1983 economic recovery under Rawlings led to the total destruction of Ghana – Kwesi Pratt

Managing News editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., has blamed the economic woes of Ghana on the Economic Recovery Programme embarked on by the PNDC administration under former President Flt.-Lt.(Rtd) Jerry John Rawlings in 1983.

According to him, the programme “laid the foundation for the total destruction of our country”.

He revealed that several state-owned enterprises were privatized under the programme leading to the loss of many jobs.

“Under the PNDC and Economic Recovery Programme, 400 state enterprises built with the toil and sweat of Ghanaian people under the Nkrumah regime were privatized and they have all been destroyed… between 1983 and 1985, 500,000 workers lost their jobs.”

He added that the programme plays a role in the struggle of Ghana’s currency on the international market.

“Between 1983 and now the national currency has been devalued by more than 40,000%,” he noted

The veteran journalist believes the nation and Africa as a whole can only move beyond this era by adopting socialism.

“The path forward, the path to liberation, the path to prosperity for Ghanaian people and for African people and for all oppressed people is not neo-liberalism, it is not capitalism. If we don’t adopt socialism, if we don’t fight for socialism we aren’t going nowhere.”

“The way out is to intensify this struggle for a new society built on the foundations of scientific socialism as Padmore, Nkrumah and others declared in the final resolution of the 5th pan African congress in Manchester ‘ Africa united under the banner of scientific socialism is the way forward’,” he added.