Manifestos of political parties vying for leadership are considered a blueprint of their regime. However, the reality of leadership is always rude and in the continent over, leaders seem to change their tune the minute they hit the high office.
Sadly, manifestos which should be the marking schemes of performance have been reduced to a shopping list that goes unfulfilled.
Africa has witnessed several elections this year. South Africa in May, Rwanda in July, Mozambique’s and Chad’s to be held in October and Ghana’s to be held in December.
Africa is a young continent with an average age of 19, the manifestos of major political movements eyeing positions of power have always been centered around job creation, youth employment, education, and technology.
Ghana’s ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) launched its manifesto at Takoradi on the 18th this month. The party’s presidential candidate, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia unveiled the manifesto emphasizing job creation and economic development as he gears for the December election.
Ghana is a resource-rich nation, with 68% of its energy sourced from natural gas and over 86% of its population having access to electricity, the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The country is also a leading global producer of gold, which accounts for 95% of its mineral revenue. Additionally, Ghana has substantial oil reserves, discovered in 2007, that are 20 times its annual consumption.
Furthermore, Ghana is the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, contributing significantly to the global supply of this valuable commodity. These lucrative resources position Ghana as a key player in several major industries. However, the country is riddled with debt, and diseases, and poverty prevalence is high, with around 25% of the population living below $2 a day.
Ghana’s prevailing political climate mirrors Kenya’s and is considered a stable democracy in the West of Africa. Mahamudu Bawumia is the country’s current Vice President.
Just like Ruto, during his campaign to succeed his predecessor, Mahamudu is promising to rectify the mistakes made by the current regime, under which he serves and improve the economy in through a bottom-up model. Ironically, his choice for Vice President is the current energy minister, Dr. Mathew Opoku.
The incessant question is this, why didn’t they execute these policies during their initial tenures? Kenya’s recent protests were triggered by the Finance Bill 2024 which would have introduced punitive taxes to an already ailing economy.
Contrary to Kenya Kwanza’s manifesto and Ruto’s constant promises of alleviation, the regime has increased taxes, the price of power has more than doubled, the financial market is on the decline, higher education has become unaffordable to a majority of families as a result of the new funding model, and corruption scandals have hit the roof.
Worse, Ruto has been gallivanting the globe, taking loans without approval of the legislature despite his promise to reduce borrowing, and is encouraging the Kenyan youth to seek employment abroad at the risk of national brain drain, while failing to implement policies to create a conducive environment for economic growth and job creation.
Moreover, information wars are on the rise with the advent of AI and increased usage of X, currently considered the biggest source of news. Recently, the Kenyan youth embarked on an audit of development projects launched by the regime, to separate truth from falsehood.
Despite the presidency’s press team’s attempt to stem the embarrassment by publishing edited videos and photos of projects to mislead Kenyans, fact-checking was their undoing.
There is an awakening in the continent. Visibly, in the next decade, the continent’s politics will be different, either improved or worse, depending on the prevailing players and the extent of civic education.
