THE ORDINARY GHANAIAN VRS GPRS

PICTURE OF A GHANAIAN MARKETPLACE
Courtesy: www.ghanabusinessnews.com


THE ORDINARY GHANAIAN VRS GPRS

I was rummaging through some old things in my garage,
Thought I’d hold a yard sale,
Got too many things stowed away.
I came across so many things,
A box of my old shoes,
A guitar missing all its teeth,
Two deflated footballs and a golf club,
A kayak, got no idea where that came from
Among other interesting things.


Out of all these,
Only one item caught my attention,
Guess what it was,
You guessed it, the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy,
GPRS for short.
I had forgotten entirely about this bold undertaking
Of my dear nation Ghana.
The idea, very laudable, quite ambitious too
The document, weighed a tone,
It single-handedly fulfilled all the requirements necessary
For an object to qualify as a projectile,
In an airport environment,
Wielding one of these might be labeled a hostile act.
Transporting such a document into a foreign land
Would be viewed as a declaration of war,
Quite rightly so too.


Curiousity got the better of me,
I began leafing through the messiah,
The document dwelt on these specific areas
Macroeconomic stability
Production and gainful employment
Human development and basic services
Special programmes for the vulnerable and the excluded
And lastly, governance.
I decided to take this issue to the law courts on
Behalf of the common men and women on the streets.


This is what transpired,
Apparently, the GPRS 1 and 2 were implemented
From 2003-2009,
So after almost a seven year romance with the GPRS,
Can anyone tell me what we have achieved?
Has anyone seen GPRS around?
Surely he must be somewhere,
Couldn’t just have disappeared into thin air.


Has poverty been reduced in anyway after
We boldly outdoored the messiah?
Probably it became a white elephant after all.
So many white elephants walking the streets of Accra,
Confused, half awake and begging reprieve.
Ghana, a nation rife with lost policies and visions
Waiting on albion trucks so they can hitch a ride into the nether world.
Almost seven years after the birth of GPRS,
The common man in Ghana is still languishing in poverty.
Poverty, the insurmountable wall of Ghana.
Macroeconomic stability, what is it?
We always hear of this macroeconomic thing,
Can someone boldly lift a hand up and
School me on macroeconomic stability?
Macroeconomic stability, what a cliché,
It has become a swan song,
Kindly give us a new catchy phrase
Your macroeconomic mumbo jumbo
Has lost its ominous appeal.


Production and Gainful employment?
I probably must be dreaming, it seems our
Greatest achievements as a nation is churning out
Graduates who sit idle using their certificates as wallpaper,
Gainful employment? That seems alien in this country
No such thing exists here; try the poppy fields of Afghanistan.


Human development and basic services?
We’re doing perfectly in this department,
I applaud the men upstairs,
So much so that we’ve got Chinese contractors constructing our roads,
Engineers from Holland tending our water works at record speed
And the South Koreans are about to build our houses
Yes!! This is human development the Ghanaian way.
Can someone explain this to me?
What does human development mean?
Judging from the above,
Have we not done the exact opposite with regard to
Human development in this country?
Basic Services?
Please pinch me, I definitely must be dreaming.
What are basic services?
Easy access to healthcare
Education
Water
Electricity and others.


All the above have become luxuries today
Rather than necessities.
Potable water is now a mythical
Figure roaming the streets of Ghana.
Healthcare, cash and carry, the order of the day
The health insurance scheme fetches you nothing healthy.
Education, public schools are schools only by name,
They churn out pretty questionable products.
Electricity, seems load shedding came early this year,
Herald the year of the disco light nation.
Did Ghanaians really draw up this strategy?
I doubt that, probably some Martians did.


Special programmes for the vulnerable
And the excluded?
The entire Ghanaian nation is vulnerable,
We’ve been running on adrenaline for ages,
We’ve performed poorly and eroded
Successes chalked by our forefathers.
Greed and selfishness seems our specialty today,
I guess that is the special programme embedded in the GPRS.
The excluded?
Who are the excluded?
What are they excluded from?
After almost seven years of GPRS, can someone
Enlighten me on what branch of the Ghanaian society
Bears the enviable tag “THE EXCLUDED”?


Governance,
The GPRS sought to achieve the following under governanace:
Timely access to justice for all
Transparency in government decision making
Decentralization and accountability
And a zero tolerance for corruption.
Have we achieved any of the above lofty
And ambitious targets?
Timely justice for all?
Is there justice in this country at all?
Let alone it being timely?


Transparency? I looked up this word in the
Ghanaian English dictionary,
I came up with nothing,
If you want transparency, kindly refer to the
STX affordable housing deal, is that enough transparency for you?
Did Ghanaians really come up with GPRS?
I still harbour doubts.


Decentralization and accountability?
Still a dream, we’re living a recurring nightmare.
Zero tolerance for corruption,
I think we just redefined the number zero,
I’m still trying to embrace the illusionary
Zero tolerance being announced by
My friend the GPRS.
I cannot pass judgment on GPRS,
I need the men and women of thes jury
To retreat to their chambers and deliberate.
Jury’s still out on GPRS,
Kindly keep your ears to the ground,
Judgment shall soon be pronounced,
Thank you all for making it to court
For the case of the Ordinary Ghanaian VRS GPRS
We’re on recess….