An Enquiring Mind Wants To Know.
Although private ownership is more durable and profitable than state ownership in today?s economies it is not prudent on the part of Ghana government to ignore its nationals when it comes to privatizing national assets.
According to the GNA report on 25th February 2006, "Professor Dominic Fobih, Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines announced that three national parks have been earmarked for privatization in the country. They are the Kakum National Park in the Central Region, Mole National Park in the Northern Region and the Shai Hills in the Greater Accra Region. The Minister of Lands made the announcement at a ceremony at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi on Friday 24 February 2006 to formally introduce members of the Kumasi Zoo Advisory Board to the Asantehene. According to the honorable Minister a Dutch company from Tanzania had already made a good offer in respect of the Kakum Park, while the Shai Hills is already under Marina Tours."
How can a country sell its assets/land to foreign companies and claim to be free or independent? Rather than building upon the infrastructures Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah has built for Ghana (and posterity) our recent governments to wit the (P)NDC then and NPP today are doing all in its power to sell what legacy has been entrusted in their hands.
President Kufour and the NPP must reconsider their decision and tread carefully here. When was this discussed publicly or debated in Parliament and did Ghana?s Parliament give the go ahead? Why are Ghanaians not invited to bid? Since when did the NPP also come to the conclusion that Ghanaians are not capable of managing their own infrastructure? Was this not the platform the NPP stood on against the NDC? Why then are they doing the same?
LIP SERVICE OR POLITICAL DECEPTION?
It must be recalled that on February 15, 2006 our honorable Foreign Minister, Nana Akuffo Addo remarked that as Ghanaians we cheat ourselves if we buy the lie that we need outsiders to teach us entrepreneurial skills. Why then is his government, NPP not allowing Ghanaians to bid in the sale of the national parks? Let it be known to our government that Ghanaians may look or be poor but they are not too stupid to collectively come together to invest in their own infrastructure if giving the opportunity. Therefore Ghanaians deserve an open bid.
This article seeks to ask President Kufour the following questions:
1. How is Kufour?s NPP different from Rawlings NDC when it comes to privatizing Ghana?s public assets? 2. Why is the NPP also bent on selling Ghana to foreign investors without due consideration to indigenous capitalists as did the NDC? 3. If the NPP keeps selling Ghana?s public assets (as a continuation of what the NDC initiated) to foreign corporations what would be left for our children and posterity? 4. How does Ghana hope to develop and meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), if the lion share of Ghana?s revenue ends up in foreign pockets that don?t care about reinvesting the profits back into the economy? Are our governments not aware that all foreign (multi-national) corporations care about is repatriating their mega profits? If private ownership is empowerment then why is our Government always looking to foreigners to buy Ghana?s public companies rather than empowering Ghanaians to do the same?
As good custodians our government (today)must reconsider the reasons behind Nkrumah?s vision and motivation in building such infrastructures as National Parks and find some innovative way to deal with the re-colonization politics of the IMF or and the World Bank . What prevents our government from handing over ownership and management to qualified Ghanaian investors (or genuinely including them in the ownership deal in the open market) if the government in her wisdom admits that it is being under-managed by the state apparatus? This is not fair to Nkrumah and our founding fathers? who laid down these foundations for the future generation. Does the government really think it is in the nation?s interest to sell Ghana?s land/assets. Is it for their own interest or the interest of the country? An enquiring mind wants to know.
It must be recalled that Nana Akuffo Addo, Ghana?s Foreign Minister, unveiling his manifesto at KNUST for his 2008 presidential bid remarked that, ?it is unacceptable that Ghana gets 5% of the value of gold exports, as reported by UNCTAD last September.? So the question is why is NPP (his government) repeating the same mistakes of the former regime in leaving ownership of Ghana?s infrastructure solely in the hands of foreign companies? What percentage of ownership does Ghana have in Obuasi Gold Mines? Is it not true that Ghana gets so little because majority of shares is in held by outsiders? So what is the NPP government doing to correct this misfortune meted to Ghana by the previous regime(s)? Is it not sad that Ghana would boast of being the world?s finest producer of gold and one time known as the Gold Coast and yet does not even receive 10% of total revenue from the gold? This is outrageous in the face of the many concomitant health hazards that the folks at Obuasi and the gold mining areas have to deal with. How will the selling of our national park to Marina Tours or a Dutch company from Tanzania enhance the welfare of the local communities? Even as a gold city the inhabitants of Obuasi are not guaranteed good drinking water and good primary education, let alone to talk about other infrastructures which is their right. Doesn?t our government today think the situation would have been different if Ghanaians owned the majority of shares?
Now the NPP government is thinking of clandestinely selling Ghana?s public parks to foreign firms without even putting it in the open market for nationals to bid. This author finds Nana Akuffo Addo?s manifesto as unveiled in a 26 page address at the KNUST in February 15, 2006 contrary to what is going on here It is mind boggling and one is tempted to believe that the incumbent?s speech was mere platitude, unless Nana Akuffo Addo would admit that he has no idea of what is going on in his government with regards to the sale of Ghana?s Public Parks which I doubt. In his speech that had strong tones of nationalism and self-motivation of the Ghanaian?s capacity to endure and ability to deliver, the Foreign Minister, Nana Akuffo Addo, explained further his concept that, ?An indigenous capitalist believes in broadening the marketplace; it trusts in our human resource and initiative and develops that initiative. We cheat ourselves if we buy the lie that we need outsiders to teach us regional cooperation and entrepreneurial initiative. Even under the disincentives of colonial administration, our farmers moved this nation from a country that never saw a cocoa pod to the world?s leading exporter of cocoa inside of 22 years.? He continued,? We have spent our population?s strengths for a few hundred years building other great economies, both voluntarily and under relentless duress. It?s time now to build our own, and we need go no further than ourselves as a large family to achieve the greatness to which we aspire?(GNA Feb.17, 2006)
Is the managing of our public parks excluded from Nana Addo?s indigenous capitalization proposals? Or does his government now believe that Ghana needs outsiders to teach us regional cooperation and entrepreneurial initiative when it comes down to our national parks? Why does the NPP want to sell Ghana?s public infrastructure that Osagefo in his wisdom built in the name of Ghana to foreign firms without due consideration to Nana Addo?s indigenous capitalism? An enquiring mind wants to know.
Perhaps it would be proper for concerned citizens to employ Nana Addo to intercede on behalf of the masses to prove the genuineness of his manifesto. Where is that can-do attitude that our honorable Minister alluded to when it comes to its practice in his government? ?For an epitaph, let us write upon the gravestone of Ghana?s repressive and impoverished past, with absolute confidence in its fulfillment, these words: ?We are determined to succeed. We are on course to revive that can-do, will-do spirit. And, God willing, we shall triumph. ?Nations are built by people.? Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo declared to a packed Great Hall at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science in Technology in Kumasi.
In his article written for and on behalf of The Ghana Leadership Union, George Asomaning, Esq. said,
?According to Article 257 (1) of the 1992 Ghana constitution, ?All public lands in Ghana shall be vested in the President on behalf of and in trust for, the people of Ghana?. Article 266 stipulates in no uncertain terms, that ?No interest in, or rights over, any land in Ghana shall be created which vests in a person who is not a citizen of Ghana a freehold interest in any land in Ghana?. Therefore, I hope in your calculations, Mr. Minister, you are not thinking of offering freehold interests, and I hasten to add that whiles we are not opposed to the leasing of land to foreigners, the idea of selling or long term lease of national parks and assets to foreigners is inimical to the interest of the people and the State, and must be stopped. There is a mountain of resource waiting for you and your colleagues if only you would look within. We need you and your colleagues to choose to travel this way. Why not try Ghanaians. You said you are treading carefully, so tread carefully with us as well and see what we can do. At least give us a try and you will be pleasantly surprised? (as cited by George Asomaning, Esq.).
Doesn?t conventional wisdom teaches us that in order to progress one needs to build upon what one has and improve upon it? Do we improve by selling? Unfortunately our government today is doing the opposite. Does our government expect some positive results or just interested in some percentage cut? This author hereby beseech Ghana Government to consider Ghana leadership union?s appeal to consider a second alternative by making it a condition for foreign investors only to be allowed to subscribe to 49 per cent of the share value of any Ghanaian investment opportunity while Ghanaians both home and abroad are allowed to subscribe to the remaining 51%.
As proposed by our incumbent Foreign Minister in his ?indigenous capitalism we need to look nowhere beyond our own heritage and our recent progress in order to envision and understand the answer to more effective development in our country. ?By indigenous capitalism I am talking about the kind of wealth accumulation that ensures no one has to go hungry, that ensures the greatest number of the population actively participates and benefits from economic growth. The kind of capitalism that is protective of the vulnerable and generous in its calculation of the bottom line? (Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo).
Let the NPP do the right thing.
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