Layman's Cure for Ghana

By King David Dzirasah and Lawrence Kojo Amegboe

Since independence, successive administrations in Ghana have made efforts to move the nation's socio-economic status to that of a developed country. However, the nation is still facing plethora of socio-economic challenges. Layman's Cure for Ghana is a quintessential and compelling book that contains radical and transformative remedies that Ghana must consider and implement in order change its fate. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: King David Dzirasah
• Release date: Jun 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201984472

King David Dzirasah

King David Dzirasah is a writer, population health analyst and postgraduate student at University of Cape Coast.

Book preview

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 - National Blueprint Versus Party Manifesto

Chapter 2 - Move Parliament to Tamale and Supreme Court to Kumasi

Chapter 3: A look at President’s Prerogative to Appoint Public Officials.

Chapter 4: Compulsory Public Disclosure of Assets

Chapter 5: The President Must Pay Tax

Chapter 6: Witches are Humans also

Chapter 7: The Man in Uniform

Chapter 8: Beyond Statistics

Chapter 9: The Future

Chapter 10: Beyond the Books.

Chapter 11: Second Chance.

Chapter 12: Separation of Powers

Chapter 13: Living in Filth.

Chapter 14: In the Open

Chapter 15: Constitutional Elitism.

Chapter 16: Undemocratic Creature

Chapter 17: Alignment

Chapter 18: Salary versus Wage

Chapter 19: Control Over the Numbers.

Chapter 20: The Grassroot

Chapter 21: Power.

Chapter 22: The Church and The State.

Chapter 23: Social Credit System

Chapter 24: Adoption Law

Chapter 25: Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice

Chapter 26: Euthanasia: Ghana’s Stance

Chapter 27: Anti-natalism versus Pro-natalism: Ghana’s Fate

Chapter 30: Flagstaff-Jubilee House

Chapter 31: Making the health status of Presidential Candidates Public

Chapter 32: Restructuring emergency services in Ghana

Chapter 33: Reforming Ghana’s National insurance scheme.

Chapter 34: AID  

Chapter 35: Expanding Access to Legal Education in Ghana.

Chapter 36: Reforming Mental Healthcare in Ghana.

Chapter 37: Streamlining Organ donation in healthcare delivery in Ghana

Chapter 38: Ghana’s Foreign Policy

Chapter 39: Improving Access to Legal AID in Ghana

Chapter 40: Poems

National Blueprint versus Party Manifesto

A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there Stanley H. Judd.

Since emancipation from colonial bondage in the 1900s, Ghana has been making effort to transform its socio-economic and political status. Ghana’s vision like all other nations around the world is to cross the socio-economic threshold and become a fully-fledged developed country. Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who is one of the key political actors in Ghana’s struggle to gain emancipation from the British crown had the opportunity to be the first head of state for the newly liberated nation. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah played his part in trying to uplift Ghana to a status of an economic and political champion on the continent.

One of the most profound things Dr. Kwame Nkrumah will forever be remembered for was his Seven Years Development Plan. The Seven Year Development Plan which has its implementation period starting from October 1, 1963, to September 30, 1970, was Ghana’s National Blueprint. The blueprint was to help grow the socio-economic pillars of Ghana and transform the country. Unfortunately, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was not able to see to the full implementation of the development. On 24February 1966, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown and that inadvertently led to the end of the implementation of his Seven Years Development Plan.

After the downfall of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s Regime, Ghana experienced recurring changes of regime. Various personalities took over the country’s leadership at different points in time through various coups. This led to the rise and fall of Ghana’s second and third republic. Lack of political stability led to the absence of a National Blueprint for many decades until the emergence of a charismatic persona, Flight lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings. Rawlings was very instrumental in bringing an end to the intermittent coups in Ghana and ushered the country into a stable democratic fourth republic. After the coming into force of the 1992 constitution, Ghana went ahead to hold its first election in the fourth republic. Jerry John Rawlings subsequently become the first president and head of state of Ghana in the fourth republic after he won the much contested 1992 Presidential election.

In 1995, President Jerry John Rawlings presented to Ghana’s parliament a twenty-five-year long-term development plan titled VISION 2020. Vision 2020 was a blueprint that was supposed to transcend even beyond President Jerry John Rawlings's tenure. VISION 2020 as a national blueprint was designed to guide Ghana’s journey towards socio-economic transformation. As history will have it, VISION 2020 faced inevitable extinction after President Jerry John Rawlings's second term in office came to an end on 7th January 2001. A new President in the who happens to be John Agyekum Kufuor was elected to take over the affairs of the country. With a new President coming into office on the ticket of a different political party (the New Patriotic Party), things were bound to change.

In 2001, the then Finance minister under President John Agyekum Kufuor in a Television interview on Ghana Television (GTV) publicly made it clear that the Kufuor’s administration was not going to implement VISION 2020. The assertion by the minister ultimately put the nail in the coffin as far as VISION 2020 was concerned. Few years down the line, a new national blueprint emerged. Kufuor’s government came up with its national blueprint. In September 2007, the then Vice President Aliu Mahama launched a new national blueprint for Ghana which is the 2057 budget. The 2057 budget which was supposed to guide Ghana’s development agenda faced the same inevitable fate faced by other developmental blueprints. After the end of the second term of President John Agyekum Kufuor, a new President was elected. John Evans Atta Mills got elected on the ticket of a different political party (the National Democratic Party). President Evans Atta Mills had his own vision for Ghana. Unfortunately, he died while in office and was not able to put together any national blueprint before his demise. However, his vice president John Dramani Mahama got elected and Ghana witnessed the emergence of another blueprint during his tenure.

In August 2015, the President of Ghana John Dramani Mahama launched a 40-year Development Plan. This new blueprint like all others launched in the past was to change the socio-economic development narrative of Ghana. Like all other national blueprints launched by previous presidents, the 40-year development plan became extinct at its nascent implementation period. After losing his bid to get re-elected, John Mahama’s brainchild the 40-year development plan was thrown into the dustbin. A new President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo took over the leadership mantle. The finance minister under President Kufuor who publicly discarded VISION 2020 got appointed as the senior minister under the new President Nana Addo’s administration. In January 2017, the Senior Minister designate told the vetting committee of the Parliament of Ghana that he does not subscribe to the 40-year development plan. The assertion by the senior minister was a foreshadow of the imminent death of the 40-year Development Plan.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo like his predecessors also had a vision for the country. He coined his vision as Ghana Beyond Aid. The purpose of the vision Ghana Beyond Aid is to position Ghana strategically to be able to wean itself from depending on foreign assistance. From previous experiences, it is not farfetched to guess that Ghana beyond Aid is coterminous with the duration of the tenure of the current President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The premature death of all the previous national blueprints is due to the highly polarized nature of Ghana’s political landscape. The key state institution that plays the focal role in the formulation of the nation blueprints is National Development Planning Commission (NDPC). NDPC took a bold step in 2020 to launch a long-term development plan which it calls Ghana@100 Long-Term Development Framework. It is too early to make any solid judgment as to whether this plan will suffer a similar fate as previous ones or not. However, history provides ample evidence as to where the pendulum is likely to shift.

Ghana under this current dispensation which is the fourth republic has been ruled by two major political parties being the National Democratic Party (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). In the over two decades that National Democratic Party and the New Patriotic Party have been alternating in governments, there is certainly one thing that is always constant and that is the supremacy of the Political Party Manifesto. Jerry John Rawlings, John Agyekum Kufuor, Atta Mills, John Mahama and Nana Addo all came to power with intention of implementing the manifesto of their respective political parties. Different manifestoes lead to truncation of continuity in development and also relegate national long-term development vision to the background. The failure in having a unified long-term development agenda is further compounded by the premature death of the various national blueprints that have been introduced in the past.

Rwanda is a country that has a very dark and tempestuous past. Rwanda civil war (1990-1994) that took place led to the loss of many lives, destruction of property and drastic change of the country. However, under the leadership of the current President of Rwanda Paul Kagame, Rwanda has witnessed political stability and stable economic growth since the end of the war. One thing Rwanda got right that Ghana failed in is having a long-term development plan and sticking to it. In 2000, President Paul Kagame launched a national blueprint VISION 2020 to guide Rwanda’s development journey. Rwanda has followed through with implementing the goals and strategies capture in its VISION 2020 over the last two decades. The blueprint lifespan ended in 2020. The country has taken stock of achievements and challenges observed during the implementation of its VISION 2020 blueprint. Kagame administration has already launched a new blueprint VISION 2050 which will guide the country’s development journey up to the year 2050.

Rwandans through a referendum granted Paul Kagame the authority to stay in power for many years. That can be said to partly account for the country’s ability the follow through with long-term development plans. However, multiparty democracy and unhealthy polarization cannot be a leeway for Ghana’s inability to follow through with its long-term development plans. It is imperative for Ghana to not only develop a long-term development plan but to make sure it does not die prematurely. Party manifestoes will not be able to help Ghana to develop into a first world country. Political party manifestoes are not able to capture the full aspiration of all segments of a country thereby lacking inclusivity. Also, party manifestoes will not have the support of the entire citizenry due to differences in political ideologies. This makes it necessary for all state actors, political actors and the entire country to come together to develop a long-term national blueprint. A national consensus will then be reached and a law passed making the national blueprint binding on all governments. With this in place, Ghana stands a chance in realizing its dream as an economic giant of Africa.

Move Parliament to Tamale and Supreme Court to Kumasi

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