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Every citizen is indebted to the tune of GH�2,500, for the simple reason that we have allowed President John Dramani Mahama to go on a borrowing spree. According to the Bank of Ghana, Ghana�s public debt hit GH�65.7 billion at the end of September 2014, and still counting. In terms of ratio to Gross Domestic Product, it is 57.6 percent. From the posture of this moribund administration, there is no end in sight for the borrowing. There is the lurking $700 million standing in the name of the state oil company Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, the $800 million borrowed to construct the Atuabo Gas Project, while we await the controversial $3 billion Chinese loan, which has been scaled down to $1.5 billion. A failed administration is putting all its eggs in the basket of borrowing, so as to be seen to be engaged in some form of development projects, as a means of hook-winking the unsophisticated in national politics to retain the clueless National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its leadership in power when the vote is called on December 7, 2016. At the end of March this year, this nation was indebted to its creditors to the tune of GH�58.4 billion, which translates into a nine percent increase in the debt profile in the past six months. From April to June the nation�s public debt increased by GH�5.2 billion. While borrowing brings temporary relief, in the sense that it enables the borrower, in this case, the Government of the Republic of Ghana, to undertake developments that it would otherwise not have been able to undertake, it puts a serious strain on the fiscal measures of the administration in the long term According to economic experts, interest on the huge loans contracted by this administration means that the second largest expenditure in government books is the payment of interest on loans. Though the principal could take a relatively long time to service, interest payments alone account for the second largest expenditure in this country. If you ask me why this nation is struggling with service delivery, there is your answer. As you read this piece, virtually all social interventionist policies introduced by the Kufuor administration to insulate the average Ghanaian from the pangs of economic hardship, have all been virtually whittled away. At the last count, the School Feeding Programme, the introduction of which increased enrolment in basic schools across the country, has virtually ceased to exist, because the Government of Ghana is unable to meet its contractual obligations to service providers. The government is outstanding in its commitment to service providers to the tune of over GH�100 million throughout the country. With contractors unable, or unwilling, to fund the project anymore, the innovative means of keeping Ghanaian kids in the classroom is suffering a stunted growth. The quality of food has suffered badly. In many cases, contractors have stopped the provision of food altogether. Enumerating several challenges facing social interventionist policies bequeathed by the previous administration after joining the street march in Accra on Tuesday, Minority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, was very forthright: �The Capitation Grant and the National Health Scheme have collapsed. MPs� Common Fund is not being paid, and monies for the Road Fund are not going to where they are supposed to go.� Last week, I engaged a top official of the state on road construction and maintenance, and what he told me made a solid case for the removal or the rejection of this administration at the polls in December. He said construction of roads has become a huge political tool for this administration. The busiest road network in this country, he said, is the Accra-Kumasi Highway. �Is there any case for prioritising the needs of this country, when the Suhum-Apedwa stretch of the road is abandoned, while authorities concern themselves with what, in all seriousness, are secondary road networks?� He said the funding for the much trumpeted Awoshie-Amasaman duel carriage way in Accra, was sourced by the Kufuor regime but it is now being trumpeted as if it is a major achievement of the Mills/Mahama regime. �It is good to construct the Awoswhie-Amasaman stretch of road to ease congestion in the city, for instance. But is it more important than the completion of the Accra-Kumasi Highway?� he asked rhetorically. �I am afraid this government has all its priorities wrong. But I doubt if it is not deliberate,� he charged. Another official this writer talked to singled out the construction of the Eastern University at Somanya and the Afram Plains, while Koforidua, the regional capital, and many other major towns and municipalities in the region have no such public institutions for higher learning as examples of what he termed politisation of state projects. On Tuesday, hundreds of Ghanaians marched through the streets of the national capital to protest against bad governance and its consequences, in the form of poverty and the inability of most citizens to eke out a decent living in the Mahama administration. Organised by the pressure group Alliance for Accountable Governance, the marchers denounced the high cost of living, poor management of the economy and its borrowing spree, and lack of avenues for economic activities. Explaining the rationale for taking to the streets, Dr. Nana Ayim Afriyie, AFAG Chairman, told The Chronicle: �We are basically drumming home the problems of and challenges of corruption and hardship in the country. We want government to sit up. Ordinarily, if government had listened to AFAG, there would not have been the need for this demonstration.� He said demonstrations come about �when you have failed to meet the expectations of the ordinary people. That is why we are calling on the people to come out in their numbers for us to demonstrate. It is very simple; can we put a stop to the corruption; can we put a stop to hardships facing Ghanaians; can we see to the statutory payments to state agencies to run their services, or can the NHIS work, because monies have been allocated to pay service providers?� While AFAG and their collaborators were on the streets, the Mahama administration was on the carpet from the tongue of Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament Dominic Nitiwul, who charged the government to reduce petroleum prices �drastically.� Nititul recalled the ruling NDC�s pledge to reduce petroleum prices drastically, and wondered why prices have not tumbled in Ghana after the price of crude oil had been reduced from $114 per barrel to $84, describing the official alibi that the National Petroleum Authority is indebted to the Bulk Oil Distributors, as a very poor reference point. �I don�t expect that because there are other recoveries, the National Petroleum Authority should continue to charge high prices that they do not deserve,� the Member of Parliament for Bimbila told Citi FM. In his estimation, a gallon of refined petrol should sell at GH�7 and not the GH�15 that filling stations are offering the commodity to drivers and vehicle owners. I believe that is an ambitious submission, given the erratic behaviour of the local cedi. Petrol could be sold at say GH�10 or GH�12 a gallon and still make a reasonable profit for dealers. As it is, a government that claims to be social democratic in its ideology is behaving like a Shylock in its dealings with the people of Ghana. Yesterday, I heard Minister of Communications Dr. Edward Omane Boamah pontificating on the government�s developmental agenda, and its adherence to its social contract with the people of Ghana, as a pundit on television, and prayed Almighty to remain where he is. What might have irked the viewing public was the Minister�s almost contemptuous dismissal of the AFAG demonstration, as failing to reflect the achievement of this moribund administration. When he went on rattling so-called development achievements of the Mahama regime, with references to projects being constructed with borrowed foreign money I told myself that Ghanaians are in for more trouble. What Omame Boamah sought to relay yesterday is that with the debt profile at GH�65.7 billion, and approaching 60 percent of GDP, Ghanaians should brace themselves for the piling of more debts, as the Mahama administration approaches the vote of December 7, 2016. A moribund administration seeking fresh a mandate at all cost is prepared to mortgage the future of this country for its political gains. A word to the wise, someone intimated the other day, is in the north!