Many Ghanaians are divided as to what the President elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, should do when he is inaugurated on January 7, 2017.

While others expect he him to hit the road running others are pleading for time for him to settle down before making demands on him to fulfil his campaign promises.

People pleading for time include the President of Groupe Ideal, Dr Nii Kotei Dzani, who has urged Ghanaians to give the incoming administration of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) enough time to settle down before making demands on it to fulfil its campaign promises.

According to him, people ought to exercise patience since it would take time for the President-elect to appoint his team of officials to run the affairs of the state and also have in place the necessary structures required to kick-start the processes of governance over the next four years.

Dr Dzani made the statement during the 2016 edition of the festival of Nine Lessons and Carols of Groupe Ideal in Accra yesterday.

He made the assertion against the backdrop of the promises Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, then presidential candidate of the NPP, made during the electioneering.

Hit the road running

Even though Nana Akufo-Addo has promised to execute all the promises he made to Ghanaians on his campaigns, sections of the public are full of expectations and are calling on him to hasten moves to have them implemented in order to reduce the hardship the people were facing.

Timothy Ngnenbe reports that , in line with this the incoming administration of the New Patriotic Party has been urged to use the first six months in office to put in place mechanisms to weed out corrupt tendencies among public servants in order to save enough resources for national development.

The Founder and Executive Director of the Rhema Foundation for Leadership and Resource Development, Reverend Abu Bako, who made that call, observed that building a robust economy required people with a positive mindset and diligent attitude towards work.

He spoke to the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of the annual end-of-year thanksgiving service organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) in Accra last Thursday.

The event, which was held on the theme: “O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good,” was used to thank God for seeing the company through the year successfully and to celebrate the workers who excelled in their areas of jurisdiction.

Mismanagement

Rev. Bako observed that the mismanagement of the resources by leadership across the world was not in line with the will of God, adding that until the structures were put in place to discourage people from siphoning public resources, national economies would continue to backtrack.

“If it comes to the case of Ghana for instance, the incoming government must take immediate steps to weed out any structures that could breed corruption. If they fail to do that the confidence reposed in them by the people will be eroded,” he added.

Collective responsibility

He urged all citizens to get involved in the processes of national development, stressing that nation building was a collective responsibility that required accountability and efficient use of resources.

“Everyone in the country needs to commit to building the nation, especially those who are in the civil service, because that is supposed to be the backbone of the economy. But a weak and corrupt civil service hinders national development.”

“Most of the time, we tend to look for traces of corruption among political leaders rather than focusing on civil servants. Going forward into 2017, the government ought to put in place structures to discourage corruption and negative work attitudes among public sector workers,” he added.

He observed that the development challenges that most countries in Africa, including Ghana, faced was due to the improper management of time and resources, stressing that “there is nothing like the black man’s time, because God did not give 48 hours a day to black people.”

“When it comes to work, we need to change our attitude by avoiding lateness. God did not create man to work in order to eat, rather man ought to eat to work, and this calls for dedication in order to achieve excellence,” he added.

Sermon

Rev. Bako urged the public to let the purpose of God and the essence of Christmas reflect in their daily lives.

He took the scripture from Ecclesiastes 10:16-17 and Isaiah 9:6, calling on all people to be obedient to the word of God and work for the betterment of the country.

Workers commended

While commending the workers for working hard to sustain the company, the Managing Director of GCGL, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, asked them to adopt more innovative measures to consolidate the gains made.

“This year has been an election year, so the stakes were high, but we were successful in reporting on the election. We pray that the transition will be done without any daunting challenges,” he added.

Mr Ashigbey observed that the company would continue to strategise in order to get the best human resource and to deploy the right technology to remain a household name in the African media fraternity.

He further urged the workers to go the extra mile to put their God-given potentials to use in a manner that would benefit the company and the country at large.

“As workers of the GCGL, we need to put our trust in God and depend on him in order to achieve our dream of becoming one of the best multi-media organisations in West Africa,” he added.

In a spirit-filled atmosphere, the various departments of the company took turns to read and sing during the Nine Lessons and Carols at the thanksgiving service.

graphic.com.gh