IMF bailout will be counterproductive – Gyan-Baffour

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Ajit Babu 9 years ago

You wait till the last minute to open your stupid mouth, prof. And your reason for such is too rudimentary. A weak parliament of which you are a seasoned member is the bane of Ghana's troubles. Sit up parliament or continue t ...
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You wait till the last minute to open your stupid mouth, prof. And your reason for such is too rudimentary. A weak parliament of which you are a seasoned member is the bane of Ghana's troubles. Sit up parliament or continue to bask in shame!
jerry 9 years ago

GHANA IS NOT FOE SALE WATCH WHAT YOU ARE DOING ,YOU WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANY TREASON AGAINST GHAN PEOPLE

GHANA IS NOT FOE SALE WATCH WHAT YOU ARE DOING ,YOU WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANY TREASON AGAINST GHAN PEOPLE
KWASI 9 years ago

are you listening mr mahama?

are you listening mr mahama?
Kwabena Yeboah 9 years ago

Gyan-Baffour is absolutely right. We can kiss development goodbye if we continue the hobnobbing with the IMF. Mahama and his cabinet cannot think beyond their nose. How many times must we surrender our sovereignty to a forei ...
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Gyan-Baffour is absolutely right. We can kiss development goodbye if we continue the hobnobbing with the IMF. Mahama and his cabinet cannot think beyond their nose. How many times must we surrender our sovereignty to a foreign institution? That is exactly what Mahama and his NDC people are doing - we are compromising our SOVEREIGNTY by seeking a financial bailout from the IMF, because the IMF would like to be in the driver's seat when it doles out money to a country.

It is so sad we are a people of a very short memory. We know what happened in 1983 when the Rawlings socialist PNDC made an about face and turned to IMF for support. The IMF accepted the invitation and came in. Immediately, they started ordering the PNDC government around. First they ordered them to devalue the cedi. After the cedi was devalued, the IMF ordered the government to sell over 300 state-owned enterprises, SOEs, which were set up by Nkrumah at the price of the devalued cedi. In other words, these companies were very cheap due to the devalued cedi, and because of stupid partisan politics at the time, these companies were sold mainly to foreigners and P(NDC) sympathizers to the exclusion of all Ghanaians of different political persuasions. As a result of this reckless policy gaffe, people you see in Ghana's corporate boardrooms today are all white faces - Lebanese, Syrians, Indians, some Europeans, etc. With the help of P(NDC) and IMF, these vultures came and scoop up the spoils at a very cheap price.

Then the IMF ordered our government to remove all subsidies from education, health, petrol, and other products. The Rawlings' P(NDC) government's hands were tied - they could not fund education, people died because they had to pay before they received medical care, petrol became expensive so were food commodities. In short, life in Ghana became unbearable as the IMF unleashed the most stringent conditionalities on the country predicated on the promise of quick economic recovery. Our gold, cocoa, diamonds, timber, etc. became cheap in the world markets as a result of the devalued cedi, while our foreign debts had to be paid in the US dollars.

During this same period, Ghana's domestic budget was either prepared by the IMF technocrats in Washington or had to be vetted by these same technocrats before it could be implemented. The Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey was a mere figure head in the finance department - every economic policy had to be vetted and approved by IMF technocrats in Washington - we had surrendered our sovereignty to the IMF.

Why does Mahama want to put us through this again? Is he aware of the implications of going to the IMF for a bailout? We do not need rocket scientist to build our economy. What we need is people with brains, and a bit of common sense to help us navigate through the vagaries of nation building. If out of 25 million strong we cannot find people of this calibre, then we must as well sell the country to foreigners as we have been doing all along.

None of the Asian Tigers depended on the IMF in building their countries. They used their brains and pure common sense to achieve the level they are now. Why do our governments run to the IMF at every hint of economic problems? Don't we have what it takes to build our country?

Dr. Nkrumah following the footsteps of his friend Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, refused help from the IMF when the country ran out of money in the later days of his presidency. IMF wanted to come in, but Nkrumah said no because he understood the modus operandi of the IMF. No country can build its economy on the back of IMF support vis-a-vis its conditionalities.
ghananyi 9 years ago

A country with so many brainy people and we leaveo the country in the hands of small small boys.we are really doomed .
Everyone knows we heading for doom
But no one can save us.

A country with so many brainy people and we leaveo the country in the hands of small small boys.we are really doomed .
Everyone knows we heading for doom
But no one can save us.
Nii 9 years ago

One can easily predict any speaker from the NPP fold. For the past many years it is as if no one in the government went to school. So much so that any intention of government is wrong. I wonder if people in the NPP know ever ...
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One can easily predict any speaker from the NPP fold. For the past many years it is as if no one in the government went to school. So much so that any intention of government is wrong. I wonder if people in the NPP know everything they are in opposition. They wish so much doom for this country that one wonders how they can resuscitate this country after pushing it so deep into the abyss. We are watching and listening.
Nii 9 years ago

We should stop deceiving ourselves that there are brainy people in Ghana. What have we to show? If the brains we have do not reflect on the nation but we have to deal and lament over abject poverty all these years then I beg ...
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We should stop deceiving ourselves that there are brainy people in Ghana. What have we to show? If the brains we have do not reflect on the nation but we have to deal and lament over abject poverty all these years then I beg to differ. If propounding unworkable and useless theories is all our so called professors,doctors,masters,expects etc can offer ,then Ghana is better of without them.
Emmanuel 9 years ago

Ghanaians have all that it takes to transform the economy without the IMF. If only the government will allow its citizens to come in.

Ghanaians have all that it takes to transform the economy without the IMF. If only the government will allow its citizens to come in.

IMF bailout will be counterproductive – Gyan-Baffour

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