. All those who infringe those laws must serve mandatory jail sentences - of not less than ten years with hard labour.

It is intolerable that wealthy criminal syndicate members can gang-rape Mother Nature so brutally, in the open, and still get away with that monstrous and abominable crime against humanity - because they are shielded by the protection provided by their powerful friends in high positions.

Yet, all of them are potential sponsors of tomorrow's home-grown terrorist organisations, and rebel groups, were  civil strife to ever occur in Ghana (God forbid).

That is precisely what happened in Liberia and Sierra Leone during the civil wars there, when diamonds, gold and timber were looted and traded for arms, by warlords and  rebel groups - in case that escapes the careless geniuses in charge of national security.

Elements amongst Ghana's wealthy criminal syndicates are the kingpins behind most of the  illegal logging, illegal gold mining and illegal sand-winning, now going on in all parts of our homeland Ghana.

It is resulting in the  destruction of  farmlands and forests, as well as the poisoning of soils, rivers and water bodies, across vast swathes of the Ghanaian countryside - and it is all being done with total impunity.

Yet, at a time of global climate change, many of Ghana's political parties are strangely silent about the wanton destruction of the natural environment - although such environmental degradation actually poses an existential threat to our people and to the long-term sustainability of the national economy.

Incredibly, there are high-profile politicians in Ghana - from across the spectrum - who court those behind illegal gold mining by promising to legalise galamsey when they win the 2016 elections. Amazing.

Do they not see the harm those super-ruthless criminals have caused and are causing across Ghana, one wonders?

Above all, if Ghanaians want to see an end to high-level corruption, they must demand that political parties and politicians should be more forthcoming about the sources of their funding.

It is their marriage of convenience with vested interests that is the source of most of the high-level corruption that is slowly destroying our homeland Ghana - and damaging the future prospects of Ghana's younger generation.

We can end the phenomenon of crooks-in-high-places stealing taxpayers' money, and getting away with it, by compelling all politicians who are appointed into government as ministers to publicly publish their assets, and those of their spouses. And they ought to do so before assuming office - and immediately after their tenures' end

It will definitely stop unsuitable individuals from going into politics with the sole purpose of  siphoning off taxpayers' money into their own pockets - and encourage patriotic, honest and well-qualified individuals, with solid track records, who are world-class in their respective fields, to venture into politics to serve Mother Ghana selflessly and diligently.

It will be interesting to have an opportunity to listen to responses elicited from the many so-called "communications team members" of political parties - who assail our ears daily on the airwaves of Ghana's many FM radio stations  with their hypocritical analyses of issues of concern to ordinary people - were they to be asked to tell Ghanaians whether or not they would be willing to publicly publish the assets of both themselves and their spouses.

Precious few of those smug and arrogant indivduals would dare do so - because of the ill-gotten wealth some of them have already accumulated, whiles their parties have been in power.

Naturally, if, on the other hand, they currently happen to find themselves in the political wilderness, their hope, is that they will also be able to accumulate yet more wealth too,  should their party's candidate win power in the 7th November, 2016 presidential election. Heaven help us.

Well, Amanfuo, having finally got all the above off one's chest, one will now rest one's case, so to speak. Yuletide, beckons!

Happy holidays, dear reader - and may 2016 be an even better and more peaceful year, for all of us, than 2015 has been thus far.