John Dramani Mahama has made it a habit to make bold pronunciations he and his team have no way or intentions of fulfilling, leading to him looking clueless in retrospect; a situation which has largely contributed to the general belief that this is one of the worst governments in the history of our dear nation.

Some time ago he took to the podium to make one of his many bold calls, calling on us all to patronise made in Ghana goods to help local industries. He went as far as to provide us with the list of things he uses daily which are supposedly made in Ghana.

Then came the refurbishment of parliament, a situation which called for the supply of 600 pieces of furniture for the chamber; 300 tables and 300 chairs- so it’s away to China we go!

The furniture arrived, Parliament was stocked, and then some of the MP’s pointed out the contradiction in the President making all this noise and then Parliament importing furniture from China.

Cue the response of the deputy majority Leader, Alfred Agbesi.

“We needed over 300 chairs and 300 tables before resuming sitting and now which furniture company in Ghana would have given us this quantity of furniture within this short time?”

The short time he meant was since August, when a delegation was sent to China to make the inspection and approve the choice of company. Is the deputy majority leader seriously impugning that no furniture company in this country can manufacture 600 chairs and tables in 3 months? Is that the level of incompetency they assume of Ghanaian companies? Maybe they believe their own performance in government is rubbing off on their compatriots.

I honestly cannot speak to the quality of furniture produced in this country, but I know we have some of the best furniture making wood species in this country, and these Parliamentarians have been sitting on locally manufactured furniture for a better part of their lives; before they became rich and forgot all about their roots.

Even worse, Alfred Agbesi went on to suggest getting the 600 pieces from a local company would take five years. With such belief in Ghanaian companies from Government it is amazing Ghanaians barely buy from their own countrymen.

“We can follow the argument of complying with the President’s plea for the patronage of made in Ghana products if all will agree that the job 600 project should wait for the next five years. But I am telling you that MPs are anxious to move into that building and there are going to be a lot of facilities over there which need furniture so we have the time to waste, we can”

The condescension: seriously this President and his team are so disconnected from reality it would be hilarious if it wasn’t so disastrous. A President cannot make such pronouncements when they obviously have no intentions of complying; it just reeks of double standards.

Nobody is trumpeting how perfect made in Ghana goods are; but do not come and make all these noises to us when three months later it would be flouted by your own people, probably just to enable the ‘noko fio’ to reach the appropriate quarters.

In my books hypocrisy is the worse sin there is.