Don’t smudge the facts!!

It is common knowledge that majority of Ghanaians, over the past several years have not been given a fair share of the national cake. Our founding fathers left us riches, yet we are poor; they left us hope, but we still appear hopeless. We sit on plenty of resources, and yet have very little to show in terms of individual, economic and social developments. And I think the reasons for our refusal to move forward in improving the fundamentals of our economy are not far-fetched: they are self-made. Apart from military takeovers, which have contributed to our economic woes in the past century, we are also lacking leaders who are prepared to champion the cause of the majority of the citizenry who are caught in the web of chronic and profound poverty. Is it not puzzling and mind-boggling that those who find themselves in money on our continent are politicians? Most of these politicians have failed us and show no signs of averting this canker. Leaders like Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, among others, who put their lives in harm’s way to liberate us from both colonial and economic domination are rarely existent on our continent. These were leaders who were selfless, and always thought about the improvements in the lives of the people, and not those who enter the political arena to line their pockets and those of their Janus-faced followers with our collective resources.

In this current century, we need leaders who are visionaries and who seek to better the wellbeing of the citizenry. I am talking about politicians who have the right policies and programs to make the populace functional and also fix our ailing economy. When we give these politicians the mandate to govern, we expect them not to expend their energy in smearing their opponents on the other side of the political aisle, but rather follow due process to ensure that all the wrong doers in the prior administration are brought to justice. Any politician or public official who has embezzled state funds has to face the full rigors of the law. This said, we do not expect the ruling government to cry wolf when there is none. When a government tries every possible means to paint an out-gone government so black without producing evidence to that effect, it becomes worrying and counterproductive. Which investor will want to invest in a looted and broken economy? If the answer is no, then the government is doing us more harm than good without letting us know the true state of the economy since they assumed power over four months ago. Anyhow, what message is the president trying to convey by his constant and chronic usage of the phrase “at the appropriate time” we will let you know the true state of the economy. Come on, Mr. President, we don’t need Gordon Brown or any other renowned economist to tell us the state of our own economy. I suggest you differentiate between the fundamentals of the economy and the investigation of perceived former corrupt officials.

For me, it does not make sense to accuse a previous administration of looting the economy when there is no evidence to back those claims. In his interview to BBC Africa, the president John Atta Mills indicated that his administration inherited a broken economy and that what they were made to believe about the positive health of the economy was neither here nor there. What was worrying about his assessment of the economy was his inability to disclose to us the true state of the economy his administration inherited from the former administration. As a former university professor, he should have known that to make his case convincing, the onus was on him to have furnished us with the right figures for us to fathom the present state of the economy. What is ironic about his view on the economy, which has been expressed previously by some of his ministers, example Dr. Bissiu who also failed to provide evidence is their being in the dark about the state of the economy when they were in opposition even though they had members of parliament and a shadow minister of finance? If President Mills and his administration are not mis-and dis-informing the citizenry, I challenge them to come out with facts and figures about the alleged egregious economy they inherited. Until they did this, they should stop wasting our ears!

How could the government inherit an egregious economy when the evidence available shows the contrary? If we juxtapose the performance of the economy under the NDC regime between 1992 and 2000 and the NPP administration from 2001 to 2008, we can safely conclude that the present economic outlook is not as egregious as the government wants us to believe. For example, whilst the cedi in the 8 years rule of the NDC government depreciated by over 600%, it depreciated less than 100% over the same period in the NPP administration. Inflation was over 40% in 2000, but 18.1% in 2008. Our international reserves were $233 million in 2000, but $2.1 billion in 2008. The external debt of the country was 156% of GDP in 2000 but was dwindled to 27% of GDP in 2008. On economic growth, the economy took a nosedive under the reign of the NDC, with a growth rate of 4.2% in 1997 to 3.7% in 2000, whilst the NPP chalked a sustained growth from 3.8% in 2001 to 7.3% in 2008 (Ghana Statistical Services). In monetary value, the size of the economy was $3.8 billion in 2000, but more than quadrupled to over $16 billion in 2008. President Mills, in the face of this undisputable evidence, how do you defend your assertion of inheriting a broken economy? Please, let us for once be truthful to the citizens, by being responsible and transparent and not throwing dust into their eyes. Moving forward, we need to understand that no one government can solve our numerous economic challenges, and thus successive governments must give credit to their predecessors where it is due. We need to work in concert, and desist from the blame game if we want to improve and transform the lives of our citizenry. For my money, people who have the penchant of blaming others for their inactions are losers, and not winners. Instead of distorting undisputable facts with the blatant aim of discrediting previous administrations, which have the potential of deepening our economic woes by decreasing investor confidence in our country, we should work in unison and assiduously to make sure that we are able to implement the right programs and policies to help the countless citizenry who go hungry every day.

In winding up, I would implore the Mills administration to buckle down and set their gaze on the economy and expend their energy in moving the economy forward from where the previous administration left off: That is the essence and flagship of democracy. Instead of crying wolf, when there is none, of which the net loss is the economy and the majority poor who are longing for a better life, we expect them to promote and instill investor confidence in the country and put smile on the faces of the majority who cannot afford a single square meal a day. I think these are the principal reasons why the good people of Ghana voted the NDC to power.

President Mills, focus on the economy, it appears you have hit the ground running backwards, big-time. God bless Ghana!!!!

Source: Kingsley Nyarko, PhD, Educational Consultant, IAF-