Audio By Carbonatix
So what happened this week?
Monday was a holiday, and we acted accordingly. To celebrate Eid ul Fitr with our Muslim family, we brought in Esther Armah and friends to host the show. Among other things, they discussed the rather significant Afrobarometer findings pointing to increased apathy and unwillingness of the average African to engage in governance. You called in with your thoughts, and we learnt a lot about the numerous reasons why we are slowly giving up on our own power to effect change.
On Tuesday, we all thought we would try to understand what actually goes into the selection of delegation members for presidential trips. Akua Donkor had just returned from a trip with the President to Italy, where she was photographed holding a book upside-down - but then again, it was written in Italian, and she can't read, so who can blame her?
Anyway, everyone and their mothers had opinions about the value of an Akua Donkor on an Italy trip, and many felt that it was just propaganda to rope in her large following on the Government's side, but ultimately, illiteracy should in no way stop a person from contributing meaningfully to national development. Should it?
Wednesday was the morning after the Mid-year Review of our economy was presented to parliament by the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper. We had him on the show to analyse all the new forecasts. We went deep on the issue of public debt which is now at 67% of GDP. The head of the Public Accounts Committee, Kwaku Agyeman Manu was not amused by what he considered to be unbridled, indisciplined, unplanned and unnecessary over-borrowing by government. He thought we had our priorities wrong as a nation.
The Finance Minister however stood by his "Smart Borrowing" strategy, asserting that the projects for which the loans were taken would pay for themselves. Either way, the extra GHC865 million that Mr Terkper asked for will be given him. As for me, when I think of our public debt, it is our children I worry about. This is a burden we are putting on their heads, and it scares me, the ease with which we are leveraging their future against our present.
Yesterday was interesting. We had several things to talk about. We got an update from the Police about the investigation into the recruitment scam, we talked about those poor kids in Madina Estates who had no toilet facilities between three schools, but the one issue you all seemed to care about the most was the fact that Parliament had to pause for just under an hour because of Dumsor, and as you can imagine, as soon as it affected them, they suddenly recognised it as a crisis and started throwing speeches around. One called for a demonstration against the speaker, while another claimed even the white house has had Dumsor before, so why must we complain? Typical top quality analysis from our representatives in the legislature…how we for do?
Today, we're crowning the week with a conversation on Youth and Migration. How many of you would rather be citizens of other countries? And why. We bring a few of our listeners into the studio to talk about this. Also, it's the return of Unique Achiever, and we've got a great one - or two - for you today. Don't miss it.
My name is Kojo Yankson, and it's been a week of Popular Disillusionment, Presidential Delegations, Public Debt and Parliamentary Dumsor.
GOOD MORNING, GHANAFO!
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