The harmattan wind of peace has blown over us and as all the blown dust is beginning to settle and with showers of blessings earlier this week, our beautiful country, Ghana, is in the mode of being reset. This 2025 should be our year.

When the Word says, “Behold, I am making things new”, you would think that is a prophecy for Ghana to claim, at this point in time.  

Having celebrated Ghana’s sweet victory in December, the formal swearing-in of President John Dramani Mahama and his Vice, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang last Tuesday, was a spectacle to behold and a pride for many Ghanaians. The beauty of the ceremony added to the warmth of foreign dignitaries who came to grace the occasion attests to ours being a nation admired far and near and a pacesetter in the sub Region. When it comes to peaceful changeover of government, we have an enviable record as a beacon of hope for our peers.  

Inaugural speech

Beautiful was President John Mahama’s inaugural speech. It was reconciliatory, indeed, very inspiring.  Most touching was his complimentary words about immediate past President Nana Akufo-Addo and so was his appropriate commendation to former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for his early acknowledgement of defeat in the Presidential race and his acceptance speech thereof.  No doubt the decisive action he took helped in stemming the tide of tension and anxiety that often characterise such waiting periods.

One has since heard some radio commentators alluding to the fact that the President should have been blunt and condemned the former President for alleged reckless oversight of the economy and watching it virtually granting to a halt. While they may be entitled to their opinion, the President did nothing wrong in communicating some pleasantness the way he did it. 

His decisive victory in the December 2024 general election has already pointed out the thinking of Ghanaians. The verdict is that never in our history should politicians take the electorate for granted. The electorate has become a lot more wiser and it is up to our politicians to be more responsive to the calls of the people.  

Great expectations

Nonetheless, to whom much is given, much more is expected and in President Mahama’s case, a daunting task awaits him. The great expectations of the hungry and angry voters who felt cheated and let down, including those who did not vote for him, have since been shouted over the rooftop. 

Even the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markins seeming remark when a reporter asked him on the day of the swearing-in about his expectations, smiling, he said he and his team were as excited and could not wait to get back to Parliament to discuss and help government business and the 24-hour economy to take off.

The expectations of many of the electorate are many. One cannot wait for all those burdensome taxes that inflate one’s shopping bill to be brought down. These taxes including e-levy and Covid 19 for example should go. One does not mind the betting tax staying as a way of indirectly dissuading gambling as a habit, seen by experts as a looming danger for sound mental health as increased addiction was becoming a cause for mental health problems.

Like the lead character in Charles Dicken’s book, “Great Expectations”, the orphan nicknamed Pip, from his humble dreams as a boy in Kent in England, rose to great expectations when the opportunity came for him to move to the beautiful, bubbly and more affluent city of London.

Many Ghanaians had listening ears for all the elaborate campaign promises of President Mahama and now that the password is firmly in his hands to reset Ghana, expectations are even greater and his task is even more daunting as he sets off with his agenda to “make Ghana work again”. 

The expectation to have the lights on for the 24-hour economy to thrive is a keen expectation to be satisfied. The burden to buy food items from a shop or supermarket with additional taxes added to one’s bill must go and perhaps make up the tax falls by re-introducing toll booth taxes.

For us pensioners, our greatest expectation is a raise in our state pensions to meet our daily challenges.  Talking about pensioners triggers another fulfilling expectation in terms of the full payout of one’s locked-up investments in both defunct and almost collapsing companies, there only in name.

The period of great expectation is finally here for those investors who have been denied full access to their monies for a good eight years. One’s hard-earned investments have been locked up with no interest, making the talk about investing while in active service a mere deception.

Thankfully, Ghana is about to be reset with the new wind blowing. Our fingers are crossed for the great expectation period as one puts hands together to pray for a much better Ghana in a new year with a new government and a new parliament.  What fun to be a Ghanaian at a time like this.

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The writer can be contacted via email at vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com