Resolving crisis requires concerted effort

Last month, the President of the Forum of Equity, a human rights civil society organisation (CSO), Prince Bagnaba Mba, called for a crunch meeting between the government and the management executives of blue chip companies to prepare a road map on how to stabilise the economy and lessen the burden on the citizenry.

Mr Mba said discussions with the chief executive officers and managing directors of companies in the Ghana Club 100 ranking must centre on how the business executives, whose institutions control the biggest chunk of the economy, could contribute solutions and finance to address the challenges facing the nation.

The entrepreneur and veteran politician said the weight of the current challenges required every sector of society to sacrifice a little to help revert the economy back to stability.

The Daily Graphic finds Mr Mba’s recommendation, as well as those of many others, to be apt in finding solutions to the difficulties that the nation finds itself in.

It is important to state that the current challenges do not affect only a group of people, hence the need for a concerted effort towards finding solutions to them.

We are, therefore, happy to note that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been holding back-to-back meetings with critical stakeholders, including business associations and advocacy bodies, investors and CSOs to explore avenues for lessening the burden of the challenges and return the economy to sustained growth.

While we commend the President and the various stakeholders for the dialogue so far, the Daily Graphic urges that such discussions must be done in the spirit of openness, honesty and transparency, devoid of fanaticism.

They must also conclude with blueprints and workable strategies on how to address the challenges affecting the respective stakeholders involved.

It is true that dialogue is critical to addressing challenges, but if history is anything to go by, then mere talking is insufficient to change situations, unless what has been agreed upon is put into action.

We, therefore, urge the government and the private sector to constitute a project implementation committee to sieve the ideas, size those found to be fertile against reality and initiate the processes for implementation immediately.

Like rain, the current crisis affects everybody and every institution, necessitating the need for a holistic approach to finding lasting solutions. But those solutions will mean nothing if the dialogues end up with proposals in documents that are hardly implemented.

For us, we will continue to remind duty bearers of the need to galvanise the nation around one cause, act more than we talk and take the needed tough measures to return the country to the path of sustainability.

Together as one; nothing can beat us, not even the current crisis.