Politics is the way people living in groups make decisions.  It is about making agreements between people so that they can live together in groups such as tribes, cities or countries.  In large groups, such as countries, some people may spend a lot of their time making such agreements.

It is very important to care about politics because you should know what is going on around you and also to have a say in things around you.  The political decisions people make will affect many lives.  Many people see politics as the government and the laws being made and that is true, but in a way it is more complicated.  Alexis Mortensen in a write up about the importance of politics said; “We need to care about politics because the decision people make will affect many lives.”

UNGUARDED AND LOOSE POLITICAL STATEMENTS FROM PARTY STALWARTS

Having defined politics and how important it is to society, I am inclined to situate it to Ghana where the political terrain has taken a different dimension which allows the political actors (politicians) to say serious things without weighing their consequences in the future.  In their quest to win the mandates of the people, they mount various platforms during their political campaigns, opening their mouths wide and saying all kinds of unguarded statements and loose utterances.  They forget that these same utterances once they are in print and electronically recorded can be used against them by their opponents in the future with serious consequences.

They do not end there with these negative utterances when they assume leadership positions and various ministerial and other roles in government.  They say worse things they cannot substantiate or defend, thus giving room to opponents to take them on and sometimes accuse and ‘blast them while in office.  Some of the notable utterances were, “I shall protect the Public Purse. I am not corrupt and will never be corrupt. I can develop Ghana without borrowing, the money is here.  I will transform Ghana in 18 months. I will not operate family and friends’ government. I will fight corruption with the Anas principle. I will make the Korle lagoon and Odor river tourists attraction. I will build a factory in every district. I will give each constituency $1 million every year. I will never go to the IMF for a bailout. I will build 111 hospitals in 18 months. The hikes in fuel prices will be a thing of the past” among others.

NPP TAKEN TO TASK FOR SEEKING HELP FROM IMF

Such is the situation we find ourselves in Ghana at the moment, where the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has been taken to task by the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) led by its flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, following the announcement on Friday, July 1, 2022 that the current government led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has started negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to provide support for Ghana’s economy.

Before this bombshell was dropped, there had been series of utterances from NPP stalwarts and big shots including the Vice President, Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia and the Finance Minister, Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta within the past few months saying emphatically that the country would not seek assistance from the IMF.  In the words of the Finance Minister, “We have committed to not going back to the IMF because the Fund knows we are moving in the right direction.  Ghana is committed to managing its debt without assistance from the IMF.  We have the resources and the capacity is there.  We are not people of short sight”.

ASSIN CENTRAL MP EXPRESSES REGRET FOR IMF ASSISTANCE

The vociferous Assin Central Member of Parliament, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, who once stood against any decision by the government to access the IMF facility and blasted the NDC for orchestrating that unfounded allegation, has quickly made a U-turn following the government’s announcement to engage with the IMF for support to help Ghana build back in the face of the challenges currently confronting the economy saying that he was sad about that statement.

According to him even though the party bigwigs had earlier told him after the announcement on Friday, July 1, 2022 not to comment on the issue, he could not keep quiet.  Hear him. “IMF? What are we going to say again?  Somebody texted me, don’t say anything about the IMF.  Me, I shouldn’t say anything about IMF? I will say it.  He said the NDC went to the IMF for a bailout because the government mismanaged the economy. Therefore, if the NPP government is also going to the IMF for support, it is just like handing over power to NDC without a contest, straight away.”

“Because of the noise we made, I chew my words back when I said the NDC went to IMF because of mismanagement of the economy.  So if NPP is also going to the IMF, what am I going to say now? So breaking the eight(using Election 2024 NPP campaign message) is going to be tough,” he said.

NDC LEADERS COMMENT ON IMF INITIATIVE BY NPP

Leading members of the opposition NDC have been talking after the announcement was made on Friday, July 1, 2022.  Former President John Mahama has welcomed the decision to go to the IMF and believes that it is a step in the right direction. He however, feels that things would have been better if the government had taken bold decision earlier.  However, the current government says former President Mahama was not bedeviled with any form of crisis to resort to the IMF to fix the country’s economy and, therefore does not have the moral right to criticise them.

The government still maintains that although it has transformed the economy, it was hit by a pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war that has affected the economy.

Most Ghanaians are of the school of thought that the downward trend of the economy persisted long before the Russia-Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic which the government was unable to solve and, therefore laying the problem at the doorsteps of those challenges is inaccurate.

FACTORS THAT LED TO GOING TO IMF

Three years after exiting the IMF programme we are being compelled to head back for assistance.  Indeed, Ghanaians in recent months have been feeling the pinch of record inflation and the impact of the war somehow amidst the cut in government spending to avoid a full-blown debt crisis.

According to statistics. Ghana’s economy grew by 3.3% in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the same period in 2021 and inflation surged to a record of 26.6 per cent in May.  The country is also grappling with the high debt and a depreciating currency, the cedi.  A controversial tax on electronic transactions (E-Levy) approved in April and presented as a solution to the economic challenges has also not generated the expected revenues.

Our economists are saying that going to the IMF is not a panacea to our economic problems because we will be compelled to adjust our economic policies to overcome the problems that led the country to seek financial aid.  These policy adjustments are conditions for IMF loans and serve to ensure that the country will be able to repay the IMF.

GOING FOR IMF ASSISTANCE IS NON-NEGOTIABLE

It is a fact that the situation we are in now with the cost of living constantly soaring high as a result of the high inflation and the depreciation of the cedi to the dollar, there is clearly nothing we can do than to go for a bailout from the IMF.  We should be ready to bite the bullet by accepting and coping with the high restrictions and conditions attached to the facility to help us out of this economic mess.

It is the hope of Ghanaians that the government will as much as possible take into consideration the high cost of living and the sufferings among the people so that in their negotiations with the IMF for the facility, they will not accept unilaterally, harsh conditions that will further worsen the plight of the people and impoverish them.

PLAYING POLITICS WITH THE LIVES OF GHANAIANS

It is indeed important for our leaders not to play politics with our way of living because it will go a long way to endanger the lives of the people.  Governance is about the collective responsibility and not a preserve of a particular group.  Therefore, if people outside the corridor of power, especially renowned and high profile economists have ideas that can move our dear country out of the mess, there is the need for governments to tolerate them irrespective of party affiliations.  We are in the boat together and when it sinks we will perish together.  We are lucky that we have two main political parties-NPP, NDC, unlike other jurisdictions across the world where they have splinter parties in parliament and, therefore we need to make a judicious use of the two main caucuses to salvage the downward trend of our economy and bring it back to life.

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By Charles Neequaye