FRIDAY, January 1, 2010, marked the beginning of yet a brand new year—2010. Thus a day before our ushering into the New Year which was Thursday, December 31, 2009, Ghanaians from all walks of life went to church to give thanks and praises to the Almighty God for seeing us through the year 2009. And further to pray that 2010 will be full of God’s blessings and favours upon our individual families and the entire nation.
WHAT happened on the eve of the New Year took place in many parts of the world as countries all over the world celebrated the birth of 2010. A cursory look at the year 2009 indicates that the year was not rosy for many countries. It was a year that saw the world being plunged into recession as a result of the credit crunch.
RICH economies such as America, Britain, Germany, Japan etc., were all hard hit by the global financial crisis in 2009. Of course Ghana was no exception even though we as a nation had our own domestic problems to deal with. The year 2009 saw the NDC government led by Professor John Evans Atta Mills ushered into office.
AS per President Mills’ own words many ordinary Ghanaians expected the President to ‘hit the ground running’ and put in place policies that would alleviate them from the throes of poverty. Unfortunately, that could not materialize as one could not clearly define which direction the Mills government was leading this country.
THAT abysmal performance and the lack of direction by the Mills administration drew a lot of criticisms from people within and outside his own party. Top of these criticisms was the fact that President Mills has appointed ‘mediocre ministers.’ And this first came from no other person than the founder of the NDC party, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings.
THANKFULLY and by the grace of God, we have been able to pull through the first 12 months of the Mills government amid numerous challenges. We cannot dispute the fact that the year 2009 has been without problems. That explains the lack of euphoria of the 2009 Christmas festivities. Without mincing words we can state that many Ghanaians could not celebrate Christmas because of the economic situation in the country.
IT is against this background that we at TODAY urge the current NDC government to fashion out prudent policies that will put smiles on the faces of millions of poor ordinary Ghanaians. We hope that whatever good seeds were sowed by the Mills led administration in 2009 will begin to bear good fruits this year for Ghanaians to enjoy.
FURTHERMORE, we also seize this opportunity to call on Ghanaians to show a positive attitude towards the building of a prosperous Ghana which benefits will come to all of us. The attitude where some of us try to deliberately undermine the efforts of well meaning Ghanaian citizens will get us nowhere. Thus, it is imperative that we unite as one people with the common purpose of contributing our quota to the development of our dear nation.
TO this end, we on this paper would like to wish Ghanaians a Happy and Prosperous 2010. And we pray that this year will be full of blessings for mother Ghana.
