Last week, the Minister of Finance presented the mid-year budget review in Parliament.
Mid-year reviews are just update, adjustment or supplementary budget for the rest of the year till the main budget is presented somewhere in November.
Prior to the reading of the mid-year there had been serious agitation by public sector workers for an upward adjustment of their paltry 4% increase in wages even though inflation was over 14% and the President and his Article 71 office holders have seen about 57% increment in their wages.
The mid-year budget review was read and it was practically empty, nothing substantial or interesting.
No clear cut roadmap for economic recovery, no direction for our debt sustainability program, empty promises of jobs without any practically achievable roadmap for job creation etc.
The Minister practically threw his hands up in dispair.
But guess what, the hopelessness of our current economic situation is not what made the headlines.
For days people have been faxed up on social media and mainstream talking about some 100cedis donation the Minister requested for the completion of the National Cathedral.
Guess what, their plan worked!
Gabby, the defacto prime minister quickly took to Facebook hours after the review and said and I quote…I call it a PR success, when after the reading the mid-year budget review the only criticism is about a 100cedis public donation to complete a National Cathedral…”
Now this is some confession!!!
Who told Ghanaians that President Akuffo -Addo needs their donation to complete a cathedral?
In fact Ken Ofori-Atta knows how Ghanaians especially public sector workers are angry at the Government.
As we speak, UTAG is embarking on a strike, TUC is in a tussle with Government for wage increment and these are just a few instances.
Other labor unions are also the sidelines with their own demands and they know for sure no one will give them a dime!!
But they had to plant that in the budget to divert the anger and frustration of the people from the hopelessness of the budget and Government’s economic recovery programs unto a defunct indistinct National Cathedral and they achieved that perfectly!!
Clap for chief architect Gabby, the brain behind this PR gimmick!!
My pain with all this is not their dummy PR games, but the mindset of the people running this Country.
To them we just a bunch of idiots they are running and manipulating.
They don’t care about the impact of their reckless actions and policies, it’s about PR success and not economic improvement sucess.
I didn’t say that, Gabby did, if after a budget, he was actually not celebrating the economic success of his Government but rather the PR success that has diverted Ghanaians attention from the hopelessness of his Government to a National Cathedral, then what else can I say?
This is really scary!!!
Mensah Thompson
Executive Director,ASEPA
