President and Chairman of Groupe Nduom, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, has told students of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), that the current state of the country is as a result of the decisions that Ghanaians have made, especially over the last 20 years in the election of officials, including presidents to run affairs of the country, adding “You Vote What You Get.”
Dr. Nduom was speaking in his capacity as an entrepreneur, at the launch of the Students Representative Council Week of the University of Education, Winneba.
As an entrepreneur managing some 50 top level companies, Dr. Nduom used himself as an example to show how strong leadership could have led the country out of the current situation she finds herself as compared to the short term, but costly approach of leadership that had ran the country for the past years.
“We need leadership that will stand up to the challenges in such difficult times and not one that will cede our resources to private individuals and foreigners all in the name of powering the country’s economy through the private sector,” Dr. Nduom declared.
Such cheap and easy way of governance, the GN president disclosed, has resulted in mass unemployment with university and polytechnic graduates being the worst affected parties.
“…It has also has resulted in societal problems like poverty, hunger, diseases and other ills in the society,” he added.
He condemned the practice where successive governments under ideological guise had left the development and growth of the country to private individuals, many of who are foreigners.
“Some say the private sector is the engine of growth; others say we are going to the open market to raise funds,” he declared and questioned: “So what has been the duty of the State and for that matter our governments over the years?”
“How can we put the fate of the country into the hands of private individuals including foreigners whose aim is to make profits for themselves and in the case of the foreigners take such huge profits back into their countries,” Dr. Nduom queried.
Such private-led policies, according to Dr. Nduom, has led to a situation where the State and in this case, Government, to shelve its primary duty of improving the lives of Ghanaians through job creation, and provision of decent lives.
He was particularly critical of the practice where wastes collection, for instance, is given to private individuals when in fact that should have been the primary duty of the State.
“It doesn’t happen in any advanced country; metropolitan and other local jurisdictions, such authorities are there to ensure cleanliness of their surroundings and environments,” Dr. Nduom noted, adding that “we cannot afford the cost of putting our lives into the hands of private individuals whose aim is to make money for the home countries.”
In the opinion of Dr. Nduom, it is the state of subletting resources of the country to the private sector that today many of “our mineral deposit areas like Prestea, Bogoso, Obuasi, Akwatea and many others wallow in extreme poverty and squalor.”
“Can you compare a gold producing city like Johannesburg to any of the gold producing areas in Ghana? Absolutely not! Because South Africans made sure that they had a stake in their gold mines and so today proceeds from South African gold are being used to develop that country,” he stated.
The telecommunication companies, Dr. Nduom stressed, were also fleecing the country of some serious savings, and asked if there should be any spillage today in any of the oil extraction areas, any foreigner would be affected.
That rhetorical question he answered himself: Absolute Not!
He, therefore, challenged government to be bold and take hard decisions that may, in the long run, will help create jobs and put money into the pockets of Ghanaians, and wondered how a programme like the School Feeding should be left to private individuals.
“The State must use its purchasing power to help Ghanaians by giving them soft loans and offer them market for their produce. That way we would be helping our indigenous people to improve the quality of their products,” he noted.
According to him, few years ago many would not even look at the direction of Korea and Japanese cars; but today with the support of their governments, Korean and Japanese cars are being used all over the world.
That, Dr. Nduom said, has become possible because governments of these countries were not discouraged by the initial hostile reaction to their automobile industry, but made sure that it helped manufacturers to improve the brand.
<<Print>>