Hackman – Most Visionary And Forward-Thinking Presidential Aspirant – A Promise To Keep.
Profound disillusionment within the Ghanaian political system centered on the perception that politicians promise only to be elected and then promptly abandon their pledges once safely entrenched in office. Mr. Hackman Owusu Agyeman, immediate past minister of foreign affairs, works and housing and water resources, takes his promises seriously and will make certain that they are implemented. One of the revolutionary elements of Hackmam’s campaign is the fact that it will actually implement its promises. People in his constituency will validate or vouch to this assertion. His campaign reflects the formulation of proactive economic development policies that will lead to concrete, accelerated, incremental and sustained economic growth.
PROACTIVENESS + REACTIVENESS + COORDINATION = CONCRETE AND SUSTAINED INCREMENTAL DEVELOPMENT.
The following synopses, which have been gleaned from various interviews the author has had with him, are some of his strategic initiatives to revamp the economy. In a nutshell, these form the bases of his pronouncement and apologia.
Type of government Globalization is making the formulation of a country’s development policies more and more complex. Undoubtedly, the 21st century will call for greater collaboration among government, private industry, and higher education for complex research and development projects in the fields of technology, agriculture, health, the sciences and engineering. In this regard, Hackman intends to form a government of inclusion that will utilize a systems thinking and a shared vision approach to development. Hackman strongly believes that the shared vision approach will foster commitment to the objectives of national development goals by all and eventually lead to sustained economic growth. The collaborative approach of inclusion will ensure continuity of economic development policies and ongoing development projects regardless of changes in the country’s political leadership. The era of winner takes all and acute, selfish, and unrestrained partisan politics, when it comes to development planning and execution of economic policies for Ghana’s development, must be a thing of the past.
Central government and decentralization
The fundamental principle involves re-examining the role of the central government in society and the pursuit of rigorous decentralization to ensure availability and fair distribution of resources. He believes that the regions must be micromanaged from the regional capitals. Decentralization will empower citizens by delegating authority, for example, local governments will be adequately resourced and mandated to govern without bureaucracy from the state or central government. Hackman’s government will discard the idea where citizenry see themselves as detached form government.
The Northern region is too expansive to be managed from Tamale. It needs to be broken up into two regions: North-West Region and North-East Region.
Entrepreneurial government
Reinvent government that promotes competition among service providers. Hackman believes that Ghana needs a developmental and entrepreneurial government which can positively show, at the end of its respective term in office, how much it added to the economy. An entrepreneurial government is one that would offer competition and focus on results. An entrepreneurial government promotes competition between service providers. It empowers citizens by pushing control out of the bureaucracy, into the community. It measures the performance of its agencies, focusing not on inputs, but on outcomes. It is driven by its goals and missions. Hackman’s government will vigorously monitor and evaluate the performance of service providers to ensure accountability and quality of service. His administration will pursue an approach of gradual and systematic intolerance to corruption eventually leading to zero-tolerance. His administration will be goals and missions driven supported by prudent rules and regulations.
The economy
Hackman’s administration will Monitor and match the country’s natural growth by concurrently increasing infrastructure to keep pace with our population growth. A vow not to fall behind in development. According To Hackman, the country’s economic development needs to be harmonized. A new economic planning paradigm based on systems thinking synchronization needs to be researched and used in place of the current National Planning Commission. The new approach must rely on think-tank drawn from government, private industry, and Higher Education. It should be a public policy think-tank involved in idea generation with links to the universities and polytechnics and other research organizations around the country. It should sponsor research on specific problems and encourage the discovery of solutions to those problems and facilitate their implementation. The public policy think-thank should basically focus on the generation of bold but doable idea generation to lead the country’s policy formulation and implementation. The idea is to bring an inquisitive diverse group of highly intellectual minds, who are results oriented, together in one place. Ghana needs to fish for intellectual entrepreneurs who are incubators of practical and innovative ideas to lead our policy formulation and implementation. The Think-tank group will be charged with brainstorming, troubleshooting and jumpstarting the country’s economic development.
The Education Sector
Promote developmentally appropriate education that is relevant to the economy by encouraging Higher Education-Private sector linkages.
Make sure government and private sector manpower projected needs are met to by purposeful development of our human resources.
Tap our resources by using our technical, human, and intellectual capital. We need to stem brain drain by encouraging entrepreneurship and developing a can do attitude among Ghanaians. Ghana needs to keep the human and intellectual capital it develops for Ghana’s development. This will lead to the establishment of more businesses within the country to absorb the unemployed youth. Most notably, teachers will be decently and adequately remunerated.
Industry
Pursue an aggressive job creation through the private sector and encourage consumerism among Ghanaians to whip up the economy.
Make it easy for Ghanaians and Africans in the Diaspora to return and establish businesses in the country.
Make everything in Ghana: From dog chain, to non perishable food items to cars to spur growth, increase employment, and add value to our natural resources resulting in increases in foreign exchange earnings.
Make Ghana the industrial hub of Africa. The government must ensure that both public and private employees are paid with checks. This will ensure a vibrant banking system and encourage Ghanaians to save, thus providing funding for businesses.
His administration will put in place sound regulatory procedures for growth of business by removing all bottlenecks that stifle the growth of business.
Create a reliable tax system to facilitate corporate tax revenue collection - systematic tax collection that closes loopholes
Provide appropriate tax incentives to business to boost the economy. The tax system should be end-loaded instead of front-loaded to encourage more business start-ups. Make the importation of equipment and machinery easy by reducing or removing the tax on their importation.
Most of the new businesses must be encouraged to incorporate vertical integration into their production processes which will not only make us competitive globally, but also help in solving the unemployment problem.
Result: value will be added to our natural resources The ripple effect of development will result in more job creation within the economy leading to increased production for the local and export market. Ghana will earn more foreign exchange Government’s revenue collection will become broad-based with the increase in corporate tax from the additional businesses.
Encourage the establishment of science and Industrial parks fashioned after Silicon Valley in the United States to support the country’s technical development.
Infrastructure
Improve living conditions across the board to spur economic growth. Provide uninterrupted flow of electricity and water. Research and implement alternate sources of energy – wind, solar, biofuel, nuclear energy, etc. Maintain excellent communication an IT systems Develop transportation systems: roads, railways, ports. Enforce road regulations to minimize the incidence of traffic accidents.
Agriculture
Boost the agricultural sector by establishing agro-based industries in the regions to add value to our agricultural products. Reduce the percentage contribution of agriculture to the Gross Domestic Product by increasing the percentage contribution of industry and manufacturing. Encourage research for higher yielding crops.
Oil Revenue
Avoid mistakes made by countries like Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, etc. Create bold economic development initiatives across the country and implement them. Dubaitize Ghana with the oil money.
French Rivieralize our coastline with the oil money to boost tourism Make every Ghanaian feel the positive impact of our oil find – from the rural areas to the urban centers.
Broad-base and diversify the economy and not just rely solely on Oil. Embark on a massive industrialization of the economy and target the export market, especially, the developing economies.
Stop the export of all forms of raw materials including gold and diamonds - add value to some extent before exporting.
The Health Sector
Embark on a preventive instead of reactive measures to redeem the sector. Provide adequate health facilities by planning for the establishment of more hospitals equipped with modern technology and equipment with supportive clinics. Improve sanitation and provide adequate, constant, and uninterrupted running water across the country.
Mass-educate the public about good health habits that will prevent diseases.
The Judiciary
Develop a judiciary system that ensures that nobody is above the law. The rule of law is anchored in the concept that the law is applied equally to the executive, legislative and judiciary branches of government - based on a system of checks and balances.
Security
Re-educate the security personnel to be impartial in the dispensation of their duties. Pay them better to water down corrupt practices.
Set up civilian complaint boards to monitor corrupt practices and abuse of power among our security personnel.
Civil Service
Re-orient the civil service by re-educating them to eschew the apathetic nature of the civil servant.
Improve the working conditions of the civil servant and pay them commensurately.
Pay all civil servants with checks and encourage all private businesses to pay their workers by checks as well - this will not only help boost savings but will also lead to better income tax revenue collection.
Discipline
Build new roads in all regional capitals to allow the smooth flow of vehicular movement. Pull down all obstructing structures, if necessary, without being partial.
Great benefits in the long run.
? People will not spend time stuck in traffic on end, relieving labor for productivity.
? The country will save on fuel consumption (in 2000 the author was stuck in traffic for a one mile journey in Accra for more than two hours and wasted about 10 gallons of fuel)
? The wear and tear of cars and trucks will be greatly reduced
? Pollution will be reduced as car emissions will be cut drastically
? Health of the population will improve
Quantify and moneytize the outcome and the benefits will run into billions of dollars or cedis.
Bottom Line
Hackman’s administration will aggressively industrialize and diversify Ghana’s economic base, encourage massive job creation by the private sector as solution to the Brain Drain. His government will provide adequate support services for:
? Effective, efficient and vibrant private sector,
? Effective, efficient, and stable legal system,
? Effective, efficient, and reliable banking system, ? Effective and efficient communication and IT system, ? Effective and efficient civil service, ? Effective and efficient roads, railways, and ports systems, ? Effective, efficient and developmentally appropriate educational system, ? Effective and efficient health delivery systems.
? Effective and efficient tourist attraction system.
? Effective, efficient, and healthy competition among the regions and among the districts in terms of development
Hackman’s administration will quantitatively and qualitatively improve Ghana’s economy and prop up Ghana’s cedi with increased productivity aimed at the export market. The resulting demand for Ghana’s goods and services will lead to increased demand for our cedi and shore up its value on the international market. His administration will replace the cycle of poverty with a cycle of investments.
