Dear Mr. President,
I am very sad writing you this letter. Many have raised concerns about the style of your leadership as a gentleman of primus inter pares.
Many have said you are not a bold leader when it comes to the taking of pragmatic decisions especially with the issue of our economic predicaments.
Mr. President, I believe you are working around the clock to salvage our ailing economy but it looks like you are too slow in solving our problems.
Mr. President, I believe in your able Finance Minister, Hon. Seth Tekper but I think the regime of his taxation in order to accrue more revenues for government is laudable in the first place but the increment of taxes to meet government’s revenue targets is killing most businesses and not aiding in economic growth.
I recall you telling Ghanaians to patronize locally made goods since we spent more money in importing such goods into the country and thus creating more jobs elsewhere but I ask, “Is the President taking the lead in helping Ghanaian enterprises’?
Local industries are experiencing difficult times in surviving in this turbulent economic hardship and yet the only way government wants to make more revenues is to increase taxes forgetting that, these taxes increase the economic burdens facing the citizenry and collapsing industries.
In addition to these captioned points made above, I would like to draw the Presidency’s attention to the fact that production in Ghana is dwindling due to the enormous taxes brought by your Finance Minister which was approved by our rubber stamp, Parliament.
I believe that the turbulent economy we currently find ourselves in could be salvaged much if government reduces taxes and expand the tax base so as to increase production of goods and services.
Furthermore, I think it is high time your government fast tracked the implementation of policies that allow universities, polytechnics and secondary schools to pay their own workers through the funds generated internally.
One may argue that, it is a deadly adventure but I say no. Give such institutions the autonomy to pay their workers and raise their own funds with strong legislations such as a pegged percentage of increment annually say between 10-15%. This will reduce the burden faced by central government which retards developments since a chunk of the monies generated by the central government is used to pay salaries.
Your Excellency, I finally believe it is high time your government set its priorities straight. I cannot fathom why we would send so called ambassadors to world cup and waste about $500,000 on them when schools are lacking teaching and learning materials; when communities do not have accessible and portable drinking water; when hospitals need expansions among other things.
I pray that these things are seriously considered if your government’s achievements are to be eternally cherished by Ghanaians for generations to come and if indeed your government has the populace really at heart and not just the desire to retain and remain in power.
The writer, Nyarko John Abbam, is a recent graduate of KNUST. He offered Political Studies and was affiliated to Unity Hall.
