As the cost of living crises in Ghana bites, Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu did not hold back in the studios of TV3 during the news analysis program, KeyPoints, over what he considers executive indifference to the worsening times.
He made strong assertions of the president assuming an insulting posture towards the plights and complaints of Ghanaians.
“What kind of arrogance? We feed you and this is how you talk to us? We can’t all be cowed into silence. What does he take us for? Who does he think he is? Why?” He queried. Meanwhile, Former flagbearer of the Convention People’s Party, Abu Sakara agreed that times are indeed tough.
He said, “The country is in a crisis situation. The containment in this situation which we have called for a long time ago is to accept and admit that no one group of people in Ghana can solve this problem that we are talking about.”
Very few people will disagree. From the basic school child who will now have to pay extra to purchase a pencil and one exercise book, to the business owner who has had to lay off a number of workers and increase reluctantly by more than half, the prices of his goods and services, it is evident that Ghana’s economy is a devastatingly ailing one.
The general language spoken on the streets is of unbearable hardship.
A woman in her early thirties trading in stationary on the Makola-AMA stretch speaks bitterly of how she might have to shelf some of her goods until the economy is at a better place, due to the unpredictable nature of price increments recently.
She laments, “Things are hard. The dollar can increase about three times a day. I sell maths sets which I used to purchase at a whole sale price of 600 cedis but now I can only get it for 1000 cedis. Why?”
A lot of factors have contributed to this situation but the bigger question is, whether or not the president and his team could still boast of the confidence of the people once vested in them.
Some people maintain that the President cannot be blamed as Ghana’s problems are as a result of the current global economic challenges.
“The president has done his best for Ghana. The current economic problem is a global one and he cannot be blamed for it. Anyone who wants the president impeached is ungrateful”, one woman opined.
Others remain indifferent as they calmly await 2024 for the President to leave office.
“As for the President he has to wait till 2024. No more coup, so we are waiting for 2024 to come,” another said.
Meanwhile, a taxi driver speaks bitterly of the current economic challenges, asking that the president resigns if he is not up to the task.
He says, “The President should resign if he thinks he cannot do the work. A section of those complaining are also NPP members who voted this current government into power, but they are not immune to the hardships. Thus, the President should get to work and stop the insults.”
Then there is a gentleman who simply holds the view that parliament must take steps to impeach the president.
“I expect parliament to take steps to impeach the president because he lied to us. He said we were sitting on money but we were hungry”, he said.
But he does not hold this view alone. Private Legal Practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has also emphasized the need for the president to be removed from office as he has exhibited extreme incompetence in managing the economy of the country, citing Article 69 (1) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana as enough grounds for his removal.
He asserts, “We have to tell the President that he is up to no good. He has to just get out of the office. So far if you go through Article 69, there is enough grounds. It says that if he behaves in a way that brings the presidency into contempt, into ridicule, it’s enough grounds.”
Dr. Abu Sakara, on the other hand suggests a different solution.
“We need a reformed development agenda that looks at the fundamentals of our democracy and governance”, he suggests.
Whatever solution is proffered, it is undeniable that Ghana needs fixing and quickly too.
By Manasseh Apurun
