Sankofa Series: What Busia said about Ghana's worrying unemployment situation in the 1970s

After assuming office as Prime Minister in 1969, Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia embarked on an official visit to the United Kingdom to hold key talks with the British government.

The talks were centered on economic relations between Ghana and the UK, as well as the transition from military government to civilian rule following the coup that ousted Dr Kwame Nkrumah in 1966 while he was in Vietnam.

During the visit, Dr Busia was interviewed by the British press where he spoke about the magnitude of the economic crisis which saw Ghana’s inflation pegged at around 117 per cent, Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s regime, the constitution, among others.

Video footage of the interview held at the offices of the Ghana High Commission in the UK has emerged, with Dr Busia speaking on the challenges faced by his government and the way forward since assuming office.

He was later overthrown in a military coup led by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.



Question: Dr Busia what is the size of the problem that the Ghanaian government has inherited from Dr Nkrumah’s regime?

Dr Busia: Take first the economic problem, at independence, we had more than 200 million pounds in reserves and at the time of the coup and end of Nkrumah’s regime, we had debt totalling over 250 million pounds and in fact we do not yet know exactly how much we [Ghana] is owing because they are certain agreements signed and we’ve not been able to collect all the facts and figures about these.

Then also we have shortage of food, essential goods and items…then everywhere on the political level, we have to deal with the fact that democratic rule was completely shattered.

Question: How is the new government tackling these problems?

Dr Busia: There has just been a new budget, a deflationary budget in which the government makes every effort to cut down on government expenditure, cut down on missions abroad, cut our various prestige projects in an effort to deal with the economic situation. Then there’s the building of feeder roads in order to aid the distribution of food and also to employ some of the people who must be laid off in the pruning exercise that we have to do.

Question: There’s likely to be a big deal about unemployment is there?

Dr Busia: Err..., yes, a sizeable one and this will constitute a problem for some time before we are able to deal with it satisfactorily but as I indicated some of them [unemployed persons] will be put on new jobs in agriculture, road building and useful works that will add to productivity.

Question: What are the prospects of a return to civilian rule?

Dr Busia: As you know, I speak as a member of the political committee which is one step that the National Liberation has taken to corporate with civilians. We hope soon that a Constitution Commission will soon be announced and this Commission will be charged with drawing up a draft Constitution and then we hope this will be discussed by a Constituents Assembly and then the Constitution will be promulgated on the basis of which we hope to have elections.

Question: Is there any date for this yet?

Dr Busia: No date has been set but we hope that this exercise will be through in 1 and 2 years at the most so that we can have a return to representative civilian rule

Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.