A former Chief of Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, Brigadier Joseph Nunoo-Mensah has advised the incumbent government to take cues from the experiences of neighbouring countries to avoid any uprising from the citizenry.
According to him, surrounding countries failed to take the plight of their citizens resulting in the recent coup d’etats.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Upfront on February 28, he raised concerns about how the leaders had turned a blind eye to the economic challenges citizens face as though they were nonexistent.
“Let’s look at the nations that have had coup d’etat in recent times in the ECOWAS sub-region, let’s look at ourselves. We have to be frank and honest with ourselves.
“Today in Ghana, we are facing serious economic and social problems; very serious once but our governments are behaving as if there is no problem. When you look at the ordinary people in this country, how they are facing life it is hard, it is rough, but we don’t even want to accept that times are hard,” he told host, Raymond Acquah.
He further expressed disappointment in the President’s failure to address these economic issues whilst delivering his last State of the Nation Address on Tuesday.
“When my good old friend, our president spoke I was looking forward to answers to these problems that we are facing especially with food. You cannot buy local food cheaply. If at my level, I cannot buy simple food like gari, cassava, or yam cheaply then there is a problem.
“The problem is going to get even harder and when we don’t want to accept that it is going to get pretty rough, if we don’t take care, we are going to have a massive food crisis that might lead to all kinds of problems,” he added.
The former Chief of Staff acknowledged that while he may not be the wisest person on earth, he hoped that leaders would at least summon senior citizens to the table to deliberate on pertinent economic situations and find lasting solutions.
“At the age of 80 getting to 88, I don’t have too much time to live. I don’t like the Ghana I am leaving behind. We are looking for answers to our political, and socioeconomic problems.
“We need to find a solution. The NPP, NDC thing it is not working and one must be honest about it,” he added.
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