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At the beginning of every year, individuals and groups of people make various pledges and promises to themselves and to friends and relations. They set targets for themselves in the hope that those targets, once they are achieved, would catapult them further up the ladder of life. Nations also make pledges through their leaders and set for themselves goals and objectives all aimed at improving the lives of the people. There is this man who resorted to heavy drinking, not the tot-tot that I take my mahogany bitters ooo. His is proper proper booze. The man used to work with the railways. Do not forget that my father used to work with the Ghana Railways and Ports at the time. As for boozing, ooooo, the man was good. He even won an award for a boozing competition in 1968. It happened that in Takoradi in those days, there were a number of government departments all located at where we used to call P and T. There was the now defunct Post and Telecommunication, State Construction Company (SCC), PWD, you name them. Those institutions also had their share of booze men as well. So on one occasion, these corporations decided to organize a drinking competition to determine who was who. So in the open space of once again the defunct PWD Park, an akpeteshie drinking contest was held. All the competing corporations presented their best booze men. The stuff was poured from a drum into an open bowl and a big jug like the ones used in serving �bubra� was put into the bowl. The contestants were supposed to fill their glasses with the liquor and drink it without pausing to even take a breath. This was to continue until the last person decided to stop. Not long after the competition had begun, this railway man whose organization was not taking part in the competition happened to pass by the competition grounds. Curiosity drew him further to the spot where spectators had gathered and were cheering the contestants. As soon as he saw what was going on, this man looked around and snatched a small bucket normally used for bathing kids, from a lactating mother, and without any invitation, dipped the bucket into the big bowl, filled it to the brim and gulped everything down without taking a breath. The spectators were so shocked by the man�s performance that they declared him the winner of the competition even though he was not a registered contestant. This is the man who had made a New Year�s resolution that he was going to quit alcoholic drinks, at least in the coming year. He made the pledge in the evening of 31st December. The wife, who habitually quarrelled with the husband because of his drinking habit, also promised on her honour to be respectful and humble to the husband in the coming year. She promised him unconditional access to her website anytime he wanted to browse. Early morning on New Year�s Day, the woman saw the husband being carried to the house in a wheelbarrow. Waaboow de owoo, waye heavy. The woman could not help but whip the husband in the open while raining insults on him. The resolutions dissolved before sunset on the 1st of January. That is why I do not make resolutions in the New Year about my life. Particularly when you have the NDC in power, with Egya Atta as the President, I bet you he will make your life miserable. Oh yes, Egya Atta�s record of broken promises is unsurpassed in this country. Whaat, if Egya Atta asks you to look up into the sky, please look down down down. I won�t go far, just look at last year, 2011. Egya Atta promised this nation an action year. What was given to this country was inaction. Volta University, well dodge; B.A University, no show; STX, yamutu; Kotokuraba market, April fool; one time premium of National Health Insurance, na lie. Egya Atta resolved that the Tarkwa Bogoso road was going to be constructed. Indeed the President, early last year, cut the sod for work to begin. No show as we speak; in fact the way and manner in which the sod cutting was done gave an indication that the project was indeed not going to see the light of day in that year. The president was using hoes and shovels to cut the sod for road construction works to begin. Compare that to the NPP era when President Kufuor would cut the sod for road construction with construction equipment because the contractors would be on site. The president assured the people of Cape Coast that a stadium initiated by Kufuor but aborted by the NDC administration was going to be done. Again Egya Atta has spat in the face of the people of Cape Coast. Nothing! The action promised the people of Ghana in 2011 saw the most excruciating pains for parents and our children in the area of education. For the first time in the history of education in this country, more than 50% of children who sat for the BECE failed outright and lost the opportunity to climb the educational ladder. The president kept quiet over this matter as if nothing had happened. It did not end there; selection into Senior High Schools in 2011 sent shivers down the spines of most parents, while the children themselves became very much uncertain in as far as their future was concerned. When eventually some had the opportunity to go to school, they had to carry along with them, buckets of paint, whether, Azar, Leyland or Leylac, you name them. In other schools, while the mothers were carrying the paints, the fathers were also carrying bags of cement before their children would be admitted into schools after the school fees had been paid. They were part of the better Ghana agenda of Egya Atta. To the majority of us Ghanaians, Egya Atta�s promise of a better Ghana in the action year saw painful shortages of liquefied petroleum gas for both domestic and commercial use. Men and women had to queue in the scorching sun, carrying their cylinders for non-existing gas. Instead of finding a quick solution to the problem, Egya Atta and his people started a blame game, heaping insults on taxi drivers for the shortage. Ministers were quick to insult workers who were making legitimate demands on government. Doctors were bastardized, teachers were �tear-gased� and fishermen were �hot-watered� to remove the salty ice from the sea from their bodies. A plethora of industrial actions confronted the Egya Atta administration, which was too mean to improve the lives of the people of this country. The eastern corridor project still remains a mirage under the action year of Egya Atta, and for the first time since the fourth republic, the people of the Volta region whom the NDC have taken for granted because they are a world bank that can offer loans without asking for collateral, took to the streets on a number of occasions for having been deceived by Egya Atta, the man of integrity and honesty. All these failed promises aside, Egya Atta presided over the most insulting and blatant acts of illegality ever visited on this nation, and here, the names that come out clearly are the Moulds. First, Mr. Alex Mould of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) decided to use his krakye powers to extort and virtually steal monies from us without any authorization. By the way, who steals monies with authorization from another person unless there is a conspiracy between the one doing the stealing and the other authorizing it? So it came to pass that a whooping GH�690 million of our monies was collected by Alex Mould and put in some Ghana must go bags, ready to be used to fight the 2012 general elections by the NDC. As if that was not enough, pretty aunty Betty Mould �Iddrisu also authorized an amount of GH� 58 million to Alfred Wayome for no work done. The eagerness, with which she ordered the Minister for Finance to effect this payment, and the pressures the ministry brought to bear on the Agriculture Development Bank to release the funds to Woyome, defies reasoning. It also shows a clear case of interest by those authorizing and effecting the payments. And what did the president say to this? That Kufuor�s administration should be held responsible while those ministers who effected the payment still remain in office? This is the incorruptible president, the man of integrity, the pious humble and meek man. Ghana is gradually going down under him but he has no eyes to see. That is why he makes promises he cannot fulfil. Who will take such a president serious when he makes further promises to the nation? He has made promises for this year as well; sadly his promises are not based on what he is capable of doing by himself but a loan he has no control over. Eye Asem Sebe. As for me, no resolutions which will be dissolved with time. I will stick to my mahogany bitters, tot by tot. Hey, did you hear about the Ghanaian journalist who openly emptied his pen drive in far away Tanzania and was arrested by the Tanzanian police? He exported his indiscipline from Ghana to poor Tanzania, where the laws work. Any New Year resolutions by him?