President Mahama, Stop Blaming IMF And The World Bank

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PHILTY McNASTY 11 years ago

So true. Kwame Nkrumah idealistically thought he could a community and economy akin to the early disciples....socialism. But even then we have the lesson of Ananias to know it does not work. profit motive is the main drive b ...
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So true. Kwame Nkrumah idealistically thought he could a community and economy akin to the early disciples....socialism. But even then we have the lesson of Ananias to know it does not work. profit motive is the main drive behind entrepreneurism and risk taking. Reward awaits the risk takers who succeed, not the buffoons who sit at the Flagstaff House singing ede be keke. Nkwasiafuo have taken over the country and JJ Rawshit is number one fool.
Senyo 11 years ago

THE CLOWN! YOU ARE THE MOST STUPID CONTRIBUTOR ON Ghanaweb!

THE CLOWN! YOU ARE THE MOST STUPID CONTRIBUTOR ON Ghanaweb!
muugunyaaro 11 years ago

Its like we never understand the satans of global economy unless we understand how the world bank and IMF had been working to destroy the world. Africa lucks any consensus. We export all our raw resources to them and leave ou ...
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Its like we never understand the satans of global economy unless we understand how the world bank and IMF had been working to destroy the world. Africa lucks any consensus. We export all our raw resources to them and leave our people hungery. They have been able to suppress us so tight that we can't develop anything on our own. We always need to be beggars. Its time to enforce African unity. The writer is some irresponsible man who feed on the sufferings of Africans. Despite claiming to praactice so called democrasy, How many democratic countries are complaining of economic hardships? all
Abigi 11 years ago

It is the likes of you that has made it possible for FOOOLLLSSS to run us into economic mess.

It is the likes of you that has made it possible for FOOOLLLSSS to run us into economic mess.
Ato 11 years ago

I couldn't agree with you more. These clueless apes are the supporters the blood suckered running the country down.

I couldn't agree with you more. These clueless apes are the supporters the blood suckered running the country down.
KL 11 years ago

Another great statement! Ghana has the talent to be a great nation, but, again how do we get the right leadership? You mention Korea....there is also Malaysia, and Singapore, who all started with Ghana...and Ghana had the bes ...
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Another great statement! Ghana has the talent to be a great nation, but, again how do we get the right leadership? You mention Korea....there is also Malaysia, and Singapore, who all started with Ghana...and Ghana had the best resources among all of them. The difference has been leadership.
Joe 11 years ago

This is one of the best articles I have read on this web recently. But where is the leadership coming from to drag Ghana out of the hole it is now in?

This is one of the best articles I have read on this web recently. But where is the leadership coming from to drag Ghana out of the hole it is now in?
Alasa 11 years ago

However look up the word "tentative". I think you used it wrongly

However look up the word "tentative". I think you used it wrongly
Joe 11 years ago

Don't be so pedantic !!

Don't be so pedantic !!
Ato 11 years ago

He is looking for red herring.

He is looking for red herring.

NTIKUMA ANANSE 11 years ago

OUR WOES STARTED WITH KWAME NKRUMAH'S EXPERIMENT WITH SOCIALISM. A BOOK, "GHANA IN TRANSITION" BY DAVID E. APTER TELLS ALL ABOUT THE FAILURES OF KWAME NKRUMAH. GHANA DID NOT HAVE A GOOD FOUNDATION AT INDEPENDENCE IN 1957, HEN ...
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OUR WOES STARTED WITH KWAME NKRUMAH'S EXPERIMENT WITH SOCIALISM. A BOOK, "GHANA IN TRANSITION" BY DAVID E. APTER TELLS ALL ABOUT THE FAILURES OF KWAME NKRUMAH. GHANA DID NOT HAVE A GOOD FOUNDATION AT INDEPENDENCE IN 1957, HENCE ANYTHING WE HAVE BUILT SINCE THEN IS STRUCTURALLY WEAK, BUILT ON WRONG FOUNDATIONS.
Farmer 11 years ago

Isn't it more beneficial to any government yet to play along and fill their personal pockets? Itthink we need more focus on the mislead motivation of governments which keep driving the country in the wrong direction.

Isn't it more beneficial to any government yet to play along and fill their personal pockets? Itthink we need more focus on the mislead motivation of governments which keep driving the country in the wrong direction.
ROY 11 years ago

Given the depth of poverty and ignorance at independence, socialism was the best choice at independence. This inequitable,selfish, cruel system of capitalism we are practising currently could have led to serious economic doom ...
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Given the depth of poverty and ignorance at independence, socialism was the best choice at independence. This inequitable,selfish, cruel system of capitalism we are practising currently could have led to serious economic doom.

The problem was that there was no consistency in the application of socialist policies in Ghana after the deposition of Nkrumah. Take a look at the high pace of development of socialist/communist China because of consistency of application of socialist/communist policies.

Busia and Co conspired with their masters to topple Nkrumah with the sole aim of changing the structure of the economy from local procesing to our heavy reliance on their masters. Now, our economy relies heavily on imports resulting in inter alia, weak national currency; this is because our manufacturing base is woefully weak, a far cry from the strong manufacturing base in Nkrumah days.

Now the poor are suffering because prices are determined by "invisible" forces of demand and supply and the government powerless in intervening in the economy to save the poor. Our gold, oil, cocoa and other resources are carted to these powers to be processed instead of being processed in Ghana to provide employment to Ghanaians as was the case in the days of Nkrumah.

One of the remedial measures the government should take is to initiate the processing of our oil, gold, cocoa and other resources locally.
Philip Kobina Baidoo 11 years ago

Don't delude yourself into thinking that China practices socialism/communism. Their political system is communism, but that of economics is purely capitalism. If you care go and find out more on what I have said, and read abo ...
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Don't delude yourself into thinking that China practices socialism/communism. Their political system is communism, but that of economics is purely capitalism. If you care go and find out more on what I have said, and read about the conversion of Den Xiaoping.
G. K. Berko 11 years ago

If you think so of China, then Ghana really never practiced Socialism at all, even under Nkrumah. He only blurted out political rhetoric, and went on record as someone who designed an ideology he thought would best fit the Af ...
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If you think so of China, then Ghana really never practiced Socialism at all, even under Nkrumah. He only blurted out political rhetoric, and went on record as someone who designed an ideology he thought would best fit the African's special circumstance but never got the luxury to test it even in his own country.

Besides, Nkrumah's passing flirtation with Socialism did not last half as long as China's adoption of practical Socialism, nor did it reach any deeper into the roots of our Economic System beyond the surface. You could not claim that Nkrumah's transient experiment with Socialism was so terminally destructive to our Economy that it has to take us beyond now to find remedy to whatever mess it caused.

It is most disingenuous of you to allude to the fact that the chronic nepotism, cronyism, graft, ineptitude and corruption of our Officials,our intractable unreformable Civil Service, and tribalism that have prolonged the stagnation of our Economic machine are all the offshoots of Socialism. Come on, get real! Just declare you are an avowed Nkrumah hater, not for his Economic performance, but for something else.

Sir, it may well benefit the deepening of your cache of knowledge on our Nation's economic woes to research more on how we seem to be heading towards an Oligarchy..a possible consequence of our intemperate overzealousness to prove Capitalist. The last time I checked, the President you seem to single out for exemplary efforts to lead us into Capitalism had carved a path for us into his brand of Capitalism he called "Property Owning Democracy". Maybe, we could not have understood him well enough if he had just called it "Capitalist Democracy". But to many discerning Ghanaians, that brand of Democracy he led the Nation into reflected a certain tautological reference to our Democracy, with special emphasis on owning property by a few. We already had a Democracy that did not restrict owning property the right, legal way, with the exception that it was marred with cronyism.

So, under your most favorite President, dubious Companies got formed overnight at the dawn of lucrative economic opportunities that only those in Government and their close associates could take advantage of. Most of these Companies did not last as functioning Business entities. They rammed into the early profits of the ventures they have taken over and simply sat back, not caring anymore about future production of their companies, or just fizzled into near oblivion, or sold the initial firm to outsiders without thinking about any impact of their activity on our overall economic progress. It did not matter to them how much of our State resources had been expended to create those opportunities, so as to excite their patriotism to expand their businesses to justify their incursions into those fields of opportunity. After stashing much of their initial profits in safe havens abroad, they didn't care anymore. You do not even hear these 'phantom Businesses' hire any more hands than those they probably named as owners and Board of Directors at the inception of those Companies.

I can hear many fault J. J. as well for unraveling the ownership leash that the State had over the Industries Nkrumah's government built, without ensuring those taking over would manage them well to have growing positive impact on the Nation. Fair charge. But the fact remains that our attempts at claiming Capitalism as a 'new thing' that never existed among us before the 4th Republic, a fatuous lie at that, have all seen our Politicians making wild empty promises to us and only ensuring their pockets got filled.

We must not be fooled into thinking that all Capitalism means is using one's own machinations, or scheme, to grab wealth without sweat under the guise of private Ownership. We have seen no meaningful entrepreneurial promotional efforts by our Governments that profer to be practicing Capitalism,in all these years. No rules apply with the exception of those that restrict access to the opportunities that might seep through, making those opportunities only accessible to cronies and well-connected.

When was the last time you witnessed any bidding process for procurement Contracts in Ghana, be it under Busia's Administration, Kutu's, J. J.s, Kufuor's, Mills' or Mahama's? Have you ever considered the level and extent of poverty in Ghana at the time of our Independence to make an honest assessment on how we could have privately owned factories, Public Utilities and other pillars of any country's Economy? Do you know of any well-grounded financial Institution that existed in Ghana at that time that potential entrepreneurs could have obtained credit from to start or develop their Businesses? If not, how would you have allocated such direly needed financing to the Business Public in those days?

You see, it is so easy to cast a long 20/20 hindsight into the past to critique the actions of our forebears, setting our baseline solely and conveniently on the symptoms of their perceived errors.

We fail to honestly and properly investigate what led them to take a particular action that we are complaining about, given the possibility that that action might have fit well into the relevant situation, under those contexts they functioned in. Things change over time and good leaders do frequent assessments to modify existing plans, or formulate new appropriate ones with which to work for success. Our leaders after Nkrumah have had long enough time to make ammends but did not make them.

We have had no leaders whose visions inspire or generate creative solutions. I won't dare say none had a vision for the Nation. But whatever their visions were, we have nothing to show for.

This brings me to the following quotation, used as the thought of the day, by the Forbes Magazine, and supposedly offered by one Elbert Hubbard: "Progress comes from intelligent use of experience".

We have failed to make any intelligent use of our experience gained from the mistakes you claim Nkrumah made. That is why we have not made any significant progress to date. Some of what we even call mistakes by Nkrumah could, by honest and critical assessment, prove not to have been mistakes in his time and under the circumstances he took over the reins of government.

And if they were, you have no empirical proof that those mistakes have that lasting effect as to still keep us grappling for survival. That, to me, is a cop-out.

On your comparison of us to Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea, I would say that the comparison as you presented it is trite, and replete with holes that represent missing data to honestly portray how the success of those countries were made.

I am not sure whether our intellectuals, possibly including you, cite that comparison with those crucial data blatantly left out to conveniently satiate your quest to trash Nkrumah, or it is just lack of deep enough research to learn of those data. I know you might call me some Nkrumahist gone haywire, here. But that could not be farther from the truth. I have been hearing the same stale decades-old reasoning behind Nkrumah's Economic failures and the success of his Asian counterparts. But it did not take me much time to know of these vital data you all chose to leave out in touting the Asian's success.

Some of these Data include:

1). That all three Asian Countries, even though no less dictatorial than Nkrumah's Ghana, had the luxury of time and Western investments to work with.

2). That all of them had designated Companies the State either owned or controlled to produce nothing but the desired success the Nations needed to attract foreign investors and convince their Nationals with to keep the Governments in power.

3). That all three Countries had a certain inescapable condition of local content requirement from the foreign Firms that their local Workers' Unions, the Government and the Companies agreed to.

4). That all three Countries massively supported, heavily subsidized and dictated the content of their Education Curriculi to match their Economic agenda.

5). That all these Countries contained or suppressed political opposition to eliminate any interference in their Economic plans.

6). That all these Countries played a certain vital Geo-political role for the West in containing the larger Communist China and Russian perceived threat. The West saw an opportunity not to rattle the wasp-nest with these countries but to massively support them by, at least, encouraging Western firms to relocate there.

And for this last reason, I would even include Taiwan, Honkong and to some degree Thailand.

In the case of Ghana, we earned the badge of number one pariah in the Western circles right from the very beginning of our Independence. The fact that Nkrumah had dedicated our Freedom to assist other African Colonies to free themselves from their Western domination, always kept Nkrumah in the target for destruction by the West. His failure would deter other Colonies from following his steps.

While, eventually the Europeans realized Nkrumah's message for Independence to other Colonies could not be held back from their Citizens, the West conceded to allow Independence but designed a new strategy to hold on to their Economies. That strategy was mostly tested on Nkrumah's Ghana.

The Europeans by default controlled our Export Markets and ensured that they remained as tools to tweak how they wanted us to behave towards them, nationally.

Americans joined the frey by virtue of their natural alliance with the Europeans and as a result of the Cold War. Ghana became a crucial hot rod in the butt of the West, regarding alignment of all newly Independent Nations along the East or West sides of the partition. Nkrumah's rapid warming up to the East became the straw that broke the camel's back for his regime's viability and even existence. His non-alignment membership did not water down the anxiety in the West enough. He had already sent our sons into Congo to fight the Belgians in defense of Patrice Lumumba, who the CIA had already marked down for neutralization. There were enough about Nkrumah the West did not want see expanded.

The West saw an opportunity to derail Nkrumah's efforts by sabotaging his number one project to give our Economy a backbone..the Akosombo Dam. So, at an opportune time, the West pulled the rug from under him, despite assurances they had already given Nkrumah to assist with financial facility to complete the Dam. Had it not been the rising interest in Ghana by the Russians, the West would never have prodded the Italians to jump in to take that role of assisting us to finish the Dam, but even so, only with the hefty interest loans from IMF/World Bank. Nkrumah had no choice but take the bitter pill to finish that project without which his industralization plan could not have taken off.

Yet, hardly had the Hydro-Dam begun to work did the Coup erupt to kick him out of power. Somehow, however, with mostly Eastern Technology Nkrumah pushed on to build over 320 State-owned factories. These are bare facts of Nkrumah's Economic legacy.

If we closely look at this bold attempt at industralization coupled with the high interest and efforts at building our Education and skill training for our folks, Nkrumah's developmental plan was structurally similar to that of Singapore.

Ghana also had an accord with Israel to train our Agricultural Engineers in particular. That was just the beginning of a cooperation with Israel that the first Republic hoped to expand and capitalize on.

We had never had any significant Commercial Farming Estate owned either privately or by the State in Ghana until Nkrumah's regime. That was an attempt to accelerate our Agricultural role in supporting the industries. We were fast building the infrastructure to curtail imports and depend more on our local manufactured Goods. We intended to refine most of our produce or raw materials before exporting them so as to add to their value.

All these were a threat to the West's expectation of cheap raw materials and their own employment situation at home.

Why then would the French coerce their former Colonies into believing they were equal partners in Governance,whereby heads of State in newly "freed" Countries were assigned seats in the French Parliament?

The Argument that African Countries all chose to become Socialist and that is why they all staggered in their quest for economic advancement is a big hoax. After all, we know of most of the our Regional neighbors with French influence not opting for Socialism. They remained purely Capitalist and had heavy presence of French and other Western Businesses still operating there after their independence. Can we say they are any significantly further advanced than we are?

How about Nigeria? She was a Federal State with Democratic arrangements not unlike the USA. And shortly later, they became Oil rich with the influx of Western Firms into the Country. Can Mr. Baidoo explain what has befallen Nigeria now, in terms of what ideology that country followed?

One might mention the civil War in Nigeria as having eaten away much of their opportunity to move past the present Economic stature. As much as the War brought further hardships, the continued corruption in Nigeria has never been blamed on the War, neither could we find any Socialist agenda there that might have precipitated the spread of that vice.

I realize a certain corroding mentality among most of us Africans that contribute to the persistence of Nations' economic woes. That is, we still see our chances to occupy Official roles as opportunities to fill in for the Lordship of the Colonial Masters, or as alternative pseudo-Monarchs, comparable or even more important than our local Chiefs.

We still capitalize on many of our Cultural features to encourage and persist in corruption, nepotism and cronism. We interprete and practice Capitalism and Democracy in a skewed manner that perpetrate the decayed process of governance and Economic management. We function with much less honesty among ourselves to attract any meaningful collaboration to advance. We destroy our State resources because we see them as belonging not to us, our parents or other family members. We detach ourselves from the State in order to justify stealing from her. Such are some of the fundamental traits we need to change to allow Capitalism work as it should, and Democracy matter beyond elections.

We fear decentralization. We fear Freedom of Information Rights. We fear Transparency in Government. We denounce accountability, claiming any push for that to mean an implied distrust that we take offense at. How many of our Officials and Politicians taking Government positions have really followed the dictates of our Constitution to declare assets prior and after serving the Nation?

Then, again, we do not care how many of our children ever reach Universities or how many of our Folks would ever understand how Government really is supposed to work, or what goes into, say, procuring Contracts that often are mishandled to become an abatross on us.

Sir, the very reason why we are still suffering has much to do with our uninspired quest for knowledge, personal integrity and real patriotism. Yeah, blame Socialism for Woyomegate!!

Let me leave it at that for now. I would be glad to discuss this with you into greater detail, if you real care to share ideas. Thanks for your well written Article. But it tells only half of the story.

Long Live Ghana!!!

Nkrumah made some mistakes in governance, predicated on numerous factors, not just one. But you are so eloquently claiming that all his mistakes could be summarized into just one line and that is: because he led us to practice Socialism.

That amounts to gross misinformation.
Philip Kobina Baidoo 11 years ago

Hello Mr Berko, I believe this is not the first time we have crossed path. I have read your very well focused rebuttal to my piece. And every curve on the way I was amassing arsenal to throw at you. However, you disarmed me ...
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Hello Mr Berko, I believe this is not the first time we have crossed path. I have read your very well focused rebuttal to my piece. And every curve on the way I was amassing arsenal to throw at you. However, you disarmed me with the following: 'such are some of the fundamental traits we need to change to allow capitalism to work as it should. ' You seems to be in my camp so I am not going slug it out with you. Except that with all the examples you threw at me I will refer you to India, which was not under any pressure from the West and yet socialism could not deliver for them until they changed to capitalism under the behest of the last Prime Minister, Singh, when he was finance minister in the 90s.
Abigi 11 years ago

Do you still believe in this nonsebse socialism? Where is Cuba, North Korea, Myamar? Turn to India, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia etc and see the harm socialism and its attendant problems has done to us.

Do you still believe in this nonsebse socialism? Where is Cuba, North Korea, Myamar? Turn to India, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia etc and see the harm socialism and its attendant problems has done to us.
Philip Kobina Baidoo 11 years ago

Thank you Abigi for your input to help our people see the light.

Thank you Abigi for your input to help our people see the light.
Abigi 11 years ago

Thank God for his blessings in shining the light on you. If you are the same guy who used to communicate with me on joy fm, then I am very happy for you and have hope that Ghana will one day know the way out and be able to ge ...
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Thank God for his blessings in shining the light on you. If you are the same guy who used to communicate with me on joy fm, then I am very happy for you and have hope that Ghana will one day know the way out and be able to get out of this socialist nonsense. I remember when you did argue about social interventions and how it mitigates against poverty. What Ghanaians are failing to understand is that there is no free lunch, resources are scarce and nobody has time and money to waste on LAZY squanders. We can
PhiIip Kobina Baidoo 11 years ago

It must be another Philip Baidoo. Thank you anyway, and may God bless you.

It must be another Philip Baidoo. Thank you anyway, and may God bless you.

Abigi 11 years ago

You one of the few Ghanaians who has wisdom to see through the lies and propaganda that has bedeviled our country since independence. I am planning to establish an institute of conservative studies in the future to teach our ...
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You one of the few Ghanaians who has wisdom to see through the lies and propaganda that has bedeviled our country since independence. I am planning to establish an institute of conservative studies in the future to teach our people the good works of capitalism and how it motivates the individual to come out with his/her best for the benefits of society and be rewarded with profits. Pareto said if you move up and I do move up without either of us taking from each other then the whole society moves up. In Ghana everybody steals from the poor in the name of making it better for the poor. In the end the poor gets poorer and the thieves gets poor too, for they keep the stolen worth in the same capitalist systems they chastise.
PhiIip Kobina Baidoo 11 years ago

I can't wait for it. Sign me up when it's up and running.

I can't wait for it. Sign me up when it's up and running.
DusTY-FooT-pHiloSophER 11 years ago

Like your positive energy. Well, will be looking forward for more of you in here.

Halla!

Like your positive energy. Well, will be looking forward for more of you in here.

Halla!
Alex. Illi 11 years ago

...Or colonial remnant?

It would have been far more interesting to me if you had bolstered this opinion-piece with affirmative data.

Was Ghana really better off than the East Asians, and if so, in which regards?

What ...
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...Or colonial remnant?

It would have been far more interesting to me if you had bolstered this opinion-piece with affirmative data.

Was Ghana really better off than the East Asians, and if so, in which regards?

What type of "Socialism" did Nkrumah adhere to? Your article nonchalantly implies total collectivism, by giving the example of even twins not sharing the same sentiments.

You see, not every Socialism means the opposite of Capitalism - in Germany, for example, the economic constitution is officially called Social Market Economy, and the Social Democratic Party has held the presidency several times in West Germany's and Reunited Germany's history.

Some self-styled "conservative capitalists" tend to totally deny the social part of human nature, and the dependency of everyone, adults included, on social achievements, like infrastructure, technology, civilisation, basic administration and so on. On the other hand, some "socialist" extreme ideologists may totally deny the importance of individual contributions, e.g. acts of outstanding genius or individual entrepreneurship. I personally am unable to see any sense in assuming the stance of either side of such "black/white"-exclusionary world-view.

Every human being has aspects from categorisations that are often portrayed as exclusionary by extremist ideologists (e.g. capitalists/socialists, "leftists/rightists", conservativists/progressivists), e.g. every human being welcomes security and stability that true conservatism tries to preserve, while on the other hand every human being is usually fond of the turbulent refined arts, and so on.
The same applies to every political entity - no state in history had a purely "capitalistic" or "socialistic" practice. E.g. no supposed "free-market" capitalist state has ever existed without granting on or the other form of subsidies to it's subject - directly or indirectly (e.g. via tax exemptions, "loopholes" etc.) - or other forms of market-steering and protectionism.
I can momentarily not write on and on about it, but it should have become clear, that most of the issues considered fundamentally oppositional by ideologists are a form of manufactured disconsent. ...An illusion of total incompatibility between hypothetical "systems" that exist only in the minds and on the papers of some extremist, divisionist ideologists.

It may possibly be attributable to a lack of knowledge about Ghana's/Goldcoast's history on my side, but I was still quite surprised at your seemingly general and total refusal to positively appraise any progress for Ghana on Nkrumah's politics behalf.

The historical information I am currently lacking, that would allow me to assess this question myself definitely, is whether the oft-described predominantly state-owned industries, by which sell-off Ghana has lived off and partially payed off her trade-deficit-debts since decades, were mainly a remnant of Kwame-Nkrumah-led policies, or from colonial times.

(According to my somewhat approximate understanding of an article recently published on Ghanaweb, deindustrialisation in Ghana seems to have set on and subsequently been quite steady since the beginning of the 1970s.)

All in all, your article can act thought-provoking by displaying a depth of conviction that should be derived from sure knowledge of fact in case of a sensible person, rather than ideological extremism, but I am a bit sorry to say, after too much undefined ideological name-calling (ala socialist! socialist! socialist!) without offering much promise to put forward any deeper factual information any time soon, I just had to abort further lecture of it before its final conclusion.

There is already enough provocation and partisan retaliation in this world, to a sensible person's taste.
G. K. Berko 11 years ago

I think we should not just jump on the bandwagon of relegating all Nkrumah did to some failed Socialist dogma.

I will in a very short time produce an elaborate reference that would make all well-meaning Ghanaians rethink h ...
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I think we should not just jump on the bandwagon of relegating all Nkrumah did to some failed Socialist dogma.

I will in a very short time produce an elaborate reference that would make all well-meaning Ghanaians rethink how we appraise Nkrumah's Economic efforts, and our often-cited comparisons with Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea.

I like your rebuttal. It is profound.

Long Live Ghana!!!
Alexander Illi 11 years ago

Thank you, I kind of wish I had more time, e.g. for proof-reading (some mistakes in there :) and also because I didn't have the opportunity yet to read all of your own contribution above, much further than it conveying to me ...
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Thank you, I kind of wish I had more time, e.g. for proof-reading (some mistakes in there :) and also because I didn't have the opportunity yet to read all of your own contribution above, much further than it conveying to me the distinct impression that it stems from very intelligent and compassionate observation and reasoning, and that you obviously don't put striving for personal wealth and profit (exceeding the limit of sufficiency) over that of the country and her other inhabitants. Solidarity for you does likely not end at geopolitical boundaries and reaches out beyond narrow personal interests.
I would be very interested in an article delving deeper into the matter of historical comparison between "East Asian versus West African" preconditions and developments.

One more reason that sometimes makes me wish for more time is that I am of course not content with simply criticizing, but would also I like to thoroughly elaborate suggestions for solutions; Always in a practicable and pragmatic manner, especially if economy is concerned, because Ghana needs sustainable and environmentally sound agriculture, facilities, factories and manufacturies, and not hypothetical cloud-castles.

Some example where the state/government could take practical initiative is implementing the proposal of a Ghanaian fertilizer plant, using the Ghanaian-produced oil and phosphorus from neighbouring countries, to cheapen the fertilizer acquisition and thus lighten the burden of the fertilizer-subsidies on the budget. At the same time such a move should be complemented with the setting up of educational centers for farmers in every district-municipal, to show the farmers hands-on and down-to earth, with experimental plots and visual evidence etc. on display, the practicability of improved methods that use fertilizer more efficiently, like Fertilizer Microdosing, or avoid over-dependance on fertilizer-input, such as nitrogen-fixating and nutrient-pumping Fertilizer Trees (e.g. Faidherbia albida, Gliricidia sepium in Evergreen Agriculture and Alley-Cropping), avoiding loss of fertile soil through Improved Fallow with e.g. Mucuna Beans (edua appiah) as nitrogen-fixating groundcover plants for weed suppression and moisture retention etc., instead of the currently still predominant "slash and burn"-method (that is rapidly becoming one of the worst threats to Ghana, even though it was once sustainable and successful, when the fallows were kept for 10 years, before the spread of population and accessibility ) or soil-abrasive non-conservation tillage (deep ploughing destroys the soil's cohesion -> erosion), where most of the nutrients are released in the smoke or carried off via erosion. The losses that Ghana suffers from agricultural deficiencies are impossible to completely evaluate financially, but they surely amount to several billions of $ annually, as will become evident in the near future, if the exploitation cannot be held in check and reversed soon.
At the same time, the maintenance and efficient operation of big state-owned factories and a network of experimental and instructional centers is only possible, if the educational system strongly emphasizes the common interests of all Ghanaians (and all inhabitants of earth, actually), that is why I so strongly disapprove of the notion stating that the basic motivational factor of human nature were solely self-centered profit-seeking. I am not denying this obvious motivation to obtain wealth and security in life, and that personal necessities have to be provided first in order to thrive and allow altruistic expediency. And yes, even seemingly "self-lessly" working for society as a whole can be one-sidedly interpreted through the lens of "self-service", because in effect it leads to the spreading of prosperity, education, stability, security and as such in return also positively couples back to the life of the "altruist".
So, "altruism" and "selfishness" can again be exposed as two unreasonable extremes, the dynamic balance of which is containing the only rational truth. I argue, that in our present zeitgeist, the selfish and individualistic aspect is over-emphasized by the majority, as can be seen in the comments here, as well as current pop-culture music videos and advertisements and so on, that are usually all about self-gratification, displaying personal riches and success and mindful only about one-self or at maximum including one's own family and friends.
In such a society of egomaniacs, (who even tend to be indoctrinated with the misconception to regard manual labour such as farm-work as lowly), the enthusiasm, dedication and idealism of the individuals running these institutions for common goals is far too weak to keep them operational. Not while being forced to withstand against the determined self-dedicated competition of a multitude of companies and organisations primarily oriented at profit-maximization.

But since Ghana is still heavily relying on small-scale and subsistence farmers, Ghana could avoid competition by investing in the niches where the competition has so far not penetrated or is unable to compete, and where relatively small investments could provide a huge leverage.
Besides the erection of Fertilizer Plants, another such area of far-reaching transformation and even innovation would be the erection of Breadfruit Flour Factories, to give the rural inhabitants employment and income chances and at the same time enormously raising food-security and agricultural sustainability levels. Even the environment and future fertility of Ghanaian soils and Ghana's uncharted heritage of biodiversity could only vastly profit from this initiative.
The state would have to initialize such projects, because the span from initiation to manifestation of profit is too long for the interests of average private investors and the initial investment is also to high for most privately-owned entities:
First, in the case of the Breadfruit Factories, it would have to start with the Government ordering, importing and nursing hundreds of thousands of the double yielding Breadfruit tree cultivars (discovered and offered by a charitable non-profit organisation - Global Breadfruit - these non-GMO-trees have to be vegetatively propagated, because all high-yielding breadfruits are seedless. Breadfruits could truly revolutionize tropical African agriculture, because they yield as much as cassava and yam, without any of the disadvantages associated with their cultivation - and Breadfruits even reliably bore fruit (the very large fruit tastes similar to cassava and yam when cooked or roasted or fried and most Ghanaians would by experience immediately accept it and often find it even superior to yams and cassava) in the catastrophic year of 1983. I cannot describe all potentials in total detail here, so I would have to refer the interested reader to search the term "Africa's Breadfruit Revolution").
Then the Government would have to hand out the pre-nursed small Breadfruit trees (when the trees arrive at the airport from the propagational facility, they are so small that 500 can fit in a suitcase) to the farmers for free or at low cost (they can be sold later, because the farmers will soon learn to highly esteem them), to plant them on their farming plots.
Then the farmers can sell the surplus to the factories, which the state has to erect in the meantime (the trees need about 3-4 years to start bearing; when fully grown, one tree can provide one person with sufficient nutrition, so if a large family has a dozen or so trees, they'll have a surplus to sell as cash crop).
The Breadfruit flour can be mixed into exceptionally nutritious and tasty bread.

If a Government would absolutely refuse to participate directly in industrial activities, it would have to set the administrative framework conditions accordingly to entice and enable private entrepreneurs to realize beneficial business concepts.
E.g. lowering the hurdles for well-meaning initiatives to import necessary provisions and equipment (I actually fear privately ordering the breadfruit trees or machines and spare parts for setting up a factory, because of the hassle I have heard of at the airport and harbours), lowering taxes for ventures that are not predominantly profit-oriented, providing comprehensive and transparent bureaucratic services and perhaps even imposing protective measures for budding domestic industries.

There are some areas where a government could decisively take action or simply offer support with far-reaching impact, without having to be mis-categorized with overcome ideological terms.
Alex. Illi 11 years ago

...and I have to say it was just too convenient an opt-out that Mr.Baidoo chose to grasp at - to avoid any more specific and concrete answers by at least pretextually deeming you in the same team/camp.

As if that were all ...
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...and I have to say it was just too convenient an opt-out that Mr.Baidoo chose to grasp at - to avoid any more specific and concrete answers by at least pretextually deeming you in the same team/camp.

As if that were all that would matter, that someone is perceivedly in the same compartment, and all further differentiations and considerations were totally neglectable.

Mr. Baidoo could have only taken to such an over-simplistic impression by (purportedly?) mis-interpreting your openness to embrace a subtly differentiated perception. That is why elevated thinkers are often integrative to a certain large extent - many can permit themselves to identify to some extent with a wide worldview that traverses above all-too-limited ossified popular conventions.

He presumably was still sincerely unable to conceive that anyone could stand above having to choose constructed popular "sides" in political argumentations. That seems to become quite clear from his 'dead serious', nigh-militaristic choice of expression/ Freudian slips, including terms like "arsenal", "throw at you", "slug it out" ("slug" = projectile, bullet) = dueling...

Tellingly, of all the armament he allegedly had amassed the only point he explicitly had to offer (as such seemingly considered the most significant by him) was another unsubstantiated allusion to India's development and economic orientation.

(Before anyone would get the erroneous impression that I were in any way opposing "capitalism" per se, let me please state clearly that this is not true, I am only striving for a balanced view and do not savour obvious ideological one-sidedness and subsequent warping of definitions and discrimination to serve lopsided political agendas.)

I have seen that you have already begun to discern some major differences between East Asian and West African countries in your comment with regard to their post-colonial preconditions, geopolitical circumstances and developmental policies. I would surely look forward to learn more about this period in history and it's still prevailing effects on present-day Ghana.

May Peace be with you all.
Philip Kobina Baidoo 11 years ago

I think I like you already for your openness, choice of words and temperament. I will be honoured if you could contact me via email. I will be very happy to have further discussion on this topic.
THANK YOU

I think I like you already for your openness, choice of words and temperament. I will be honoured if you could contact me via email. I will be very happy to have further discussion on this topic.
THANK YOU
Alexander Illi 11 years ago

Thank you, sir. I don't know if I can add anything of importance, but if I may be able to contribute to further clarity or find solutions, I'd be glad.

With best regards

Thank you, sir. I don't know if I can add anything of importance, but if I may be able to contribute to further clarity or find solutions, I'd be glad.

With best regards

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President Mahama, Stop Blaming IMF And The World Bank

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