What Has Changed?

President John Evans Atta Mills and his government are engaged in a low-flying mission with the Ghanaian aircraft issue. We are just wondering how long it would be before they change altitude, given the drawbacks they are suffering at the current height. It is about aircraft purchase for the Ghana Armed Forces and perhaps for the presidency- transactions which have provoked an assortment of arguments by propagandists, most of them puerile. Having listened to some of the arguments in favour of the transaction, terms et al, we have been overwhelmed by their awfulness. They are so porous that we find it bizarre. Some of the five aircraft are intended to arrest armed robbers, and fight fires as in Australia? These were encapsulated in the defence of a deputy Information Minister. When people are ill-prepared for debates but think they should go in by all means, the quality of their output cannot be any better- puerile and infantile sounding: otherwise how can jets chase armed robbers and fight fires? When the need for such a purchase arose during the tenure of former President John Agyekum Kufuor, it was argued that the gentleman was insensitive to the plight of Ghanaians, who according to the NDC at the time, were hungry and needed an intervention of sorts. Today things, they claim, have changed and Ghana, an oil-rich country, according to Cletus Avoka, can afford such a purchase. With government suffering tribulations for every step it takes, we are not surprised at the ado that has greeted the aircraft purchase since the subject was mooted. E.T. Mensah�s condemnation of the Kufuor bid for the purchase, when he was in office, was expectedly played out a couple of days ago. The emphasis on the Honourable member�s contribution speaks volumes about the sincerity of politicians. Those who sometimes see politicians as a gang of rogues eager more about what they can fleece from the national cake than render service, could have a point for their stance. The arguments being put forth by government agents give credence to the claim that they hold the intelligence of Ghanaians in low esteem. Otherwise, why should the citizens of this country be told that Ghana, within the last two years, has witnessed an exponential development regarding the economy? Things, according to them, have changed phenomenally. For us this is balderdash. The true picture of the Ghanaian situation lies in the bosom of the ordinary man in the street and not the politician/economist sitting in an air-conditioned office at the Castle, and not paying for the fuel he/she uses, electricity or water bills. Someone remarked after hearing some of the arguments government agents have been running over each other to lay out for their compatriots: �What a government!� So what has changed since 2008 to warrant an inflated price for the said aircraft?