Ghana: Conversation and Development

Ghana, our motherland is one of the few countries blessed with abundant natural resources, yet “she” remains a poor country due to failed governmental leaderships. The various rulers who have traversed the leadership corridors of the country have woefully failed the people. The rich resources of the country have not been able to yield the desired results for the impoverished population. The various political leaders have only allowed their greed and selfishness to continue to loot and plunder the country’s resources mostly for their own interest.

The overthrown of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s government, a coup plotted and financed by those who felt Dr. Nkrumah’s political ideology at the time was too advanced for Black Africans and thus dangerous, set the precedent for late interventions by elements who used the barrel of the gun to remove legitimate government under the guise of revolution to loot countries aided by businessmen with questionable character parading as investors, and so pushing the sub continent back decades in terms of development.

Ironically, during the crisis of the 1980’s, Ghana became the first sub Saharan-African nation to embrace the World Bank and IMF Structural Adjustment Policies under Mr. John Jerry Rawlings. During this period, Ghana was the only African country to lose most of its skilled labour. Despite the large inflows into the country today, the brain drain from Ghana is intensifying.

Ghana’s economic and political instability after the overthrown of Dr. Nkrumah mirrors the rest of the sub continent. Ghana’s economic history after the independence has been a total mess. It cannot be denied that some of the policies that Dr Nkrumah pursued under the Import Substitution Strategy were wrong, yet under his leadership; Ghana made some modest gains in terms of human development. Realising that education and unity is what can propel a nation to self-sustainability, Dr Nkrumah introduced free education to the northern half of the country where poverty was rampant and the citizens did not value the benefits of education very much. Under Dr. Nkrumah’s leadership, Ghana gained its political freedom and was regarded as one African country with a potential to achieve middle-income status in no time. Dr. Nkrumah’s idea of unity for the whole continent is what the European Union is pursuing today. The notion behind this unity is to help develop the rest of the Eastern countries of Europe. The very people who opposed Nkrumah’s policies are now implementing them for their benefits to facilitate and encourage trade and Development in their respective Regions.

Mr. Rawlings dominated the Ghanaian political environment for almost 20 years.  His first political appearance on the Ghanaian scene was on May 15, 1979 when an unsuccessful coup d’état he led resulted in his arrest, imprisonment and a death sentence. But before he could be executed, his friends in the Ghana military led by Junior Officers and the ranks overthrew the then military government of General Fred Akuffo in a coup on June 4, 1979. The Junior Officers and the ranks then set Mr. Rawlings free from prison and installed him as head of the new government – the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC).

The AFRC then handed over power to Dr. Hilla Limann who won the popular vote in the election to establish the Third Republic.  Two years later Dr. Limann’s constitutional government was overthrown again by Mr. Rawlings on December 31, 1981. He then installed the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime. In 1992 after the good people of Ghana became fed up with military regime, Flt Lt (rtd) Jerry John Rawlings then took off his military uniform and cunningly changed his government’s name from PNDC to NDC (National Democratic Congress) and won the mandate to rule again. His government continued to rule until January 2001 after he was barred by the constitution of Ghana from standing again in any public elections. His Excellency Mr. Rawlings then anointed his Vice-President Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills as his choice to replace him as President but Ghanaians rejected his choice in the 2000 elections by voting for the opposition New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) candidate, Mr. John Kufour. Although, we can say that, it was through Ex- President Rawlings that Ghana has been able to enjoy a “stable” political environment, which is to his credit and we congratulate him for that; his administration could not achieve much meaningful economic developments. Ghana’s economy under President Rawlings was running faster than a ‘virgin train’ in England...