Franklin Cudjoe Writes: Serious leaders exist on the continent!
“Serious leaders exist on the continent! See Kenya. Inflation is 4.6%. Lending rates average 18%. Spends a third of GDP on servicing debts. Ghana? Inflation hovered between 54% in 2023 and 25% about now.
Lending rates averaged 35%. The government borrowed us into a debt iceberg whose treatment thawed our savings in wicked and ugly financial haircuts we were promised wouldn’t happen.
Yes, Ruto promised to do better by reducing taxes but did the opposite. Ruto was even flying expensive private jets even though Kenya Airways had many fleets doing so well, recording $70m profits in 2021. Now Ruto is listening to his people, and he is acting faster, sadly after the needless deaths of young activists asking for a fair economy.
Incompetent ones complain they are either not in charge or have rusty tools, while a litany of taxes and levies suffocate the citizenry.
We begged Nana Addo to substantially reduce the monstrous size of his government. Osagyefo Oliver Barker-Vormawor did so much through the Fix the Country movement. Kwaku Azar H Kwasi Prempeh advised against creating additional regions with no clear value addition to the economy.
Civil Society Organizations and Citizen Coalitions such as the one led by CDD Ghana’s Kojo Pumpuni Asante Beauty Nartey’s GACC and Mary Addah’s GII warned about the consequences of the global perception of corruption in Ghana due to the rise in authoritarian tendencies as witnessed through the removal of Auditor General Domelevo and setting up Anti-Corruption agencies to clash heads over the fight against corruption.
ACEP’s Benjamin Boakye and IMANI fought questionable deals within the energy space. Kwame Sarpong Asiedu lamented about the shocking neglect of poor patients in accessing critical care.
Nana Addo did not care ! In fact, his government, through the blessing of the Economic Management Team, doubled the amount of money to his Office of Government Machinery from nearly GHS 1bn to GHC 3bn in his first year. That amount kept increasing thereafter.
We begged his government to truly move us from taxation to production- yet he gave us the middle finger and added more pernicious taxes. Eventually, the government bankrupted us sometimes through direct pickpocketing of our meagre, emaciated savings due to inflation, which at a time was a catastrophic 54%. Eventually, Nana packed us into an ambulance where many gasped for air all the way to the ER of the IMF.
This was after the comical rendition of “We will not go to the IMF. We are a proud people” looked haplessly belligerent. Even after being saved by the IMF with an additional GHS 33bn in almost free money, the government splurged and spread the money like an Arabian prince.
And yet the government hoped that like magical money doublers, more money was coming its way. Highway graft and outright theft of resources through skullduggery procurement scams especially with that useless Ministry for Special Initiatives ( that for instance built GHS 15000 dugouts and billed us GHS 230,000 for each) KelniGVG,$176m and the EC’s waste of nearly $150M on biometric voter equipment
All of the above explains why a further a million citizens have become multidimensional poor. Yes, fresh blood and far more perceptive Finance Minister, Mohammed Amin Adam may have taken off well with dealing with the mess left by his predecessor but he must be resolute in rejecting any invitations by political party bosses to spend recklessly.
I think we all need to monitor Parliament henceforth from passing silly bills and legislation like the cement one and those voting unclear and sumptuous tax waivers given to political economic cronies.
Re:SERIOUS LEADERS EXIST ON THE CONTINENT!
Yes, all these renditions have happened but do you suggest the government did nothing at all about correcting them? Perhaps the Kenyan experience happened because of inaction of their leadership in the past and maybe the citizens were suppressed for a long time.
You, Mr. Franklyn and your colleagues have always aired your views across without let or hindrances. Demonstrations are freely staged in this country and the government has taken some back steps on some issues that had attracted public dejections.
Some of your averments on procurements were lazed with your personal emotions than the actual perceived breaches. Example, the EC equipment purchase largely had to do with your preferred vendor failing to win the bid, etc. than recorded procurement or value for money compromises.
I do not think that, circumstances and happenings in Kenya and other places in the continent persists in this country of ours and this is all due to our listening leaders. The government had cut down the size of government from the previous 123 ministers and deputies to around 80, it has reduced salaries of all appointees and regulated foreign travels, conferences, etc. E- levy in its original form to parliament was withdrawn and concerns addressed.
So there is no such oppression in Ghana today as to warrant such a massive public protest as it was in Kenya. You and your colleagues predicted Arab spring in Ghana but no such thing close had happened and I expected you would learn from that but hey you are at your best once again predicting Kenya in Ghana? Are you not at peace enough doing your IMANI things in Ghana; what more would you like than that?
Our laws and observance of same may not be perfect enough, but I think we can only ask for improvement than condemn it. The economy is not in good shape and has never been as we all expected. But are we saying all our borrowings are frivolous and has no relationship to any of our numerous infrastructural developments on going?
The question that begs for answers is whether the Covid inflows during the pandemic, were meant for investment or for helping to protect lives and jobs of the citizens? If the latter was the case, has the government delivered well in that regard?
In conclusion, it is better we elaborate on our successes as country and also bemoaned our shortcomings and suggest remedies for redress than total condemnation as most of our civil society representatives do.
Let us espouse hope and draw government attention to areas of concerns that needs improvement and serious attention.
Thanks
Abdul-Wahab Alhassan.
Nana Addo/ Bawumia/ NPP succeeded in dragging us into this unprecedented economic nadir by a well planned silencing of the intelligentsia – Press, CSOs, Clergy, Chiefs, university dons, the military and police. All the above are complicit in how we got here. Sure there were and continue to be a few bright spots like IMANI and it’s star, Bright Simon, Manasseh, CitiFM, TV3. The majority were however bought. Even my own, one time intrepid, the late Paul Ansah’s GCBC. The bribery was so pervasive that even JJ was de-boomed before his untimely death. Where necessary the created their own media outlets and CSOs.
This info wars machinery helped them to come into power so there was no way they were going to abandon it. They just oiled it well and put it on steroid! NPP never again!