Yesterday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, delivered an address on the State of the Nation in Parliament, Accra.
This is an annual address given by the sitting President which covers especially the economic, financial and social situation of the country as enjoined by Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution and signifies some accountability to the people.
After the usual pleasantries and compliments, President Akufo-Addo acknowledged the day (March 8) as the International Women's Day, and heartily congratulated women all over the world, especially those in Ghana, on the role they play in realising the dreams, cares and aspirations of humankind.
This was important because take women out of this earth and the rest of the people would find themselves in an Alice-in-Wonderland world.
But that is not our focus because earlier in the day, we had put out an editorial congratulating women on their special day.
Our focus is the President's statements about the country's borrowings.
He reminded Ghanaians of the country's suitable economic outlook as of February 20, 2020, three weeks after which the devastating COVID-19 pandemic blew all the gains away.
He stated it emphatically that his administration had not been reckless in borrowing and in spending, stressing that the debts his government is servicing were not contracted only during the time of his administration.
Thus, he chronicled programmes and projects the government had undertaken in the last six years, including COVID-19 spending, to justify the current hardship in the country and the efforts being made to bring the economy back on the path of sustainability by 2028.
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We are happy to hear President Akufo-Addo acknowledging the fact that his administration had been in a hurry to get things done, including massive developments in agriculture, education, health, irrigation, roads, rails, ports, airports, sea defence, digitisation, social protection programmes, industrialisation and tourism.
This acknowledgement shows honesty and goodwill on the part of the President and his administration.
Our only appeal is that henceforth, the current situation, partly caused by that hurry, would guide the adoption and execution of projects and programmes because "Rome was not built in a day".
The good news is that what have been started can be accomplished in due time since efforts are being made to stabilise the economy.
We only want to encourage the government to religiously stick the efforts being made, so that barring all unforeseen circumstances, the reliefs expected would come in timely to make the people happy and also prove the good intentions of the government. We think at this time, the government needs the support of all the country rather than partisan and destructive criticism, some of which is mere propaganda.
We can expose and criticise underhand dealings in the government's spending on its projects and programmes, but we must not conjure stories in attempts to make the government unpopular.
Who knows such attempts can backfire and the mongers would be humiliated.
Let us all seek the public good and contribute our individual quota to realising it, for by this we can have a prosperous and progressive nation we can bequeath to the generation after us.
