Burden of some governance

In slicing a GH¢15 worth of bread, I gauge, endeavouring to make it last for two weeks.

That loaf, mind you, is about half the size of a GH¢10 worth loaf about a year ago.

Marketing is now a physical and mental endeavour. Affordability is just for the barest necessities.

Even with that is the mental tedium of deciding which necessities are pressingly needful and what can and cannot be postponed.

No items on my want or wish list, just the barest needs. Inflation is real and has caught up with the basic things we buy.

With no appreciable salary increases, and for some, no increases in salaries at all for a year or more, the same amount of money is used to purchase fewer goods and services.

Now, we even eat with caution, planned principally around skipping meals, for the wherewithal to have at least a meal a day.

Planning

When planning the day nowadays, meal plans have to be incorporated, deciding on whether to skip breakfast and use the little money at hand for just lunch and dinner; or endeavouring for a heavy breakfast of banku, gob3 or Hausa koko and koose, with the drinking of lots of water till evening, for a meal; or taking breakfast and lunch and skipping dinner.

The hassle is real; thus, basically, people are having two meals in a day, still more others just a meal a day.

In the past, three square meals were the norm in most homes, which were substantial, satisfying and balanced.

Now, most women in homes have to manage the hungry expectations of their children after a late breakfast until they again ‘manage’ to put dinner on the table.

Money is scarce, and Ghana is not liquid, having to borrow money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with conditions that meant the tightening of expenditures.

Governance

One of the characteristics of good governance is that those who rule are responsive to societal needs.

With all the challenges that duty bearers excuse, because of claims of external shocks, one would have thought that for basic needs such as food, across Ghana, citizens could have had it abundantly and cheaply too.

Food, a basic need, is expensive, not to mention the others, such as water, shelter and clothing, which are all high in fees, charges/rent and prices.

In a review of US Elections recently, a contest described as being on a knife’s edge ended with a surprise as Donald Trump had a clear win with the youth and some other segments of voters, who were seen to be against him, voting for him; and the reasons were for a change in their economic situation, as cost of living was biting under President Joe Biden, even though it had its antecedents and the future they envisaged as adults was one with ease to access basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter.

The 2024 Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance also shows a deterioration in human development, specifically in relation to social protection and welfare, among 63.8 per cent of Africa’s population in 27 countries, since 2014.

In 16 countries, 41.9 per cent have faced the deterioration of these indicators at a worsening pace since 2019, and food security was featured as one of the indices driving the trend.

Skills

Mothers, now, need extra skills to distract children from one meal to the other, as intervals between meals lengthen.

Some innovative mothers resort to measures to stretch resources to feed families, including sourcing for wild leafy greens (borkor borkor).

Food is a basic need. The cost of proteins, essential body building blocks, is increasing, with a kilo of beef nearly GH₵100 now, and herrings, the most basic of fishes, now sell at GH¢10 for three small pieces.

What do we do as citizens? We must continue to find innovative ways of eating, ensuring balanced meals despite the situation at hand.

For the government, their first responsibility is to ensure our welfare and when most strive for a basic need such as food, then they fail.

Governance is not easy; that is why we do not all vie for leadership. But when those who stand to lead are elected, they must have the fear of God to lead selflessly for the good of citizens.

Writer’s E-mail: caroline.boateng@graphic.com.gh