By What Measure Did Ghana Grow 500% Under NPP, Dr. Bawumia? (2.0)

By: Prof Lungu

Continuing from Part 1 of our 2-Part series (Final Paper with graphics will be posted to GhanaHero.com), here are 4 (four) GDP-Stupid questions for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia:

1. When the economy grew 500% what were the benchmark interest rates charged by banks in Ghana? Did the interests rates get 500% lower at the end, when the NPP turned over the keys to the Flagstaff House?

2. How many more employment was created, of what kind, when the economy grew 500%?

3. By how much did the average person's daily wage increase when the economy grew 500%?

4. Who, from where, owned what part of the Ghanaian economy when the economy grew 500%?

So, tell Ghana, Dr. Bawumia!

Again, in an undated paper titled "OIL DISCOVERY AND FISCAL DISCIPLINE IN GHANA: OIL CURSE BEFORE THE OIL?", Dr. Bawumia himself recorded that during the period 2001 - 2008, during the same period the NPP was in power, the rate of growth of "Real GDP" was a low 3.7% in 2000, and a high 7.3%, in 2008, averaging approximately 5.5% each one of those "NPP Years".

Cumulatively, that is an increase of 49.10% over those years. We must therefore conclude that the facts are not on the side of Bawumia:

Dr. Bawumia is lying!

A 500% growth in the economy never happened in Ghana under the NPP.

In fact, some of the annual increases in real GDP achieved under the NPP were enabled by Western creditors (IMF, IDA, etc.) when they forgave Ghana as much $3.5 billion in interest loan payments (debt) under the NPP (and the next governments):

"...Total debt relief under the enhanced HIPC Initiative from all of Ghana's creditors amounts to US$3.5 billion in nominal terms...Resources made available by debt relief under the enhanced HIPC Initiative are being allocated to fund pro-poor expenditure programs..." (International Monetary Fund, 2004).

IMPLICATIONS OF THE BAWUMIA LIE

The other more significant problem for Bawumia and the NPP (and Ghana) is this.

Apparently, he, Dr. Bawumia, does not understand that when he speaks or writes, he does not merely speak or write for people in Ghana, or for the absent-minded, hyper-partisan people in Ghana, for that matter.

Or, maybe Dr. Bawumia does not care!

Fact is, just as some of us are critically examining these papers and speeches, governments of other nations and their agents are devotedly collecting, archiving, and analyzing these records. So also are corporations and entities with current businesses interests in Ghana; and those considering opportunities in Ghana.

If Dr. Bawumia and the NPP truly understand corporate governance, international relations and performance as they represent, they will know that there are private and public sector costs to Ghana when he makes those false and unhinged statements. After all, foreign governments and corporations have their own interests. They recognize fools, liars, and traitors, and people who will do or say anything to get a vote or funds for their political party and personal agenda to boot.

And so, just as the British and the US did not trust or respect J. B. Danquah and Busia, and the duo's midnight antics in dark halls and foreign embassies, so too would Bawumia be seen in the eyes of those governments (and private interests).

Dr. Bawumia, we predict, is increasingly been recognized as a Hulkian joke of a Ghanaian politician. His written records and speeches are at face nothing but propaganda and fabrications that demonstrate precious little analytical and critical perspectives, unhinged from all manner of evidence and provable facts.

OUR 500% GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS QUESTION FOR DR. BAWUMIA

Here is the other critical question for Bawumia.

Being the economist and self-promoter that he is, assuming the NPP did indeed grow Ghana's economy 500% by 2008, how come he, Bawumia (and the NPP), have to date not informed Ghanaians that they applied for, and have already received a certificate (and recognition) from the "Guinness Book of World Records" for "Exceptional National Economic Achievement of Unprecedented Proportions by A Group of Africans"?

Or, maybe, TIME magazine did already recognize them as "Persons of the Year 2008", and they neglected to inform Ghana.

You know, just like when TIME magazine featured Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana on their cover in 1953, exactly 51 years before the boasts by the NPP about their governance record, while they have persistently thrashed the record and achievements of Kwame Nkrumah and his CPP.

Bawumia and the NPP haven't tried the Guinness Book of World Records route, the easier, and more democratic route!

And we think we know why they haven't!

Because they just can't!

Because even Singapore with it's centralized, pragmatic direction blessed by the United State and the West, even Lee Kwan Yew Singapore, did not grow 500% during any 8 year period! (Check the record, or read our final paper that will be published shortly with graphics at www.GhanaHero.Com/Visions, under Prof Lungu Says....).

They can't because it is all lies. It is all political propaganda masquerading as analytically, robust evidence. It is plainly a sham of lies, selective information, and calculated misinformation by Bawumia.

And no one is fooled!

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, please do come again!

So still, it goes, Ghana!

SOURCES/NOTES

1. International Monetary Fund. IMF and World Bank Support US$3.5 Billion in Debt Service Relief for the Republic of Ghana, https://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2004/pr04144.htm.

2. Mahamudu Bawumia. Oil Discovery and Fiscal Discipline in Ghana: Oil Curse Before the Oil? Table, Ghana: Selected Economic Indicators – (2000-2008), Undpated Paper, (http://naturalresourcecharter.org/sites/default/files/GHANA%20and%20the%20Oil%20Curse%20Sept.pdf).

3. GHANAHERO.COM & PROF LUNGU POLICY ON SOURCES:

Our essays are data- and evidence-driven. But they are not written to the standards of a journal or peer review article. We only provide detailed sources and references to persons and entities who are serious from an intellectual frame of reference. Contact us via www.GhanaHero.com, if you need a copy of a final paper on any subject we've tackled. Contact us, too, if you need a copy of a document we've referenced or discussed in any paper, including this one.

4. Thanks to Yaw for pointing out the NPP took over first week of 2001, (having won the election in 2000).

5. The Final Paper with graphics will be published shortly at www.GhanaHero.Com/Visions, under Prof Lungu Says....). Get a copy and be informed. Or, if you feel like it, do contest, and we will find time to answer.

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Prof Lungu is based in Washington DC, USA.

By What Measure Did Ghana Grow 500% Under NPP, Dr. Bawumia (2.0)!

Brought to you courtesy www.GhanaHero.com©19 December, 2015.