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I wish all Ghanaians a happy Republic Day. This day and the day of the declaration of Independence should remind us of the covenant between our nation and God from whence our blessings emanates. In the book of Deuteronomy 4:31 we are assured that "For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which He confirmed to them by oath". Therefore, if we keep our commitments to the covenant, Ghanaians will be blessed with peace and prosperity. On this Republic Day, we should all reflect on the question, "Why are we in this crisis without hope under this NDC-led Government?" In my humble opinion, we have forgotten or deviated from the covenant that we have made with God. It may also be the case that our leaders have entered into other "covenants" with unknown spirits. If this is not the case, how do we explain the current state of our nation? How is that we have woefully failed to keep pace if the Koreans, Malaysians, Singapore, Indians, to mention a few countries that also begun life with Ghana? Again we should take a good look at our own African brethren in Botswana, Kenya and Ivory Coast and examine ourselves. GHANA IS IN CRISIS Ghana is fast sinking under the Mahama-led government and we must all sit up and do something different. I cannot comprehend how our President wakes up giving directives, instructions and orders that are disobeyed to the letter. He states a position and it is countered by his subordinates. His Minister for Youth and Sports embarrasses the whole nation in such a global proportion and all he does is reassign him rather than sack and probe him. There are long queues at fuel stations with people fighting and vehicles grounded and yet we are supposed to be an oil producing country. One dares not talk of lost productivity of the worker, farmer, trader, fisherman businesses people, to mention but few sectors of our economic life because of shortage of fuel in the country. There is no water for the greater majority of us to drink and to use for our essential daily activities. It is a sad state to go to our rural communities and observe young children of school going age struggling to fetch water from streams. Those communities that are classified as "lucky", have both adult women and children who congregate around boreholes which they pump with all their energies before going home with a bucket of water. With such a sad state all you hear from our leaders, most of whom enjoy pipe-borne water in their homes, trumpeting how they have helped our rural communities with mechanical boreholes. Ghana is blessed with abundance of rain water, underground water and numerous rivers and streams, yet we are at a loss in making our water bodies serve our people. As for the issue of electricity supply with its attendant "dumso, dumso", the least said about it the better. It is now a taboo to talk of the value of our Cedi to our trading counterparts. Our road networks are in deplorable states. Looking around our environment all we see is filth engulfing us. WHERE DOES OUR TAXES GO? So what does our President and our Ministers do at all, and what happens to our money? It is reported that some public sector workers have not been paid for over two years now, others have their allowances withdrawn. Contractors have not been paid for work done. Statutory payments that are binding such as GETFUND, District Assembly Common Fund, National Health Insurance Fund, to name but a few are seriously in arrears yet our taxes, from which the payments are to be made, are collected by the Mahama-led government. Talks of fresh tariffs and new taxes that were to be introduced today, in a rather insensitive move, are still hanging on our heads ready to hit Ghanaians soon. What a country to live in at this time! WAY FORWARD Firstly, I respectfully submit that H.E. John Mahama does not deserve the Presidency. Because all the nice things we heard about him before he got to this position were all hype. He is only a smooth talker with little substance and impact. He complains like all of us, when we have given him our mandate with all the powers, including our taxes, to act. He was never a Presidential material, was never ready to be President and has failed to seize a single opportunity to be one. I entreat all well-meaning Ghanaians to resolve firmly to change him at the polls come the general elections in December 2016. Ghanaians needs and deserve refreshing change in our lives. Secondly, each and every one of us must re-dedicate ourselves to the service of God and seek His face so that our blessings that have been hidden from us shall be released. His covenant is everlasting and the hope and aspirations of our forefathers can be realised. Thirdly, let us all resolve to brighten the corner wherever we are in our small way. Do not sit down waiting for anyone, and for that matter this clueless and embarrassing Mahama-led government because they have clearly shown that they do not care about the greater majority of us. Just do something positive from today. Do it well and different. With a good heart, good mind and love for your brethren, refreshing change will come to our lives. Better Ghana is not good enough. The Best is yet to come through refreshing change. Signed Stephen Asamoah Boateng