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I get upset when top officials of this country continue to point to a non-existent development agenda of this administration. It is even more annoying when officialdom forcefully invites Ghanaians to laud an administration that has piled on the debts and succeeded in reducing the quality of life in this nation to brutish standards.

I do not care if the sitting head of state smooth-talks the people of Talensi to vote for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in today’s by-election. I am not worried if officialdom refers to the vote today as a dress rehearsal for returning President John Dramani to Government House in 2016. That is their opinion. Opinions, as the English would tell you, are like noses, everyone has his or her own.

For me, what is worrying is the systematic attempt from officialdom to point to non-existent development projects to justify the spiriting away of state cash without accounting for them. There is an emerging trend of state officials making references to ongoing development projects as reason for saddling this nation with huge external and internal debts.

At the last count, this nation was indebted to local and external creditors to the tune of GH¢88.20 billion and still counting. When deceased President John Evans Atta Mills mounted the rostrum at the Black Star Square in Accra on January 7, 2009, to be decorated as the third Head of State since constitutional rule in January 1993, Ghana’s total debt stood at GH¢9.5 billion.

On Wednesday July 1, 2015, this nation celebrated 55 years of republican status, with the economic fortunes of Ghana under the grips of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is recommending the removal of every available subsidy, and making life hell for the average Ghanaian.

That is why I am beside myself with rage, following the declaration by President John Dramani at the weekend that the people of Talensi should vote for the NDC, based on the government’s track record of bringing development to the people.

Read the lips of the Head of State: “Development is our flagship, and we will work with B.T. Baba, a retired Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Prison Service, who is internationally known, to bring accelerated development to the area.”

He said it was only the NDC that has “a golden track record of developing Talensi.” I do not care what the Head of State tells the people to win their votes. But, I care a lot about referring to the moribund NDC in government as the party with a track record of development.

Ghanaians have a clear idea of what the NDC, in government, has done to this nation. While resources of state have been misapplied with careless abandon, officials continue to pontificate on non-existent development projects.

It is as if suddenly, development in this nation has taken on the form of a mirage. Officials create the impression of its presence all over the country. But on reaching the so-called projects, there is nothing on the ground.

When former President John Evans Atta Mills visited his ancestors in July 2012, the NDC told the whole world that as part of activities to immortalise the memory of the deceased head of state, the 10-kilometre road from Essuehyia Junction to Otuam, hometown of the departed head of state, would be reconstructed and asphalted.

The project began in earnest. Nearly four years after mother earth received the mortal remains of Prof. Mills, the project is nowhere near completion. As you read this piece, the 10-kilometre road project is still under construction. It appears the construction had a special schedule to it. The road is tarred from the main Accra-Cape Coast road at Essuehyia. Barely 500 metres from the main road, mud takes over, only to be replaced by bitumen again as the commuter approaches  Otuam.

It is not only the Essuehyia-Otuam Road that is exhibiting the clever ploy by this administration to short-change the people of Ekumfi. Most parts of the Ekumfi Traditional Area are without potable water, in spite of the roof-top advertisements of connecting all the 53 towns and villages with pipe-borne water from the Essarkyir Water Works.

There were roof-top advertisements having contracted a 33 million Euro loan from the European Union, approved by Parliament in 2010, to construct the Essarkyir Waterworks to provide water for the community. More than four years into the project, the officials talk of the need to secure another facility to take care of laying the pipes.

It is like seeing the project without the ability to use the facility it offers. Mirage may be the better word.

It is not only in Ekumfi, where projects tend to have the magic touch of a mirage, that several development projects throughout the country are executed on paper without visible signs on the ground. Meanwhile, there is evidence all over the place, of wealth smelling on the bodies of top officials of this administration and its party apparatchiks.

The proliferation of fuel stations along our major highways and street corners in cities, towns and villages tell the story of a new breed of the nouveau rich of society. Meanwhile, the government continues to subject poor nationals of this society to the dictates of the International Monetary Fund.

Writing about the IMF reminds me of the Senchi Accord, which was advertised as providing home-grown solutions to the economic problems threatening to cripple this society.

In the run-up to the national conference by the River Volta, the nation was told of how a consensus reached at Senchi was going to bail us from our economic woes. President Mahama was so enthused about the home-grown solution that on the day he closed the seminar, he went out of his way to shower praises on his Vice for spear-heading affairs at Senchi.

“I wish to take this opportunity to thank my Vice-President, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, for all his hard work, time and dedication that he has invested in the forum. The leadership and other contributions that he has made to ensure the success of this forum is not short of exemplary,” President Mahama said.

The Head of State assured the nation that some of the issues raised were already being implemented by his administration. “This forum inspires us to quicken the pace of our steps in achieving these goals.”

Since the 22-Point Consensus was presented to the Head of State, not much has been heard of its implementation, nor has its influence in reducing the economic pain of this nation been felt. Rather, the IMF has taken full charge of the direction of Ghana’s economic direction, and dictating policies that make it impossible for the average Ghanaian to eke out a meaningful living.

With the IMF dictating from the top, the government has buckled and removed the last subsidies on petroleum products. On Wednesday, July 1, 2015, as revelers celebrated the birth of our Republican status 55 years ago, petroleum prices saw a 16 percent increase. In a nation with poverty staring most Ghanaians in the face, it takes nearly three days wages to buy a gallon of petrol.

Naturally, vehicle owners have hiked their fares, escalating the prices of almost all goods and services at the Centre of the Earth. That is not the only price shock announced on Republic Day. With effect from next month, cost of providing water to the household has been increased by 15 percent. And they still have the guts to tell the people of this country that water is life.

Electricity tariff was not only increased. It was hiked. The cost of providing electricity, which powers all production, has been hiked by 51 percent. The Ghanaian has no respite from the economic noose that is lowering very fast around the neck of the average Ghanaian. As the Ghanaian suffers, all the President’s men and women are showing signs of affluence. In Cape Coast, the Metropolis of the Central Region, for instance, the rumour mill is awash with talk of the sudden riches of regional party bosses of the NDC in the region.

It is all in the service of a political party that came to power on the wings of promoting the people’s welfare, and has rather succeeded in putting the country at risk with our creditors. Yesterday, when I read a news item in state-run Daily Graphic, extolling the virtue in West Blue, the company seeking to dislodge GC-NET from some of its port duties, allegedly on the instructions of the President, it dawned on me that more judgment debts are in the pipeline.

I then remembered the famous words of Mr. Justice Jones Mawulorm Dotse, sitting at the Supreme Court. “Create, Loot and share” is very much alive in this administration.

I shall return!