Dr Kwame Nkrumah And His Communism

When our nation on the 6th of March 1957 decided to part ways with the British, many people questioned the soundness of this action. "Why independence?" some inquired. "Surely, the country can wait." "This Nkrumah fellow is going to damn us all." "He thinks that he knows it all" said some politicians. "We are just not ready for self governance." "The country needs time." "I've tried to talk to Kwame Nkrumah about this, yet he refuses to listen to me."

"We need the British to stay a wee bit longer with us, but Nkrumah says no." "Therefore, I've given up on him" said J.B Danquah. "The British are more or less like our parents." "We shouldn't forget that the British came, and united this country and her people." "I'm afraid that if we do kick them out hell could break loose." Therefore, we do need to be careful" said Busia. "Kwame has to be very careful with this stupid idea of independence." By the way, I don't think that the British would even consider." "Kwame is just wasting his time" said some pessimists.

Well, either good or bad, right or wrong, the British decided to hand over power to the people of Ghana. Dr Kwame Nkrumah won the bet, and became the nation's first prime minister. Nkrumah's government then introduced the so called 'Seven Years Plan'. This plan was intended to advance Ghana's socio-economy into a thing worth marveling. This very important plan covered all the national sectors-nothing was left out. Moreover, in the heart of the plan laid Ghana's economy. And the question which was dying for an answer was; Why do we prepare Ghana's economy to perform masterly on the global front? Our thinkers, philosophers, artists and economists were invited over by Nkrumah to ponder on this issue. And from that meeting, it was unanimously agreed that the nation's economy would thrive best under communism. Now, why communism and not capitalism? Well, let me elaborate.

Communist countries are renowned for their fixed commodity prices. Meaning that, whereas a communist country could enrich itself in a free-market economy with its products, a democratic country on the other hand, cannot do the same in a communist country. This as a result of the fixed commodity prices in communist countries. What this precisely boils down to is, consumer products which are being manufactured in a communist country would sell for whatever price in a capitalist zone. However, goods manufactured in the West would suffer loss in a communist country. In short, it's unprofitable for any foreign market to trade its consumer products in a communist country. But very profitable the other way around. Furthermore, communist countries are known to be self-reliant. Let's take China for example. The Chinese do make everything themselves, and hardly import from any foreign market.This economic strategy is intended to wean their economy from external market forces, which could destabilize their economy.

Dr Nkrumah and his advisers then decided that for the sake of Ghana's economy, communism would be a far better alternative. The country would adopt communism as its economic defense mechanism. Ghana manufactured products would be sold for whatever price in the West, but Western manufactured products will not bring that much money in communist Ghana. All because the prices of commodities, will be fixed to our economy's advantage and not necessarily to their advantage. In short, we will make more money in their country, but they will make closer to no money in ours. Then again, the Western countries were already cheating us on the purchasing prices of our raw materials. So why not?

This was Dr Kwame Nkrumah's whole idea. And this idea was economically sound, innovative and absolutely brilliant. Fast forward to the present, and we see the Chinese doing exactly what Dr Nkrumah envisioned to do. The Chinese have literally built a "fixed commodity price" wall around their economy. No foreign market can penetrate their economy and profit. However, they can enter the free-market economy with their products and reign supreme. It's now obvious to all that the Chinese have the last laugh. Now, who says that Dr Nkrumah's communism was a bad idea?