The contribution of diaspora Ghanaians towards the social, cultural and economic development of Ghana cannot be over-emphasized, Ghanaians living outside the shores of the country have been very instrumental in the growth of Ghana right from the pre-colonial era, in fact the litany of forts and castles dotted all through the coastal lines and the hinterlands is an indication that Ghana accounts for a large number of slaves that were taken to the West, who later settled there and raised families.
A recent world bank Migration and Development Fact Sheet stated that the value of diaspora remittances to Ghana is twice larger than the Official Development Assistance (ODA) and forecasted to become higher than foreign direct investment for Ghana and a handful of other African countries in 2021, but the economic impact of COVID-19 may affect this forecast. In 2019, Ghana was the second largest recipient of diaspora remittance, amounting to $3.5 billion, which is 7.4% of GDP, that is a huge contribution, so the toil of diaspora Ghanaians are enormous.
Since the assumption of the ruling NPP government, diaspora Ghanaians have always been awashed with negative news emanating from Ghana and which have always gained international attention, this is far short of the high expectations placed on the NPP government, which led to their victory at the 2016 polls, though there were some irregularities and a hacking attempt of the EC's server. This is not the change the Ghanaian populace massively voted for and its certainly not the change we wanted.
President Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo is one of the most intolerant president that has emanated from the shores of Ghana, he has virtually chased all the investigative journalist into oblivion, Manasseh Azure is one, president Nana Addo assumed Ghanaians that Manasseh Azure will be very instrumental in his fight against corruption, but he came to power and become intolerant of the criticism of Manasseh Azure and his likes. He assured Ghanaians that his government will protect the public purse but we have rather seen a squander of the public purse, a president that spends a whopping £15,000 per hour to hire a public private jet cannot protect our public purse
The president Akuffo Addo led NPP government has virtually done all they campaigned against when in opposition, and has consistently undermined the basics tenets of the country's democracy, namely constitutionalism, press freedom, independent state institutions and citizen participation. The NPP government has fallen short of adhering to modern democratic standards and have to be botted outcome December 7, 2024, because their continued stay in office is a threat to the democracy, peace and stability of the state so we must all strive to put an end to these abuses of political and constitutional rights, and the creeping institutional decay.
A recent report by the Community Development Alliance (CDA-Ghana) and the Commonwealth Foundation titled "Strengthening COVID-19 Accountability Mechanisms (SCAM)", has cited the president Akufo-Addo led government for spending over US$2.1 billion COVID-19 funds on questionable and corrupt deals. The report said contract awarded to four Ghanaian garment manufacturing companies who had been given loans of $10m through the Ghana Exim Bank to produce PPEs, face masks, medical scrubs, hospital gowns and headgears was without tender and the companies were also not registered with the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) at the time of contract award.
As if that was not enough, an investigative report by a Norwegian newspaper (Vergens Gang) has cited Ghana for procuring the Sputnik V vaccines from a businessman at a unit price of $19 instead of the manufacturer's recommended price of $10. The paper further allergies that the middle-man which Ghana used to procure the vaccine is an ex-convict named Umar Farouk, who is wanted for embezzlement by the Norwegian government and is also wanted in Switzerland for engaging in bank fraud..
The very poor performance of the NPP administration has not only eroded the gains made by previous administrations but has also sets a dangerous precedent in our political journey and so Ecowas4JMahama and Ghanaians in diaspora in general are asking all Ghanaians to come out on December 7th, 2024 and vote out president Nana Akuffo Addo and his corrupt NPP government..