Fellow Journalists, I honestly think it’s time to ask all the critical questions and get people to accept responsibility for their failures in the GYEEDA saga rather than allowing them to find comfort in bizarre excuses as they are doing now.

I have heard and read the excuses by people who were either elected or appointed to manage the programme. The management of the programme entailed making sure that the right systems are in place, existing problems are solved, wrong doers are sanctioned, giving the people of Ghana value for their money, and then getting paid by the tax payer.

So when a former Deputy National Co-ordinator of GYEEDA and now a Deputy Minister says most of the cancelled contracts were awarded under the Kufour regime, my question will be: "So what?" Hon. Murtalla, were you and your bosses getting paid to watch over those wrongful contracts (if they were) so that millions of cedis will continue to go down the drain? If those contracts were improper and were awarded under the past regime, why didn’t you cancel them? Why has it taken your government four and a half years to have them cancelled? Why didn't the government punish those who awarded those contracts that you now say were bogus? Or is it the case that you didn’t care about what you inherited?

We are told, one of the major problems was that there was no legal framework for GYEEDA and yet the President says, they (GYEEDA) were lucky because they received millions of cedis. So why are we being told this? Who should have made sure there was a legal framework before giving those huge monies out? Should it have been the trader at Kantamanto, the farmer in Pusiga or the fisherman in Keta?

We are told, the programme lacked competent staff. Whose responsibility was it to hire competent staff to manage the millions of cedis?  So Abuga Pele and Murtalla Mohammed chose to work with those people so that in the event of a mess they can find an excuse or what?

With all these, my question is: So what really was achieved at GYEEDA under the leadership of the president, his Minister for Youth and Sports and their appointees - Mr. Pele and Murtalla and co?

I think the government should simply admit that it absolutely failed the people of Ghana on GYEEDA and openly apologise accordingly. But if the folks from government will apologise (which is the right thing to do) then Journalists should be asking them all the critical questions rather than allowing them to be telling their own stories.

Fellow Journalists, do the right thing and don't be afraid of being branded NPP or NDC. You have a watchdog role to play, and you mustn't fail in doing so. Kudos for the work you are doing.