Former Chief of Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, Brigadier Joseph Nunoo-Mensah, has urged the current government to learn from the experiences of neighboring countries to prevent any uprising from the citizenry.
He cautioned that neighboring countries had experienced coups due to their failure to address the concerns of their citizens. Brigadier Nunoo-Mensah highlighted the leaders’ disregard for the economic challenges faced by citizens, treating them as if they did not exist.
He made these remarks during an interview on JoyNews’ Upfront on February 28.
“Let’s look at the nations that have had coup d’etat in recent times in the ECOWAS sub-region, let’s look at ourselves. We have to be honest with ourselves.
“Today in Ghana, we are facing serious economic and social problems; very serious ones but our governments are behaving as if there is no problem.
“When you look at the ordinary people in this country, how they are facing life it is hard, it is rough, but we don’t even want to accept that times are hard,” he told host, Raymond Acquah.
“When my good old friend, our president spoke I was looking forward to answers to these problems that we are facing especially with food. You cannot buy local food cheaply. If at my level, I cannot buy simple food like gari, cassava, or yam cheaply then there is a problem.
“The problem is going to get even harder and when we don’t want to accept that it is going to get pretty rough if we don’t take care, we are going to have a massive food crisis that might lead to all kinds of problems,” he added.
The former Chief of Staff acknowledged that while he may not be the wisest person on earth, he hoped that leaders would at least invite senior citizens to the table to discuss important economic issues and find lasting solutions.
“At the age of 80 getting to 88, I don’t have too much time to live. I don’t like the Ghana I am leaving behind. We are looking for answers to our political, and socioeconomic problems.
“We need to find a solution. The NPP, NDC thing it is not working and one must be honest about it,” he added.