Nothing seems to work now — Agyeman-Rawlings

Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings  has said nothing seems to work now and she will not waste time in an unending list of national failures.

Speaking at a lecture organised by two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in conjunction with the National Democratic Party (NDP) in Sunyani on Wednesday, she stated that Ghanaians could no longer wait a second on the question of national productivity and poor livelihoods of deprived people.

 According to the organisers of the lecture, the two NGOs, Developing Women Mobilisation (DWM) and Community Organisation Bureaux Network of Ghana (COBNOG), share the ideals of the NDP.

It was organised on the theme: "Ghana Must Work Again With Special Emphasis — Shared Leadership For Good Governance.’’

Mrs Rawlings chastised the country's leadership and stated that the mismanagement of the economy had manifested in mass deprivation, unemployment, a deluge of corruption and 'dumsor', symbolising national obscurity from inspired innovation and creativity".

Leadership

Mrs Rawlings, who is also the leader of the NDP, stated that Ghana needed to consider two things to get the nation to work and rise from the doldrums.

These, she explained, were sufficient leadership with a finger on the social pulse and constitutional consensus as a guide for shared leadership.

".... when we neither have sufficient leadership nor one with commitment and adherence to shared leadership prescriptions, then of course, getting out of the quagmire must not even be contemplated."

Mrs Rawlings stated that Ghana's constitutional democracy must not be construed as a gamble for leadership.

She added that leadership must exude qualities of moral principles and be a rallying factor and integrity, adding that undermining these moral principles compromised the normalcy and preservation of the national moral fibre.

The former First Lady described the present state of the nation as gloomy and attributed it to "a clear case of leadership deficiency that has given rise to all the unending social ills."

National discourse

Mrs Rawlings expressed concern over the current national discourse, which, she observed, had been trivialised in political equalisation aimed at public deception and crookery.

She said the national discourse had been couched to ensure that political capital was made out of mass ignorance instead of a resolved fulfilment of social democratic interventions.

Mrs Rawlings said Ghana could no longer accept political party manifesto scams that brought nothing to the people.

The Chief Executive Officer of COGNOB, Alhaji Mohammed Frimpong, explained that his organisation’s aim was to mobilise Ghanaians to ensure that they were enlightened in order to question how the country was governed.