The NPP and the Longest Suicide Process in History-By Maame Coomson

A Rejoinder by K. Donkoh Fordwor

I have read with surprise and some sadness the piece that appeared in your issue of 9th January 2009 entitled, THE NPP AND THE LONGEST SUICIDE PROCESS IN HISTORY. It is neither my place nor my intention to respond to the many allegations and crude insults that the writer (a woman for that matter), hurls with reckless abandon at the NPP flag bearer, at the hard working members of his campaign team and at other leading members of the NPP. I shall leave it to the people concerned to decide how best to react to the criticisms and insults that she has thrown at them. I wish only to set the record straight as far as the unfounded allegations that she has seen fit to make against me.

It is unfortunate that the writer did not check his facts before she put pen to paper. With a little bit of research she would have informed herself that it was not Dr. Donkoh Fordwor who introduced the Special Unnumbered License to Ghana. The license has been in operation in Ghana since 1948. She would also have learnt that the Ministry in charge of the issue of the Special Unnumbered License is the Ministry of Trade, and not the Ministry of Finance where I worked as Special Assistant to the Head of State during part of the Acheampong regime. The Imports and Export Restriction Order (No. 113 of 1948) vested power in the Controller of Imports and Exports to authorize and permit the importation of goods into the country if he is satisfied that their importation does not require the transfer of currency and thus does not result in a charge on the foreign currency of the country. The form to be filled by the applicant should indicate the name and address of the importer, together with a description of the goods by number or weight, and their value (cost plus freight). The license issued for the importation has to state clearly that it is not valid for the transfer of currency outside the country and so does not involve a charge on the foreign exchange reserves of the country. I know for certain that the special unnumbered license was in operation in March 1971 when I returned to Ghana from the United States. I was required to apply for one before I could bring my car into the country. It is, therefore, a travesty of history for the writer to state that I was responsible for the introduction of the Special Unnumbered License into the economy of Ghana.

The writer also accused me having “unleashed” what she called “economic havoc on Ghana in 1975”. Again she does not give any evidence or reason for this rather serious charge. The facts are that when I was invited to act as the Special Assistant in the Ministry of Finance in February 1974, I did all that was within my power to hold down the printing of money. I even advocated that the Government should allow prices to find their own level, and rather ensure that those who were making excessive profits under cover of import licenses would be taxed fully so as to deny them any unfair advantages.

Without appearing unduly immodest, I think I can say with some justification that I was responsible for a number of important achievements during my time at the Ministry of Finance. I can give three examples here. First, with the assistance of the late Dr. E.L. Quartey of VRA, I was instrumental in putting together the entire financing for the Kpong Dam. This was done at the least possible cost to the country, as compared to the financing of Akosombo which was arranged by one Mr. Dobson (a white man) at a huge cost to Ghana. Secondly, when Ghana sent a delegation to Rome in 1974 to negotiate with its Western creditors, I was about the only member of the team who in those days knew about anything about “the discounted cash flow methodology”. I was thus able to advise the delegation to settle for a debt repayment based on the rate of 2.5% rather than on 2.0%. Most of the members of the delegation were in favour of the rate of 2.0% that had been extended to the Indonesians. I pointed out that, because of the other parameters, the net present value of the payments based on the 2.5% was lower than the one based on 2.0%. As a result we were able to achieve considerable savings in the actual amounts of repayments on our debts. Thirdly, I would refer to the agreement with the UAC regarding the Benso oil palm project. In response to the Government’s invitation for foreign direct investment in agriculture based on blocked dividend, United Africa Company (UAC) International agreed to jointly establish the Benso Oil Palm Co. Ltd. with the government of Ghana. The agreement for this joint venture was signed in Accra on December 30, 1975 by me as the Special Assistant to the Head of State for Finance on behalf of the Government and by Mr. P. R. Marriott, a director of UAC International. Anyone who knows anything about these things will admit that Benso has turned out to be one of the super agricultural projects to be established in Ghana.

In the light of the above I find it difficult to understand the basis of the statement that I had unleashed havoc on Ghana and that I have been overlooked. What exactly do you have in mind here? Are you one of those who enjoyed the 1979 revolution? I thought all of us now agree that the “1979 revolution” represented a lamentable aberration in our national history. I am distressed to find that there is still a person in Ghana, and particularly a professed member of the NPP, who believes that these acts were somehow justified, and should even have gone further! Bravo for a woman writer, I do hope the wife that you have in the article will do her best to sit you up.

As far as my work at the African Development Bank (ADB) is concerned, I wish to state only this. I am proud of what I did and I am certain that what I tried to achieve was for the benefit of the Bank and Africa as a whole. When I became President of the Bank in September 1976, I started and finished constructing the Headquarters of the Bank in Abidjan. Using my expertise and experience in banking with regard to callable capital, I succeeded in multiplying the capital of the Bank (which at the inception of my tenure of office was $200 million) more than 30-fold. This enabled the Bank to increase the rate of lending to the countries of Africa. Unfortunately, instead of admiration, this success brought me great animosity and envy from some of the African representatives at the Bank, and this led eventually to my having to leave the Bank in April 1980. Thus, in a way, I became a victim of my own success, as has subsequently been recognized and acknowledged not only by the staff but by subsequent Presidents and Boards of the Bank. In fact the vast majority of the staff who worked with me or who have learned about the record of achievements under my leadership continue to express regret at the fact that I was not allowed to pursue the policies that I had initiated, many of which have stalled since I left the Bank. In this regard it is worth pointing out that since May 1988, I have been invited regularly by the Bank to attend its Annual Meetings as Past President of the Bank so it can benefit from my experience. It was in that capacity that I was able to show President Kufuor around when he was invited to Valencia in May 2001 to attend the meeting of the Bank in Spain. I am currently the Dean of the Past Presidents of the Bank. It is thus clear that I did not leave the Bank in disgrace and that my legacy there remains favourable and durable.

Not having attended any of the NPP Congresses after 1996, I am not in a position to confirm or challenge your statements about what took place at the Congress in 2000, 2004 or 2007, nor can I make any comment on your criticisms of the NPP’s 2008 campaign. All I can say is that I was not one of the advisers of Nana Akufo-Addo’s campaign team. Further, I did not attend any of the rallies of the NPP. However, I will admit that, because of my admiration for Nana Akufo Addo, I would have been pleased and hounoured to work tirelessly for him, if I had been asked to be one of his advisers. I was however one of those who reviewed the NPP Manifesto. I wrote and sent him a six page commentary. I know he appreciated this because he told me so.

Finally, the writer states that I have on a number of occasions “expressed my dislike” for Kufuor. I note that she does not claim that I made these remarks in her presence, nor does she provide any evidence for her statement. Be that as it may, I hope the writer is not one of the so-called friends of Kufuor who advise him on how to deal with his so-called enemies. I would only ask her to remember the saying: I fear my friends, as for my enemies I know them. As Shakespeare put it in Julius Caesar: the fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.