Miracles of course happen all the time. We’re in 2015, aren't we? It’s such a refreshing feeling being part of the New Year with you, Mr. President.

You, Mr. President have done well.  Weathering the storm to steer this Yutong bus that has onboard over 25 million Ghanaians into 2015 is neither a fluke nor a joke. By the way, which gear will the Yutong bus be this year?  It will be refreshing to know!

I am quite sure; you do not need an angel to postulate that 2014 brought you a lot of headaches and nightmares.  I guess the heat on the seat on which you sat could have even cooked pots of yams from Bole, where you come from.  Thank God you survived all the onslaughts.

From what Ghanaians went through in 2014, I have the greatest conviction that the seat will be hotter in 2015 than it did in 2014 if the approaches to doing things and confronting the challenges in Ghana remain unchanged. Am I a pessimist by saying this?

Currently this country of ours is grappling with erratic power supply that has come to be known as ‘Dumsor dumsor’ and surprisingly what I thought you will not engage in this year (promises)  is leading the pack as you just promised to ‘banish darkness from our lives in 2015. Is it for real?

Are we to expect more of these (the promises) in 2015? Wow! You are such a brave man! Starting the year with promises looks promising especially after most of the promises were unfulfilled.

Mr. President, People like me would want to see you make a breakthrough this year, that is, if you will go beyond the rhetorics about corruption. Corruption in Ghana is no longer whispered in the ear but has been uncovered in gargantuan proportions by many a journalist about people that have been entrusted with the nation’s purse. Indeed, it has become endemic in all spheres of life across the country- the churches, schools, hospitals, media, security agencies, just to mention a few. I certainly believe, your presidency will leave a lot of imprints in the sands of time, if your tactics in tackling corruption will change in 2015.

 In 2014, I heard you severally, ‘ordering’, ‘decreeing’, ‘directing’,’ promising’, ‘instructing’  that one thing or the other ought to be done but all the deadlines you gave seem to be  elapsing one after the other with  little or no show to talk about.

Sir, there is this talk in town that some appointees of yours who were fingered in corruption scandals were given some resting place at the Flagstaff House to cool their heads off. Is that true? It would be very serious if it were true!  That notwithstanding, there are many more of such things that people are talking about in town that often  leave millions of mouths in Ghana wide open- they don’t simply understand why they should happen under your watch!

We love you, Mr. President but I tell you for a fact that, anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor. Not that your critics are pessimists but receiving a slap on your belly instead of your cheeks is someway, Sir.

Like Frederick Douglas in his speech on the 24th anniversary of emancipation in Washington D.C.  puts imperceptibly, "Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe”.

Mr. President, many and most moments go by without us hardly aware of their passage but the corruption and other practices that drain the public purse can never escape the memories of Ghanaians- I am not too sure we have short memories.

My Dear President, whether you like it or not, people will commend or criticize you in your actions and inactions so far as you remain on the biggest seat in Ghana. Our umbilical cord will never be separated from you so far us you keep promising us and you remain on the seat.

I just listened to your New Year message to us (Ghanaians) urging us to be positive and optimistic. You told us in unequivocal terms that the nation will not always agree on how we should meet the goals that have been set before us but it should be through the healthy exchange of ideas that will propel us to  able to establish our common ground. That was great and revealing but, Sir, by and large; the critics have given you an affirmed sense of what they want from you. You might know this within yourself, but to have it affirmed by others is of utmost importance.

My Dear President, whatever situation the country is, we cannot simply pick our passports and leave the country because the kitchen is too hot, just as one of your men suggested, that is if some of us have passports at all, but I believe that the life’s dance of Ghanaians is not painted for us in footsteps on the floor. It’s not laid out so we know where to place our next step. We simply need a bold and action-oriented 2015 to judge which steps best fit the rhythms that we hear.

Indeed, we can heed the call to leave the country if the kitchen is too hot but sooner or later we have to take a stand in the place which, for better or worse, we call home, and do what we can to change our fortunes.

In this 2015 journey, I so submit that you have over 24 million pair of eyes fixated on you, watching you closely waiting to be inspired with hope just as your New year message seems to be assuring.

Sir, Happy New Year to you once again but would want to remind you that you are created with a mandate, a mandate you have to fulfill. You can’t afford to disappoint us!

The writer, Richard Kwadwo Nyarko, is a broadcast journalist with JOY 99.7