The role of the political leaders, the influentials in the effective governance of the country who basically share their ideas on how the political leaders are suppose to run the administration of the state, and if the formation of the formal rules which is the laws of the land (constitution) that regulates the actions of the people and has a lawful acceptance from the people. In the case of Ghana’s politics, we have hit a critical point where our institutions needs to be more effective and efficient and very strong in nature rather than being weak and incapable of punishing those in government who are engaged in pilfering and embezzlement of public funds which is meant for the progress of the society as a whole. These institutions and lawfulness must constitute the unreduceable groundwork for an effective and efficient state, the agreement between political elites which moderates the violence and winner takes all nature of unrestrained conflict. Such settlements are often understood to transform government from an autocratic to a more pluralistic, democratic form of government.
The “fix the country” campaign basically started long time ago when the former president of the republic of Ghana, John Agyekum Kuffour handed over power to the opposition party presidential candidate the late former president John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills of which it is believed that, the late former president had inherited poor economy from the former president in the year 2009/2010. It started as “fix the economy” because there was economic hardship on the part of the people and convey their grievances to the government, telling him to address their plights for they are suffering from several hardships such as power fluctuations, cedi depreciation, galamsey (illegal mining) etc. As compared to the previous governments, the incumbent president Nana Addo Dankwa Ajuffo
Without the institutional or formal rules which government use to setup the institutions, there will be no effective state in the sense that it is these rules that regulates the activities of the states. For example, in Ghana if there is no laws, all these institutions will be in chaos because there is no rules that will regulate their actions. That is why when Ghana was tune in the military regime, people could not vote for the type of leader they wanted but instead what the military men or leaders wanted and so in the year 1992, a military man named Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings stood up who managed to switch from a military rule to a democratic regime and became effective from 1993 till now which will include the consent of the people through exercising enfranchisement and other practices associated with democracy. This form of government encouraged the people to choose from many alternatives they wish for as a means of enduring that these leaders will be accountable and transparent when it comes to their dealings with the people who elected them into power. Unlike the military regime, where the military leaders were accountable to the military and not to the people or citizens, the democratic consolidation of Ghana has really improved especially in the case of the Ghanaian politics.
Fix the country campaign is basically about complaining against hardship but there are more things to seek attention to like people in the deprived areas are lacking some basic social amenities somewhere in Ghana and inadequate infrastructures but rather campaigning for something that has been there for centuries. Personally I will argue that, fixing a country must first commence with the politics of the country because up until now, Ghana has not attained fully the political development which leads to economic prosperity. This incumbent president has so far so good drawn out his policies which I see to be good for the country but the question is, “Are we on the track in achieving it?” I believe strongly that if the constitution of the land is reformed, we will be experiencing more rather than sticking to an old colonial provisions in the 1992 constitution. To campaign on “fix the country”, it will be better if we rather campaign for long-term development policies. Though, there are whole lot to attend to but the government made mention of eradicating all corrupt practices but the civil service and the public service are full of wizards (corrupt bureaucrats). The “fix the country” campaign have been the state of affairs after the 1970s and the 1980s demonstration called, “KUMEPREKO” which came into existence which is being empowered by the Youth for Accountable Governance on the crises of high taxes, corruption and bribery, culture of silence, media freedom and gender threat, galamsey, power fluctuations, high cost of living, low wages and salaries, mass unemployment etc.
Paul Adom Otchere (2021) argues that, before the “fix the country” campaign, the incumbent government was actually working on the economy of Ghana which was jammed by the intrusion of the coronavirus global pandemic which causes much havoc on Ghana’s economy. The president of the republic of Ghana His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo has exceedingly done much for the country during when we were out of one’s element such that he’s been able to adjust the country’s economy to 0.9%. He further argues that, the current situation of the country now is as a result of the impacts covid-19 had on the economy which he calls “covid-economics” where “covid-economics” according to him is, “a branch of economics that studies the unusual happenings in the economy in a particular year.” Paul Adom Otchere (2021) in countering the “fix the country” campaign said that, ‘a populace of about 60% literacy rate should go and read economics because it is the duty of the vice president Dr. Bawumia to fix the economy because he studied economics and knows more about the happenings in the economy. The reason for this rough and tough economy is because of inheritance of abysmal government from the outgone government. The real deal here is to set up committees responsible for the effectiveness and efficiency of the constitution to be strong and develop a strong institutions which makes a strong economy and not plethora of diverse militant anti-intellectuals in the system.
