Akufo-Addo signed senseless & valueless deals with China - Analyst

Financial analyst, Jerry Jelili Afolabi, has lambasted government for signing the Sinohydro deal with China without a proper cost effective analysis.

He reiterated that the foreign world has abandoned human slavery due to advocacy and now engaging in economic and mental slavery in African countries including Ghana.

Reacting to the new deals signed between Ghana and China, Mr Afolabi stressed the Western world is still colonising Africa both financially, mentality and economically.

"So these are the dimensions. This is still colonialism and slavery.’’ Jerry Jelili Afolabi making specific reference to the Sinohydro deal wondered why our leaders signed the deal for an insignificant amount of money when we could have raised the resources ourselves through value addition.

The $2 billion Master Project Support Agreement (MPSM) between the Government of Ghana and Sinohydro Corporation Limited for the construction of infrastructure projects in Ghana has been signed in Beijing.

The agreement was signed following a state visit to China by President Nana Akufo-Addo.

The barter trade facility will be used to construct roads, hospitals, houses, rural electrification, interchanges, bridges and other government priority projects.

The agreement received parliamentary approval in July despite protest by the minority who insisted that agreement is a loan.

Ghana he noted should be moving from an import driving economy to export driving economy. He opined China is using its mental capacity to enslave African countries and due to that, they have succeeded to become a powerful exporter to African nations.

The analyst has urged Ghana to move from this kind of deals asking, "if someone decides to give you $ 2 billion and mine your bauxite for 15 years, does it make sense to you? Are we serious? Are we thinking? It is unfortunate. We could find ways to add value to our natural resources.

If we are able to do that, we will be able to be dependent. But because we are unable to do that, they have enslaved us.

This is economic slavery and for anyone to justify this deal makes me wonder whether he or she thinks or reason. You are going be their slave for 15 years. This is bad and unprecedented.

They [Chinese] will come and mine our bauxite like our gold and do nothing for us. Don’t we have leaders who think? He lamented the lack of basic social amenities despite the mining of our gold since our independence.

"We have to begin to think. It is unprecedented. Nobody should be happy because China has given us $2 billion. What I am saying is that we should have rather chosen a Build Operate and Transfer (BOT). What is wrong with us? Some of our leaders lack sense despite their high level of education,’’ he fumed.

Ghana and China have signed eight (8) Co-operation Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding, in different sectors of their respective economies, aimed at deepening the ties of co-operation and the bonds of friendship that exist between the two countries.

The agreements were signed on Saturday, 1st September, 2018, after the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the President of the People’s Republic of China, His Excellency Mr. Xi Jinping, held bilateral talks, as part of President Akufo-Addo’s State Visit to China. The agreements are the “One belt one road Memorandum of Understanding”, “Memorandum on Regional Aviation Co-operation”, “Agreement for Co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy”, and “Co-operation to carry out Maternal and Child Health Project”.

The rest are “Framework Agreement on Financing Insurance Co-operation” ($2 billion Sino-Hydro deal), “Economic co-operation on Phase 2 project of the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho”, “Co-operation on the expansion of the Cape Coast Stadium”, and “Co-operation on the supply of police vehicles to the Ghana Police Service.”