Let’s manage our expectations!!

 With the success­ful conduct of our elections and the historic swearing-in of President John Dramani Mahama, and his Vice, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, Ghanaians who thronged the Independence Square to witness the momen­tous occasion expect nothing, but action!

Certainly, they expect the President to put his government machinery into immediate action to address the myriad of prob­lems and challenges bedeviling the country, especially the need to restore macroeconomic envi­ronment to enable the economy to work for the benefit of all.

Of course, Ghanaians will like to see the stabilisation with the mark of an end to the hikes in prices of foodstuff and essential commodities, and to corruption, as the canker makes available public resource to only a few privileged people in society.

In a word, they also expect the end to other societal ills that deny majority of the people the space to feel part of the coun­try such as cronyism, nepotism, unemployment and insecurity.

They want protracted land and chieftaincy hot spots across the country contained, access to quality education, quality health­care, upholding of their funda­mental freedoms and rights, and end to environmental degrada­tion, including unbridled illegal gold mining.

Indeed, these are genuine basic demands of Ghanaians for which they overwhelming voted for change.

We at The Ghanaian Times agree with these genuine demands of the citizenry on the new govern­ment.

Yes indeed, the President means business as outlined in his inaugural speech and his social contract he intends to prosecute within 120 days in office for the benefit of the people.

We trust in him and we are confident he will lead Ghana to rise again.

It is for this reason and his respect for public expectations from his government and his honesty that he has appointed a team to start putting his govern­ment in place to get to work in full gear.

Suffice it to remind Ghanaians that rights go with civic respon­sibilities.

It, therefore, behooves all the people to be measured in their expectations as the government settles down to work for their common good.

While we look forward to the government formulating and implementing the plans, policies and programmes to address the challenges, we should keep re­minding ourselves of our duties as citizens as enshrined in Article 41 of the 1992 Constitution.

The article requires us to up­hold and defend the good name of our country and the Constitu­tion, to work conscientiously in our chosen occupations, defend and render national service when necessary, cooperate with lawful agencies in the mainte­nance of law and order, declare our incomes honestly to the appropriate and lawful agencies and to satisfy all tax obligations, and protect and safeguard the environment.

Let us continue to have con­fidence in our country and trust in our new leadership; this is a dawn of new era, and we believe it is no longer going to be busi­ness as usual!

We must also remind ourselves that building a nation is a process and requires lots of patience, ingenuity, resilience, endurance and patriotism, and as “Rome was not built in a day”, so will Ghana not be.

We only advise the govern­ment not to be carried away by the euphoria, but be fair, firm and resolute in the national interest.

We trust that President Maha­ma has Ghanaians at heart, trust that he will deliver in his second historic comeback to office, so that posterity will live to remem­ber him.

Suffice to also re-echo the ap­peal by Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to Ghanaians to support President Mahama to reset Ghana onto the path of growth and prosperity.

Let’s manage our expectation, trusting that all will be well and good for mother Ghana.

God bless our homeland Ghana.