Features
Ghana needs radical constitutional reforms …as we seek economic support from the IMF
Times are, indeed, very hard and Ghana our beloved country is not what it used to be in the past. The country is now more than a hell, with things beginning to fall apart and if we do not take care, very soon, the centre will not hold, with apology to Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart novel. As of now, it is the fervent prayer of every Ghanaian citizen that our hope in the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) economic bailout, will yield a positive result within the shortest possible time, so as to lift this country out of the economic mess it finds itself.
GMA SECRETARY’S ASSERTION
As the current General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr. Titus Kofi Beyuo, once pointed out in a television programme recently, “The state of Ghana now, is like a patient at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of any health facility with all the supporting breathing instruments on him or her while gasping for breath. As soon as these health supports are removed, it means that is the end of the patient Ghana”. That is exactly the situation in which Ghana finds itself in at the moment, as it battles for breath of survival.
Indeed, without mincing words, Ghana is in a state of coma and unless something extra-ordinary and urgently is done to revive the shattered and downward trend of the economy, the possibility of this country becoming doomed, cannot be ruled out. The leaders have been overwhelmed with the challenges the country is facing hence taking an advantage of the IMF bailout which does not come easily but with certain harsh conditions. Currently, the country is in a difficult situation, saddled with high cost of living and severe hardships. Prices of goods and services are astronomically high, people have grounded their cars due to high cost of fuel, motorists, especially public transportation, are finding it difficult to break even, due to increase in spare parts and other lubricants. Landlords and prospective developers are complaining bitterly due to the high cost of building materials such as cement, iron rod, sand, stone, roofing sheet, floor tiles among others.
PLIGHT OF PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS
Currently, public sector workers are facing severe difficulties as their take home pay cannot sustain them and their dependants. The high inflation rate coupled with the high cost of living, has eroded the monthly salaries of workers, thereby deepening their woes and making them impoverished. People’s health conditions are deteriorating faster than it used to be as they find it extremely difficult to access medical facilities due to underlying poverty and lack of funds. The situation we find ourselves in now, is just too bad and uncomfortable to say the least.
Even though President Akufo-Addo and for that matter the government, has admitted that we are in a terrible economic crisis, nevertheless, it keeps laying the blame at the doorstep of the COVID-19 pandemic which rocked the entire world in 2019, causing a lot of misery and havoc as well as the Russian-Ukraine war which affected the importation of certain goods and services from those two countries by nations which relied on them for survival. The government’s defence that the situation was a global challenge, has been debunked by economic think tanks in the country, arguing that it was a failure on the part of the government and its appointees to put proper structures in place to curtail the difficulties we find ourselves in at the moment. According to them, people placed in positions of authority have failed to manage the economy in the right perspectives.
CALLS FOR THE DISMISSAL OF FINANCE MINISTER
The recent call by both the Majority and Minority caucuses in Parliament to the President to sack the Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta and the Minister of State in-charge of Finance, Dr. Charles Adu Boahen, who was recently dismissed by the President on grounds of corruption allegation against him, attests to the fact that, those put in charge of our economic management, are not performing to expectation, hence the economic downturn. If MPs from the ruling party, the NPP, are calling on the President for the removal of personalities who are managing the public purse, then there is a systematic failure in government which needs to be addressed. As we speak now, there is a censure motion pending against the substantive Minister Ken Ofori-Atta which will be debated in parliament by the full house.
ECONOMIC CHALLENGES
As of now, some of the economic challenges the country faces are unemployment, corruption, inconsistent economic policies, poor human capital development, poor health system, crime and terrorism. Our major problem is the rising debt which stands above 80 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is projected to reach 104 per cent by the end of 2022. The country has been thrust into debt distress as 70 per cent of its total revenue must go towards debt servicing. The GDP rate in Ghana is expected to reach 72 billion dollars by the end of 2022, according to Trading Economic global macro models and analyst expectations. However, some financial analysts have suggested that in order to revamp the economy, we need to support private sector growth in strategic export oriented sectors but not limited to agriculture and agricultural processing services to ensure greater export, garment and apparel production and light manufacturing.
SOLUTIONS TO THE ECONOMIC PROBLEMS
It is also suggested that to confront the graduate unemployment situation in the country, a youth programmed fund should be created to fund start-up businesses for the youth. Government should also encourage young people to pursue technical education. We need to promote transparency and access to information. We must create funding and strengthen agencies to prosecute corrupt cases. Children must be given access to quality education, while at the same time ensuring basic health care for all Ghanaians.
The large size of government has been a thorny issue which is posing a serious threat to the country’s advancement since it serves as a drain to our meagre financial and economic resources. For now, most Ghanaians are suggesting that, there should be a drastic reduction of ministers to a maximum of between 10 and 12, while at the same time merging some of the ministries to take up other duplicating and similar roles. Some people have also argued that, until the economy is put on a sound footing, the position of District Chief Executive, should be suspended, while we allow the respective regional ministers to take up their roles and functions in their respective jurisdictions to cut down cost and conserve resources. It is also being suggested that the current number of 275 MPs should be reduced to at least 200, and this means we have to review our Constitutional requirements.
ADDITIONAL ROLE FOR VEEP
A suggestion is made that in view of the financial background of the current Vice President who is the Head of the Economic Management Team, he should be given an additional responsibility as Minister responsible for Finance, with at least a competent deputy to manage the finance portfolio. The argument being put across is that, “your area of expertise that made you to gain the position in government must be put into practice”.
These are, indeed, fine and pragmatic suggestions from a section of Ghanaians which must be seriously considered at this time of the country’s history when it is confronted with a lot of challenges and, therefore, needs various and varied solutions and interventions to our problems, as we try to access the IMF facility to put our economy in good shape. All we need at this critical period, is a referendum that will encourage Ghanaians to pool ideas, irrespective of party affiliations to hit the ground running. Ghana is at a crossroads and we need all hands on deck to resuscitate our ailing economy once and for all. Once the government has admitted that, we are in economic crisis, this is the time to call on Ghanaians to support government’s efforts in revamping the ailing economy.
TRIBUTE TO DR. KWESI BOTCHWEY
This article will not be complete without paying a special tribute to the Prof. Kwesi Botchwey of blessed memory, a former long serving Finance Minister in Ghana and who until his death, was so passionate about the turn of events in Ghana and had been speaking a lot about the country’s economic downturn and professing tangible solutions for its recovery. He would be sorely missed by Ghanaians for his rich ideas on the economy. May his soul rest in perfect peace.
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By Charles Neequaye
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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