They say better late than never… so here I go…
Let me start by applauding the President of Ghana (and/or his speech writer) for a very good speech.
I say this because I truly admire his approach to this speech, in that he gives a good and accurate historical background for most sectors before he goes into where we supposedly are and what his government has allegedly done; so on that, Well Done Sir! (Oh and I do like the encouraging end, and hope him and his party will ALWAYS remember that Ghana is not for them only!)…
That being said, I asked my facebook friends what the definition of the State of the Nation address was and this is my favourite and I think most relevant response for my mapping exercise from Michael Sam:
State of the Nation address consists of 3 parts:
what is going well,
what is not going well and
ideas/suggestions for improvements
So my read of the address looked out for these three criteria.
Ok, before I go in detail, I would like to say that given that I didn’t listen to the speech live, seems I am coming from this from a completely different angle than those who listened… I would like to advice our “elders” the parliamentarians (though I’m not their co-equal J), to realize that they do themselves a major disservice by (in the words of my late uncle), acting the fool with their jokes and jeers when the President was speaking because in that process, they actually lost everyone!
I have a strong feeling that if I listened to the speech, my writing today would be quite quite different and that’s what I think our wonderful politicians need to know that either they were trying to make a fool out of themselves by not taking this seriously, or a fool out of us by not allowing us to take this seriously… either way, we all lose!
My overall take away from this very good speech is that Ghanaians are looking for solutions; and are looking to their leader to translate ALL THE GREAT WORK THAT HIS GOVERNMENT IS DOING INTO REALITY!
How are these policies and promises translating into implementation?
I think that’s what invariably is missing from this speech… then of course, there are the nuances in that some information is intentionally left (of course, because we’re playing politics, right?
Everyone does it! SIGH) and there is some seriousness that is taken out of everything given the facts that – Ghanaians are hungry, Ghanaians don’t feel like they’re middle income, prices in Ghana for virtually everything doubled overnight when the Bank of Ghana set in its drastic measures about the cedis, Ghana has a shortage of electricity, fuel and water, etc. and the illiteracy rate remains very very high!
So, NO, the government cannot use the majority of their SOTN address to tout all the good things they have done or are doing, without truly acknowledging
Their mistakes;
Their mishaps and gaps and
3. The way forward to fix 1 and 2.
So not to bore everyone, I just pick a couple examples that stood out for me to elaborate all of the above (acknowledging that I skimmed through the parts of the speech that didn’t quite interest me):
PRESIDENT: “Mr. Speaker, the lack of instructional and learning materials is also being addressed through the supply of textbooks and exercise books to children in public schools across the country. Through this programme, more than 12 million books have been distributed to basic schoolchildren in the country, thus equipping them with the core tools they require for their education.”
A GHANAIAN: In this instance, our President forgot to mention that textbooks to many schools were several months late, which led to delays in instruction and inability for these schools to complete the term’s curriculum (this wasn’t the first time!) and it took a radio station’s advocacy and public outcry to get the books to the students… these are the kinds of omissions that make me question the sweet words about progress that I keep reading in the speech…
PRESIDENT: “Mr. Speaker, despite the short-term challenges we face, our economic fundamentals remain sound and our mid-term prospects are good. Growth continues to be robust at an estimated 7.4% last year and we still retain our vision to accelerate and maintain GDP growth at above 8% going forward.”
A GHANAIAN: SAAA??? That’s all I can say – again Ghanaians are looking to feel the progress that our government continues to tout.
On healthcare, I don’t even want to go there… when my mum got sick, I again experienced the deplorable state of healthcare in our country (case in point – Korle Bu teaching hospital) and it sickens me so much that I don’t even want to discuss further…
Oh and on corruption… You know what, let me move on… SIGH
I could go on and on, but let me not bore you and just end by seeking our President’s responses to our selection criteria –
What is going well – he mentions many many things! However, the average Ghanaian would beg to differ on many so…
What is not going well – I am struggling to really identify what in his opinion is not going well; because every time he mentions a struggle, he very quickly couches it with so many other wonderful things they are doing to curb it (though we can’t verify all these)
Ideas/ Suggestions for Improvement – I dare say NONE were discussed here! (go back to my number 3 stated above)…
So I am left feeling that I need some pictures maybe; some evidence that the State of the Nation is truly as strong as our President believes;
My favourite line being “As a country, Mr. Speaker, we can only be happy with the many academic opportunities being created for the youth of our country.”
HMMMM, I will be waiting (and have been waiting for awhile) to see these opportunities… While I cautiously say – what is the point of academic opportunities if the quality of this education is majorly flawed?
What is the point of free education if there is no quality?! What is the point of graduating students with double degrees who can’t write and are not versatile (and yes, I generalize)? I don’t know who these technical experts are, but I beg them and the President who commissioned them to think again!
And as for the politicians who chose to laugh and giggle during the speech, tweeaaing away, Ghanaians are not laughing! This is not funny! This is serious business! PS. 2016 is around the corner…
Oh and lastly, can we please get rid of the “we must” statements and just DO SOMETHING??! We all know what we must… Implementation and Evaluation is KEY!
..
This article was written in response to the President of Ghana’s 2014 State of the Nation Address. Though dated, the issues still remain relevant to the progress and the quest to improve upon the quality of life of Ghanaians.
About the Author: Christabel E. Dadzie
Christabel is an ardent voice for social change and institutional reform. She is a proponent of the synergy of effort to make the Ghanaian have a productive and enriched existence. Christabel is a co-founder of the Ahaspora Young Professionals, a Ghanaian initiative focused on Ghanians returning home from the diaspora, whose goal is to transfer into Ghana the invaluable skills they obtained while living and working abroad. Ahaspora believes that it is possible for every Ghanaian to effect change as we collectively strengthen the nation’s framework for development. They are also committed to the spirit of volunteering and mentoring young Ghanaians to reach their full potential.
Follow Ahaspora young professionals on twitter as @ahaspora
Follow Ahaspora Young Professionals at Ahaspora Young Professionals
For more about Ahaspora to engage with their social change movement please visit Ahaspora Young Professionals
They say better late than never… so here I go…
Let me start by applauding the President of Ghana (and/or his speech writer) for a very good speech.
I say this because I truly admire his approach to this speech, in that he gives a good and accurate historical background for most sectors before he goes into where we supposedly are and what his government has allegedly done; so on that, Well Done Sir! (Oh and I do like the encouraging end, and hope him and his party will ALWAYS remember that Ghana is not for them only!)…
That being said, I asked my facebook friends what the definition of the State of the Nation address was and this is my favourite and I think most relevant response for my mapping exercise from Michael Sam:
State of the Nation address consists of 3 parts:
what is going well,
what is not going well and
ideas/suggestions for improvements
So my read of the address looked out for these three criteria.
Ok, before I go in detail, I would like to say that given that I didn’t listen to the speech live, seems I am coming from this from a completely different angle than those who listened… I would like to advice our “elders” the parliamentarians (though I’m not their co-equal J), to realize that they do themselves a major disservice by (in the words of my late uncle), acting the fool with their jokes and jeers when the President was speaking because in that process, they actually lost everyone!
I have a strong feeling that if I listened to the speech, my writing today would be quite quite different and that’s what I think our wonderful politicians need to know that either they were trying to make a fool out of themselves by not taking this seriously, or a fool out of us by not allowing us to take this seriously… either way, we all lose!
My overall take away from this very good speech is that Ghanaians are looking for solutions; and are looking to their leader to translate ALL THE GREAT WORK THAT HIS GOVERNMENT IS DOING INTO REALITY!
How are these policies and promises translating into implementation?
I think that’s what invariably is missing from this speech… then of course, there are the nuances in that some information is intentionally left (of course, because we’re playing politics, right?
Everyone does it! SIGH) and there is some seriousness that is taken out of everything given the facts that – Ghanaians are hungry, Ghanaians don’t feel like they’re middle income, prices in Ghana for virtually everything doubled overnight when the Bank of Ghana set in its drastic measures about the cedis, Ghana has a shortage of electricity, fuel and water, etc. and the illiteracy rate remains very very high!
So, NO, the government cannot use the majority of their SOTN address to tout all the good things they have done or are doing, without truly acknowledging
Their mistakes;
Their mishaps and gaps and
3. The way forward to fix 1 and 2.
So not to bore everyone, I just pick a couple examples that stood out for me to elaborate all of the above (acknowledging that I skimmed through the parts of the speech that didn’t quite interest me):
PRESIDENT: “Mr. Speaker, the lack of instructional and learning materials is also being addressed through the supply of textbooks and exercise books to children in public schools across the country. Through this programme, more than 12 million books have been distributed to basic schoolchildren in the country, thus equipping them with the core tools they require for their education.”
A GHANAIAN: In this instance, our President forgot to mention that textbooks to many schools were several months late, which led to delays in instruction and inability for these schools to complete the term’s curriculum (this wasn’t the first time!) and it took a radio station’s advocacy and public outcry to get the books to the students… these are the kinds of omissions that make me question the sweet words about progress that I keep reading in the speech…
PRESIDENT: “Mr. Speaker, despite the short-term challenges we face, our economic fundamentals remain sound and our mid-term prospects are good. Growth continues to be robust at an estimated 7.4% last year and we still retain our vision to accelerate and maintain GDP growth at above 8% going forward.”
A GHANAIAN: SAAA??? That’s all I can say – again Ghanaians are looking to feel the progress that our government continues to tout.
On healthcare, I don’t even want to go there… when my mum got sick, I again experienced the deplorable state of healthcare in our country (case in point – Korle Bu teaching hospital) and it sickens me so much that I don’t even want to discuss further…
Oh and on corruption… You know what, let me move on… SIGH
I could go on and on, but let me not bore you and just end by seeking our President’s responses to our selection criteria –
What is going well – he mentions many many things! However, the average Ghanaian would beg to differ on many so…
What is not going well – I am struggling to really identify what in his opinion is not going well; because every time he mentions a struggle, he very quickly couches it with so many other wonderful things they are doing to curb it (though we can’t verify all these)
Ideas/ Suggestions for Improvement – I dare say NONE were discussed here! (go back to my number 3 stated above)…
So I am left feeling that I need some pictures maybe; some evidence that the State of the Nation is truly as strong as our President believes;
My favourite line being “As a country, Mr. Speaker, we can only be happy with the many academic opportunities being created for the youth of our country.”
HMMMM, I will be waiting (and have been waiting for awhile) to see these opportunities… While I cautiously say – what is the point of academic opportunities if the quality of this education is majorly flawed?
What is the point of free education if there is no quality?! What is the point of graduating students with double degrees who can’t write and are not versatile (and yes, I generalize)? I don’t know who these technical experts are, but I beg them and the President who commissioned them to think again!
And as for the politicians who chose to laugh and giggle during the speech, tweeaaing away, Ghanaians are not laughing! This is not funny! This is serious business! PS. 2016 is around the corner…
Oh and lastly, can we please get rid of the “we must” statements and just DO SOMETHING??! We all know what we must… Implementation and Evaluation is KEY!
..
This article was written in response to the President of Ghana’s 2014 State of the Nation Address. Though dated, the issues still remain relevant to the progress and the quest to improve upon the quality of life of Ghanaians.
About the Author: Christabel E. Dadzie
Christabel is an ardent voice for social change and institutional reform. She is a proponent of the synergy of effort to make the Ghanaian have a productive and enriched existence. Christabel is a co-founder of the Ahaspora Young Professionals, a Ghanaian initiative focused on Ghanians returning home from the diaspora, whose goal is to transfer into Ghana the invaluable skills they obtained while living and working abroad. Ahaspora believes that it is possible for every Ghanaian to effect change as we collectively strengthen the nation’s framework for development. They are also committed to the spirit of volunteering and mentoring young Ghanaians to reach their full potential.
Follow Ahaspora young professionals on twitter as @ahaspora
Follow Ahaspora Young Professionals at Ahaspora Young Professionals
For more about Ahaspora to engage with their social change movement please visit Ahaspora Young Professionals
They say better late than never… so here I go…
Let me start by applauding the President of Ghana (and/or his speech writer) for a very good speech.
I say this because I truly admire his approach to this speech, in that he gives a good and accurate historical background for most sectors before he goes into where we supposedly are and what his government has allegedly done; so on that, Well Done Sir! (Oh and I do like the encouraging end, and hope him and his party will ALWAYS remember that Ghana is not for them only!)…
That being said, I asked my facebook friends what the definition of the State of the Nation address was and this is my favourite and I think most relevant response for my mapping exercise from Michael Sam:
State of the Nation address consists of 3 parts:
what is going well,
what is not going well and
ideas/suggestions for improvements
So my read of the address looked out for these three criteria.
Ok, before I go in detail, I would like to say that given that I didn’t listen to the speech live, seems I am coming from this from a completely different angle than those who listened… I would like to advice our “elders” the parliamentarians (though I’m not their co-equal J), to realize that they do themselves a major disservice by (in the words of my late uncle), acting the fool with their jokes and jeers when the President was speaking because in that process, they actually lost everyone!
I have a strong feeling that if I listened to the speech, my writing today would be quite quite different and that’s what I think our wonderful politicians need to know that either they were trying to make a fool out of themselves by not taking this seriously, or a fool out of us by not allowing us to take this seriously… either way, we all lose!
My overall take away from this very good speech is that Ghanaians are looking for solutions; and are looking to their leader to translate ALL THE GREAT WORK THAT HIS GOVERNMENT IS DOING INTO REALITY!
How are these policies and promises translating into implementation?
I think that’s what invariably is missing from this speech… then of course, there are the nuances in that some information is intentionally left (of course, because we’re playing politics, right?
Everyone does it! SIGH) and there is some seriousness that is taken out of everything given the facts that – Ghanaians are hungry, Ghanaians don’t feel like they’re middle income, prices in Ghana for virtually everything doubled overnight when the Bank of Ghana set in its drastic measures about the cedis, Ghana has a shortage of electricity, fuel and water, etc. and the illiteracy rate remains very very high!
So, NO, the government cannot use the majority of their SOTN address to tout all the good things they have done or are doing, without truly acknowledging
Their mistakes;
Their mishaps and gaps and
3. The way forward to fix 1 and 2.
So not to bore everyone, I just pick a couple examples that stood out for me to elaborate all of the above (acknowledging that I skimmed through the parts of the speech that didn’t quite interest me):
PRESIDENT: “Mr. Speaker, the lack of instructional and learning materials is also being addressed through the supply of textbooks and exercise books to children in public schools across the country. Through this programme, more than 12 million books have been distributed to basic schoolchildren in the country, thus equipping them with the core tools they require for their education.”
A GHANAIAN: In this instance, our President forgot to mention that textbooks to many schools were several months late, which led to delays in instruction and inability for these schools to complete the term’s curriculum (this wasn’t the first time!) and it took a radio station’s advocacy and public outcry to get the books to the students… these are the kinds of omissions that make me question the sweet words about progress that I keep reading in the speech…
PRESIDENT: “Mr. Speaker, despite the short-term challenges we face, our economic fundamentals remain sound and our mid-term prospects are good. Growth continues to be robust at an estimated 7.4% last year and we still retain our vision to accelerate and maintain GDP growth at above 8% going forward.”
A GHANAIAN: SAAA??? That’s all I can say – again Ghanaians are looking to feel the progress that our government continues to tout.
On healthcare, I don’t even want to go there… when my mum got sick, I again experienced the deplorable state of healthcare in our country (case in point – Korle Bu teaching hospital) and it sickens me so much that I don’t even want to discuss further…
Oh and on corruption… You know what, let me move on… SIGH
I could go on and on, but let me not bore you and just end by seeking our President’s responses to our selection criteria –
What is going well – he mentions many many things! However, the average Ghanaian would beg to differ on many so…
What is not going well – I am struggling to really identify what in his opinion is not going well; because every time he mentions a struggle, he very quickly couches it with so many other wonderful things they are doing to curb it (though we can’t verify all these)
Ideas/ Suggestions for Improvement – I dare say NONE were discussed here! (go back to my number 3 stated above)…
So I am left feeling that I need some pictures maybe; some evidence that the State of the Nation is truly as strong as our President believes;
My favourite line being “As a country, Mr. Speaker, we can only be happy with the many academic opportunities being created for the youth of our country.”
HMMMM, I will be waiting (and have been waiting for awhile) to see these opportunities… While I cautiously say – what is the point of academic opportunities if the quality of this education is majorly flawed?
What is the point of free education if there is no quality?! What is the point of graduating students with double degrees who can’t write and are not versatile (and yes, I generalize)? I don’t know who these technical experts are, but I beg them and the President who commissioned them to think again!
And as for the politicians who chose to laugh and giggle during the speech, tweeaaing away, Ghanaians are not laughing! This is not funny! This is serious business! PS. 2016 is around the corner…
Oh and lastly, can we please get rid of the “we must” statements and just DO SOMETHING??! We all know what we must… Implementation and Evaluation is KEY!
..
This article was written in response to the President of Ghana’s 2014 State of the Nation Address. Though dated, the issues still remain relevant to the progress and the quest to improve upon the quality of life of Ghanaians.
About the Author: Christabel E. Dadzie
Christabel is an ardent voice for social change and institutional reform. She is a proponent of the synergy of effort to make the Ghanaian have a productive and enriched existence. Christabel is a co-founder of the Ahaspora Young Professionals, a Ghanaian initiative focused on Ghanians returning home from the diaspora, whose goal is to transfer into Ghana the invaluable skills they obtained while living and working abroad. Ahaspora believes that it is possible for every Ghanaian to effect change as we collectively strengthen the nation’s framework for development. They are also committed to the spirit of volunteering and mentoring young Ghanaians to reach their full potential.
Follow Ahaspora young professionals on twitter as @ahaspora
Follow Ahaspora Young Professionals at Ahaspora Young Professionals
For more about Ahaspora to engage with their social change movement please visit Ahaspora Young Professionals
They say better late than never… so here I go…
Let me start by applauding the President of Ghana (and/or his speech writer) for a very good speech.
I say this because I truly admire his approach to this speech, in that he gives a good and accurate historical background for most sectors before he goes into where we supposedly are and what his government has allegedly done; so on that, Well Done Sir! (Oh and I do like the encouraging end, and hope him and his party will ALWAYS remember that Ghana is not for them only!)…
That being said, I asked my facebook friends what the definition of the State of the Nation address was and this is my favourite and I think most relevant response for my mapping exercise from Michael Sam:
State of the Nation address consists of 3 parts:
what is going well,
what is not going well and
ideas/suggestions for improvements
So my read of the address looked out for these three criteria.
Ok, before I go in detail, I would like to say that given that I didn’t listen to the speech live, seems I am coming from this from a completely different angle than those who listened… I would like to advice our “elders” the parliamentarians (though I’m not their co-equal J), to realize that they do themselves a major disservice by (in the words of my late uncle), acting the fool with their jokes and jeers when the President was speaking because in that process, they actually lost everyone!
I have a strong feeling that if I listened to the speech, my writing today would be quite quite different and that’s what I think our wonderful politicians need to know that either they were trying to make a fool out of themselves by not taking this seriously, or a fool out of us by not allowing us to take this seriously… either way, we all lose!
My overall take away from this very good speech is that Ghanaians are looking for solutions; and are looking to their leader to translate ALL THE GREAT WORK THAT HIS GOVERNMENT IS DOING INTO REALITY!
How are these policies and promises translating into implementation?
I think that’s what invariably is missing from this speech… then of course, there are the nuances in that some information is intentionally left (of course, because we’re playing politics, right?
Everyone does it! SIGH) and there is some seriousness that is taken out of everything given the facts that – Ghanaians are hungry, Ghanaians don’t feel like they’re middle income, prices in Ghana for virtually everything doubled overnight when the Bank of Ghana set in its drastic measures about the cedis, Ghana has a shortage of electricity, fuel and water, etc. and the illiteracy rate remains very very high!
So, NO, the government cannot use the majority of their SOTN address to tout all the good things they have done or are doing, without truly acknowledging
Their mistakes;
Their mishaps and gaps and
3. The way forward to fix 1 and 2.
So not to bore everyone, I just pick a couple examples that stood out for me to elaborate all of the above (acknowledging that I skimmed through the parts of the speech that didn’t quite interest me):
PRESIDENT: “Mr. Speaker, the lack of instructional and learning materials is also being addressed through the supply of textbooks and exercise books to children in public schools across the country. Through this programme, more than 12 million books have been distributed to basic schoolchildren in the country, thus equipping them with the core tools they require for their education.”
A GHANAIAN: In this instance, our President forgot to mention that textbooks to many schools were several months late, which led to delays in instruction and inability for these schools to complete the term’s curriculum (this wasn’t the first time!) and it took a radio station’s advocacy and public outcry to get the books to the students… these are the kinds of omissions that make me question the sweet words about progress that I keep reading in the speech…
PRESIDENT: “Mr. Speaker, despite the short-term challenges we face, our economic fundamentals remain sound and our mid-term prospects are good. Growth continues to be robust at an estimated 7.4% last year and we still retain our vision to accelerate and maintain GDP growth at above 8% going forward.”
A GHANAIAN: SAAA??? That’s all I can say – again Ghanaians are looking to feel the progress that our government continues to tout.
On healthcare, I don’t even want to go there… when my mum got sick, I again experienced the deplorable state of healthcare in our country (case in point – Korle Bu teaching hospital) and it sickens me so much that I don’t even want to discuss further…
Oh and on corruption… You know what, let me move on… SIGH
I could go on and on, but let me not bore you and just end by seeking our President’s responses to our selection criteria –
What is going well – he mentions many many things! However, the average Ghanaian would beg to differ on many so…
What is not going well – I am struggling to really identify what in his opinion is not going well; because every time he mentions a struggle, he very quickly couches it with so many other wonderful things they are doing to curb it (though we can’t verify all these)
Ideas/ Suggestions for Improvement – I dare say NONE were discussed here! (go back to my number 3 stated above)…
So I am left feeling that I need some pictures maybe; some evidence that the State of the Nation is truly as strong as our President believes;
My favourite line being “As a country, Mr. Speaker, we can only be happy with the many academic opportunities being created for the youth of our country.”
HMMMM, I will be waiting (and have been waiting for awhile) to see these opportunities… While I cautiously say – what is the point of academic opportunities if the quality of this education is majorly flawed?
What is the point of free education if there is no quality?! What is the point of graduating students with double degrees who can’t write and are not versatile (and yes, I generalize)? I don’t know who these technical experts are, but I beg them and the President who commissioned them to think again!
And as for the politicians who chose to laugh and giggle during the speech, tweeaaing away, Ghanaians are not laughing! This is not funny! This is serious business! PS. 2016 is around the corner…
Oh and lastly, can we please get rid of the “we must” statements and just DO SOMETHING??! We all know what we must… Implementation and Evaluation is KEY!
..
This article was written in response to the President of Ghana’s 2014 State of the Nation Address. Though dated, the issues still remain relevant to the progress and the quest to improve upon the quality of life of Ghanaians.
About the Author: Christabel E. Dadzie
Christabel is an ardent voice for social change and institutional reform. She is a proponent of the synergy of effort to make the Ghanaian have a productive and enriched existence. Christabel is a co-founder of the Ahaspora Young Professionals, a Ghanaian initiative focused on Ghanians returning home from the diaspora, whose goal is to transfer into Ghana the invaluable skills they obtained while living and working abroad. Ahaspora believes that it is possible for every Ghanaian to effect change as we collectively strengthen the nation’s framework for development. They are also committed to the spirit of volunteering and mentoring young Ghanaians to reach their full potential.
Follow Ahaspora young professionals on twitter as @ahaspora
Follow Ahaspora Young Professionals at Ahaspora Young Professionals
For more about Ahaspora to engage with their social change movement please visit Ahaspora Young Professionals