MMDAs cautioned against external funding sources

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• GH 8 years ago

  So what went wrong? How and why did the brilliant, charismatic Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the outspoken Marxist/Communist, Pan-African Founding Father of Ghana, begin his political slide and ultimate ignominious fall from power?
  
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  So what went wrong? How and why did the brilliant, charismatic Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the outspoken Marxist/Communist, Pan-African Founding Father of Ghana, begin his political slide and ultimate ignominious fall from power?
  
  The list of reasons is lengthy and complex but it is safe to say, that Nkrumah's decline began in early 1960. Until then, the population, because he had lead them to Independence from Britain, was generally willing to overlook Nkrumah's Marxist/Communist ideological pronouncements, his costly demands for pomp and splendor and his assumption of more and more power, in many cases, usurping elected and Traditional Authority.
  
  However, beginning in mid-1960, at about the time that he assumed the Presidency and approved the new Republican Constitution, the economic fallibility of Ghana clearly manifested itself and materially effected the lives of all Ghanaians. From 1960 to 1965, world cocoa prices plummeted, and the enormous development spending begun by Nkrumah four years earlier, severely impacted the country's economy. Foreign exchange and government's reserves shrank and disappeared. Unemployment rose dramatically. Food prices skyrocketed up over 250% from 1957 levels and up a phenomenal 66% in 1965. Eventually, there were massive food and essentials shortages effecting every area, sector and individual in Ghana. Econmic growth, which had ranged from 9% to 12% per annum until 1960, dropped to 2% to 3%, insufficient to sustain a population expanding at almost 3% per year.
  
  Nkrumah's response was an austere socialist budget which imposed flawed Marxist concepts of economic resuscitation on the population, primarily through harsh and unrealistic taxation. Financial mismanagement and economic chaos increased and the country was eventually poised at the brink of national bankruptcy and international disgrace.
  
  In the meantime, to shore up his eroding political strength, Nkrumah assumed more and more power which he exercised capriciously. Obsessed with personal safety after two failed assassination attempts, he established a very well and heavily armed Secret Security Service and Presidential Guard recruited from abroad and under his direct control. Resentment by the ill-equipped Army and Police followed.
  
  In the meantime, the Cult of Nkrumahism continued to develop and propound preposterous quasi-marxist theory and dogma hatched in the name of Nkrumah, at the Ideological Institute at Winebba. The Nkrumah cult, created by Nkrumah himself to perpetuate and mythicize himself, forced acquiescence by all, to what was called "the Nkrumahist Gospel".
  
  In 1964, Nkrumah declared himself President for Life and summarily banned all opposition political parties. His enemies, real and imagined, were detained. In the process, innocent people from all over Ghana were swept up and imprisoned in complete abuse of their individual rights and liberties. Laws were suspended and/or manipulated to prop up Nkrumah's faltering regime.
  
  
  
  GOVERNMENT [1960-1966]
  From independence in 1957, Ghana enjoyed economic prosperity with a relatively high
  growth rate, substantial foreign exchange reserve and a strong civil service to guide
  economic growth.2 To promote socioeconomic development, the government instituted
  a policy of free education, healthcare and initiated mass industrialization. However,
  coupled with external shocks arising from deteriorating price of cocoa, the economic
  situation retrogressed from bad to worse. In 1965, Ghana was faced with the challenge
  of dealing with an economic downturn and, needing an external bailout, approached
  IMF. The Fund proposed a reduction in government spending to levels that could be
  covered by government revenues in order to fight inflation.3 The Nkrumah government,
  however, rejected these conditions. Adopting these policies would have thwarted the
  expansionist development programmes which included diversification of the Ghanaian
  2 Hutchful, E. (1985). IMF Adjustment Policies in Ghana since 1966. African Development, 10 (1), 5.
  3 Aryeetey, E. and Fosu, A. (2000). Economic Growth in Ghana: 1960-2000. A Paper Prepared for AERC
  Growth Project.
  4
  economy through import substituting industrialization.4 Moreover, if Nkrumah had
  accepted IMF loan and conditionalities, it would have affected the momentum of his
  economic development strategy.5 The IMF policies would have forced Nkrumah to cut
  back on capital spending (i.e. building of schools, hospitals, and particularly his pet
  economic programme: the import substituting industrialization). Since Nkrumah
  government was overthrown in 1966, it is impossible to determine whether its policies
  could have tackled the economic downturn without the IMF support.
  This notwithstanding, available data indicates that Ghana’s socio-economic situation as
  of 1965 - a year before the overthrow- was not only gloomy (according to some
  analysts) but also heralded the nation’s economic doom.6 Besides the high level of debt
  stock which stood at USD$500 million in 1965 (from a negligible amount in 1960), the
  external reserve position had deteriorated considerably between 1957 when net
  reserves stood at US$269 million and 1966 when they were negative at –US$391
  million.7 This outcome resulted in a deteriorating balance of payments position and also
  the poor credit rating accorded the country. Consequently, inflation ballooned from 0.98
  percent in 1964 to 26.4 percent in 1965 (see Fig. 2.1)8.

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• gh 7 years ago

  The definition of interrogate is to formally ask inquisitive questions, especially for the purposes of trying to find out something the other person doesn't want you to know.
  Read more at

  The definition of interrogate is to formally ask inquisitive questions, especially for the purposes of trying to find out something the other person doesn't want you to know.
  Read more at

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