Common sense appraisal of Mahamas massive projects.

Any idiot can borrow and

build a project; so why so much noise???

The initial title of this article was, Any idiot can borrow money and build projects. I had to
change it because those who might not read beyond the headline would, as usual, accuse me of
insulting the President. But that is the essence of this article.
And this is not an insult to the President. The expression any idiot can is often used to mean
one does not have to be a genius to do something. In the Greek city-state from where the word
originated, an idiot was the one who took no interest in the affairs of the state: one you would
describe as apolitical. Now, we use it to mean an ordinary person who should be able to do
something. So when Asiedu Nketia said any idiot can go to court, he was not insulting the
NPP. He was only saying anybody at all could go to court.
Since the campaign for the Presidents re-election started, the government, the president, and his
party have been campaigning on one main achievement building of tangible infrastructure. The
latest is the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, which was opened last night amidst fanfare and a
great speech similar to one in acknowledgment of a Nobel Prize for a novel discovery.
But is there anything special about borrowing money for infrastructural projects, some of which
are fraught with allegations of overpricing? Any ordinary person can do that. Or differently put,
any idiot can do that.
Dont get me wrong. I am not downplaying the importance of the impressive (by our standards)

infrastructural development we have witnessed in this administration. When I recently traveled to

the Mole National Park in the Northern Region, I was impressed by the fact that the road has
been done and a journey that could take up to five hours in the past now takes less than two
hours. I have since not stopped praising the government for paying attention to that road.
There is a huge infrastructural deficit in Ghana so the hospitals, roads, schools and interchanges
are needed. We must commend the government for building them. My concern, however, is how
governance has been reduced to only borrowing, building and bragging. There is more to
governance than borrowing money and building roads. I can do that. And you the reader could do
that if you were put in charge of Ghana. If you had a huge collateral called Ghana, with its vast
resources, the lenders would be prepared to give you the loans, especially when the interest rates
are exceptionally high.
In 2008, when the NPP and its government were making noise about infrastructure, then running
mate of the NDC, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, said it was an exercise in mediocrity because
every government built roads, schools and hospitals. He was right. And he is still right.
Any idiot can borrow money and build schools. Any idiot can borrow money and build hospitals.
Any idiot can borrow money and build an interchange. What an idiot might not be able to do is
to buy a drone for Felix Kwakye Ofosu to take aerial shots of the projects and flood social media
with them. Thats the innovation here. Building infrastructure would have been an extraordinary
achievement if the government had used innovative ways to raise funds on its own to build them.
Here is a common sense explanation of what is happening. Some of the loans will be repaid by
our children and grandchildren. So it is like your grandfather borrowing money in your name to
build a house, for which you will pay, and then your grandfather wants you to call him the best in
the world. Because you need the house, you may praise him for the initiative, but theres nothing
extraordinary about it. Governance is a much more serious business than borrowing money to
build.
Last year, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC)
government of not initiating social intervention policies. On Top Story on Joy FM, Evans
Mensah put this accusation to Koku Anyidoho, the NDCs Deputy General Secretary.
Evans, water they say is life, Koku began. We have provided water in Kyebi. Efo Koku,
provision of water is not a social intervention policy to boast about. Thats not what governance
is all about. Any idiot can borrow money and provide water.
Nobody can downplay the importance of water, but if a government borrows money and
provides water, that should not be presented as a peerless achievement. Its an exercise in
mediocrity.
Initially, I always attest to the fact that I did not think highly of President Kufuor and his NPP
government. Kojo Asiedu-Odei, a known NPP sympathizer and the first person to write a
rejoinder to my article, will confirm what Im saying. After witnessing eight years of the NDC
and seeing the promises of the Akufo-Addo-led NPP, however, Im beginning to see President
Kufuor as a giant in the political space.
For instance, if my mother in Bongo falls sick today and shes rushed to the hospital, I will not
have to send money before she receives treatment. The National Health Insurance Scheme, with
all the mismanagement and exaggerated allegations of its collapse by the NPP, is still a live wire
for many people in the country. Simple ailments such as malaria do not have to kill patients

because they cannot pay cash before they are given treatment.
But is seems we are lowering Kufuors standards. Akufo-Addo, for instance, is talking about free
senior high school education. Any idiot can borrow money and pay the school fees of senior high
school students. Is that our most pressing need in education? I can pay for my childs education,
but there are only a few decent schools in the country. Thats why Vice-President Paa Kwesi
Amissah-Arthur had to personally intervene in admissions in Wesley Girls High School.
President Mahama is infatuated with building community day senior high schools. Common
sense ought to tell anybody associated with those projects that the communities in which those
schools are built cannot produce a quarter of the students needed to fill them, except those in the
city. Pupils in those communities also aspire for the top senior high schools in the country so it is
only those who fail to get admission and those who would choose the day schools as their first
choice will enroll there. Students from nearby and far away communities would need
accommodation to be able to attend the community day schools because there are no commuter
vehicles in many of those communities. And it is not wise to rent rooms in communities for
teenagers as young as 12 years to stay on their own and go to senior high school. So it is not a
wise idea to build DAY senior high schools in the 21st century.
Infrastructure is important, but the youth need jobs. In 2006, youth unemployment became a
national security threat to Ghana so the National Security Council advised the government to
initiate the National Youth Employment Programme, which later became known as GYEEDA.
Between 2009 and 2012, when this government managed GYEEDA, nearly ONE BILLION
CEDIS was pumped into GYEEDA. Unfortunately, however, about 80% of that money was
stolen by ministers, government officials and their accomplices in the private sector.
One major social intervention policy this government can boast of initiating, which could have
had a very far-reaching impact on its beneficiaries, is the Savannah Accelerated Development
Authority (SADA). Sadly, however, through corruption and mismanagement, SADA was
brought to its knees. When a new team was appointed to help revive SADA, the government has
since starved the organization of funds. Thats not all, the government borrowed about 42 million
cedis from SADA in 2012, but has failed to pay till date.
Is it not strange and shameful that President Mahama brought a woman from the SADA Zone to
parliament to deliver his evidence-based State of the Nation Address this year and the person was
not a beneficiary of SADA? She was a beneficiary of LEAP, a social intervention programme left
behind by President Kufuor.
The government cannot boast about the economy. The government cannot boast about tackling
the biggest problem in our country corruption. The power crisis appears to be in hibernation.
Our education, health and other important aspects of human development are retrogressing.
The government has stopped employing, and the private sector is laying off workers because of
harsh economic conditions and the power crises we suffered recently. These are issues that
should concern the nation.
Infrastructure is good, but if the achievements of a government were all about borrowing money
and building schools, hospitals and road, then my illiterate father could do well as a president.
All he needs to do would be to surround himself with family and friends and get an expert to
advise him on the purchase of a drone so that the projects can be captured and splashed in the
Green Book and on billboards and in a special propaganda edition of Ovation Magazine.

Our people are not enlightened, the expert would advise. When its close to the election, flash
the projects before their eyes and they will forget about the corruption, the unemployment and
the power crisis, and all the ills they have endured for years. They will say you have brought the
Whitemans land to Ghana. They will cheer and vote for you.
The writer is a freelance writer in politics, business plan & development
and academic research at G A Consultancy. He can be contacted on
gabygeee22@gmail.com or (+233) 240493803