Kojo Tamakloe
Practicing democracy with non democrats
A leader ,is a person who guides or directs a group
Vision , the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be: ...
Hence a visionary leader is one who will see into the future, the unknown and direct his group in that direction
. Nana Akufo-Addo has just returned after 6 months in the “wilderness”. When Moses went into the wilderness to seek the face of God he returned with a covenant and a set of rules for a disparate collection of people . The first two dealt with love, “ Love thy God” and then “ Love thy neighbor”. Before he left, his was pain, envy, jealousy for failing to become “president” at all costs . If God is Love then what then is the aggression and hate with divisiveness that he seems to promote and encourage ?. NPPians claim the moral high ground for “ Christianity” . Where did Christianity promote such crass discrimination where we continue to insult our President and his followers based on tribal grounds ? NPP fails to see that they do not endear themselves to the people who are to be their members because they fail to address them
Africa’s problems are poverty, poor education and lack of technological progress .This has led to under performance . One would have liked to hear or read their views on how to GROW the economies and alleviate poverty . Agriculture is our back bone and so we should be focusing on how to develop it . Here comes GMO bill likely to undo the farmers of their livelihood. NPP is deafeningly SILENT . The bill if passed into Law would enslave a country like ours and stifle research and development in this vital area . Do I need to emphasize the importance of this in wealth creation, food security and health. But what did we get, SILENCE . That is VISIONARY LEADERSHIP , NPP style
We have now the crusade by our President Mahama , dubbed “ Buy made in Ghana”. Ghana inherited a “Guggisberg Economy”, where our raw materials are carted wholesale at prices determined for us ,turned into manufactured goods and sold to us at prices imposed on us . Nkrumah, who is hated by the NPP made strenuous efforts to break this cycle. He wanted a “Cocoa cartel” and a United Africa . The neo colonialists and their agents foiled it . He was forced to burn cocoa to create shortage to get better prices . Then at the same time the gold from the bowels of Ghana’s earth earned GC2m no matter what the world price was .Paltry 2m Ghana cedis per annum, irrespective of the world price . He tried to get a stake in the Gold mines and the Prah river was diverted to flood the mines . So he started to build a Gold Refinery. and this was abandoned by NPP. NPP can you tell us what you did with it? Do we know that , at that time the Arab nations were selling their Oil at $2 per barrel and when they formed the Cartel after 1966, could then bring the price up to $23 per barrel. Today the Arab countries are wealthy and African countries , balkanized, divided and weak are still mired in poverty. Today they still under mine the crusade for industrialization. But what was the “ Nana Akuffo Addo” economy “ aimed at achieving ? This is a question they asked on ghanaweb , “ why should they use the little money they have to buy “expensive made in Ghana products”? I want to ask them ,.do you expect to be employed in Ghana? If so where will the jobs come from? Another wrote a long article titled,” alternative to rice importation is starvation” Really? No wonder some one called NPP a party of Jokers . What did his parents feed on in the absence of rice? I know I used to feed on “ yo ko garri” , fufu, akplee and fetri detsi, komi and shitto, yam, cassava, cocoa yam millet meal, grass cutter meat, or Keta school boys . But aside from that did he ever hear of a man called Tetteh Quarshie? Ghana, then Gold Coast was not a cocoa producing country , but became number 1 after it was introduced. So the argument that China and the East Asians have long done so and so have a competitive advantage does not hold either . But then that is the bane of the NPP , “traditional conservatives” . “As it was in the beginning , is now and ever shall be”. So they shouted “ No to independence’ . We are not ready . Now they shout about continuing to import everything . How do they hope the Cedi will hold up ? Let us do a simple maths taught me by a school mate of mine , called Mitov. Whenever I gave him a price ,he used to ask “ how many cokes”? In 1957 with a population of 6.5 m, we needed 650000 cars . How much cocoa did we need to export to get them? Now with a population of 24 m we still need 10% of cars , which will be 2.4m cars. How much cocoa do we need to export to get these cars assuming prices have remained the same . Does it not make sense therefore to follow the call by the President to make and use “ Made In Ghana? It is not political , but just common sense
Efforts to Industrialize
Nkrumah made strenuous efforts in the 60s to diversify the economy. Most of the industries he set up were for “ import substitution” , purposes , and ultimately for export. That is how the Chinese did it . A lot were agro based , cotton farms to textile, sugar cane with sugar processing, with liquor distilling, cattle development with canning, tanning and shoe making . Unfortunately , this was not good for the NPP and they closed them down .They will accuse Rawlings of corruption when he was trying to revive them instead of admitting they had no means to buy and operate them. NPP a failure even in free enterprise !
The African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA is a legislation that has been approved by the U.S. Congress in 2000. The purpose of this legislation was to assist the economies of sub-Saharan Africa and to improve economic relations between the United States and the region.
The U.S. government thus established three regional trade hubs in Africa for this purpose, in Accra, Ghana; Gaborone, Botswana; and Nairobi, Kenya.. These were some of their objectives
• “Endorse regional economic integration. The African Union has already announced its intention to finalize agreements for regional economic communities by 2014, integrate them between 2015 and 2016, and establish a continental free trade area by 2017.Economic analysis indicates that regional economic integration would provide significant economic benefits, and the U.S. should encourage the African nations through AGOA.
• Incentivize economic integration while encouraging AGOA-eligible countries to pursue greater economic freedom. AGOA has facilitated trade expansion for African economies. However, tariffs and quotas remain on a number of goods that could significantly benefit African economies and U.S. consumers at a relatively small cost to U.S. producers. AGOA should reward African progress toward economic integration and economic freedom by linking those steps to expansion of duty-free treatment and elimination of quotas on key products.
AGOA was a USA initiative to relieve poverty and encourage industrialization by providing a market USA and causing REGIOAL INTERGRATION” . Trade was to replace AID . This was emphasized by President Bush . So what did the NPP do with this from 2001 to 2008 when it was in power . UNDERMINE IT . Where are the industries and where is the integration?. Rather NPP still shouts MA TE ME HO . That is leadership aka NPP
“Time for an Economic Freedom Partnership with Africa. In the AGOA forum’s inaugural meeting 12 years ago, President George W. Bush underscored, “We have a unique opportunity to build ties of trade and trust that will improve the lives on both our continents. And we will seize this opportunity. Substantial bipartisan support continues for forging close relations with African countries and promoting economic growth, stability, and good governance. AGOA has helped to advance this goal, but trade-preference legislation falls short of the full potential for American economic partnership with the region.
African nations, long regarded in Washington primarily as troubled countries in need of assistance, have in many instances demonstrated strong, sustained growth and are increasingly becoming viable economic partners thus the need for
1. “ Renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which will expire in 2015, provides an important opportunity to expand that partnership.
2. The full potential for trade-led economic growth will not be realized as long as AGOA remains limited to a trade preference arrangement.
3. Ensuring dynamic economic expansion and long-term development in sub-Saharan Africa depends greatly on increasing the competitiveness of African entrepreneurs through expanded economic freedom. “
What is the stand of the NPP on this . How are they supporting it ?. Is it by sabotaging the efforts even of the West? Instead they initialized EPA. They need AID
EPA . This is the latest of the efforts that will forever re colonize us. We spurned Nkrumahs policies and have not taken advantage of the Clinton/Bush initiative. So now the Europeans come up with the concept of the NPP. They are not yet ready for freedom They cannot manage their own affairs . Well let us use them as a dumping ground . NPP what is your stand ?. When they said they were not ready , do you know what that means . After about 500 years no Native American has governed USA , nor in Australian have we had an Aborigine being a Prime Minister. It took South Africa donkey years to be able to run its own affairs
So do we accept EPA and hope to compete with the industrialized West , especially Europe. How do we then absorb the graduate unemployed? What about the less qualified? My cousin chose to become a tailor while I was in High School . He was already growing the GDP . We have exported most of our best people and we write about the gains and losses of emigration. We will develop of we retain our best brains . That was the lost generation . Must we continue with that? “ An organization is as good as the people in it” That I believe was the underlying rally of FREE SHS .
My friend Justice Sarpong wants us to change KIA. Good ! Since Kotoka was a traitor with J B Danquah and Akufo Addo shall we remove them from the Big 6? Obetsebi Lamptey, Busia, Akufo Addo and J B Danquah were all traitors and need to be treated as Judas Iscariot. They sold us for 30 pieces of silver . But I have an idea also . June 4th was against corruption. Let us make it a day of ANTI CORRUPTION . All must wear anti corruption tags and we go on to clean all the dirt and filth in our cities , towns and villages .Re plant trees on land devastated by “ galamsey” Make Flt Lt Rawlings and P C Ofori the driving persons in this quest . Lt Rawlings it will be recalled even went against the Late Mills when he saw corruption . Every year as we clean up we also crown innovators. People who have designed and patented new products, as those in the diaspora create awareness of our need for investment
Do you remember not long ago one could get a passport processed in 24-48 hours with no bribes . That was under Chairman Rawlings
Let us rehabilitate Nkrumah’s image and use it to promote tourism . Israelis are not mostly Christians but use Jesus , the Chris,t whom they murdered to make money . Ask Nana Akufo-Addo , he was in Jerusalem before seeing the “face of God “in London . Nkrumah was a great Pan Africanist and Ghana can be the “ Mecca” of Pan Africanism. That is jobs and foreign currency right there
Industrialization is a must as we add value . The goods we produce can also be monitored locally . We have had the Thalidomide episode where medication caused children to be born with no limbs . Sokolive , a law firm in the USA specializes in drug related ailments . Recently we had GM , Toyota, Mazda and KIA recalling millions of vehicles they put on the roads that were defective. One of them needede only $2.00 to be rectified but they would not. Why? Bottom line, PROFITS . Must we blame the “Old lady” next door for all the mishaps ?
My call is for all the progressive people to work together for our economic prosperity . Africa needs to Unite and increase the intra African trade . Nigerians put pressure on your government to open its market. French West Africa , stop thinking and reciting “ Our ancestors the Gauls” . We are Africans and let us remind ourselves of the late Kutu Acheampong, “ One people, One continent, One GREAT destiny
Forward ever , backwards never
The writer, Kojo Tamakloe is a Pan Africanist who believes the solution to Africa’s underdevelopment is UNITY
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