As I listened to the minister of finance, Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta, delivering his budget statement for 2018 to the nation through Parliament today, strangely, the magnitude of President Nkrumah's Convention People's Party's (CPP) nation-building achievements, was the thought that kept occurring to me.
In a sense President Akufo-Addo is very similar to President Nkrumah in what he desires for our nation and its people.
Many of the ambitious policy ideas of this government are very similar to those employed by President Nkrumah's government that enabled it to develop Ghana to the extent it eventually did before its overthrow in 1966. That is why it is most probable that they will also enable President Akufo-Addo to transform Ghana successfully.
The question I pondered over, as I heard the finance minister mention the formation of a body similar to the CPP regime's Workers' Brigade, the Nation Builders' Corps, was: Just how did an African leader who attracted the wrath of the most powerful nations of the world during his tenure - the Western powers that struck an intelligence alliance to focus on destroying Ghana's economy to prepare the ground for the overthrow of President Nkrumah's regime - achieve so much despite the opposition of the Western powers plotting his overthrow?
Luckily for our nation, today, we have nothing to fear in that sense from foreign powers. The only hinderance that will stop President Akufo-Addo from successfully implementing his transformative agenda, will be betrayal by those he has put his trust in and if he fails to anchor the government's development agenda on the UN SDGs (God forbid).
The plain truth is that the president can only succeed if his appointees make the necessary personal sacrifices needed to inspire ordinary people throughout Ghana - by remaining honest, humble and ensuring that all their actions are underpinned by a common-good-ethos whiles in office.
That way, they will be able to inspire Ghanaians from each strata of society to also make sacrifices too - in their case by being patient with the president: as he directs his administration and leads his appointees to move our nation forward.
The 2018 budget is an ambitious one that provides the incentives the private-sector needs to grow - and, crucially, it also provides the younger generations with start-up assistance to enable them bootstrap their successes as innovative entrepreneurs. It could create an entrepreneurial culture amongst Ghanaian youth. Ditto generate jobs galore.
Finally, above all, President Akufo-Addo will gain the trust and win the loyalty of virtually all Ghanaians, if he does what many in Ghana believe to be an impossibility, in the world of Ghanaian politics - publicly publishes the assets of himself, his wife Rebecca and all his children. That will give him the moral authority needed to lead our beuatiful but difficult to govern nation.
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