Opoku Gakpo Writes: Gh @ 59 – Ripe time to outsource governance to Donald Trump
Ghana is obviously a great country. We’ve come very far as a nation. The strides we’ve made remain an envy of most of our neighbours in the West Africa sub region and beyond. We represent the best of our continent, and we are a nation that makes every African proud. With a stable democracy, entrenched freedom of expression and a vibrant media like no other, no one can convince me that Ghana is not the best place on earth to have been born. These things make us a toast of the world. But it makes us no key power broker or serious power house that others look up to for leadership and direction. Because the hard truth is that economic power is what calls the shot, not aesthetic power. The latter will only take you thus far, but it hardly takes you as far as you want to go.
The even more sad part of the story is this; Ghana has always had everything it needs to be that economic powerhouse in Africa; gold, diamond, bauxite, oil, cocoa, good land, hard working human resources, you name it. All this nation needs to do is transform these into better quality finished products and sell to the world, and then we are there. Like Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and others have done.
So, for every Ghanaian who was at the Independence Square on that fateful day when the Union Jack came down and the red, yellow and green flag went up, a prediction that Ghana would lead the continent in less than half a century was a reasonable, moderate forecast. With the colonial shackles off this great nation’s neck, they were hopeful that their children, grand children and great grand children would live in a stronger, mightier and better country.
But what did they get? Along the line, our huge prospects gave way to despair. Thanks to poor leadership, bad management, corruption and indiscipline at its worst. The result, a country with such great future slipped down the path into an abyss, never to bounce back for a long time to come.
Every leader who either hijacked power with the barrel of a gun, or came to seek the people’s mandate after Dr. Kwame Nkrumah promised us our lives will be better. But what did we see? Then, we had more than enough electricity for every community that needed it. Today, the lights hardly stay on for as long as we need it. Tema was an industrial hub with extra ordinary potential to employ all young people who needed jobs and make us self sufficient in the production of our basic needs. Today, we are a net importer of all basic commodities including food. Then, we produced more than enough cocoa to feed the world, today we import cocoa to feed our few industries, even as we continue to sell out the bulk of our cocoa in its raw state.
Then, tertiary students slept in rooms in singles in pursuit of education that was largely free; today, university education is a reserve for the rich, and those same rooms accommodate six to eight people. Even food became a scarce commodity in this country at a certain point in time. Despite the advancement of science and technology, today, common quality drinking water is hard to come by in most parts of Ghana. Healthcare and a transportation system you can rely on are non-existent. Thousands live on the streets of Accra and Kumasi, and unemployment is now a way of life.
Now, all that is left is a country adrift on rough seas; surviving on yesterday’s glories and grasping at anthems and patriotic songs that no longer inspire. It’s startling how we lost our path so dramatically at such a fast pace. If anyone as at independence had predicted that our past will be better than today, we would have called him a false prophet. So, what did we do wrong?
We allowed the colonial spirit to hover around our heads even after independence was officially declared. Beyond bad leadership, we’ve remained a poor nation unable to take care of ourselves because other countries and both local and foreign special interest groups continue to eat too deep into our pockets. For example, some research claim the ordinary cocoa farmer earns less than 2 percent of the average price of a bar of chocolate on the UK market. Can you imagine how much more wealth this country would have if we were producing chocolates here to sell to the world? The story remains same for our gold, oil, diamond, and all.
The Trump Magic
We are all appalled by the vitriolic rhetoric that has characterized Donald Trump’s bid for the American presidency, and we all know the world would be a very dangerous place if he becomes leader of “the free world.” I would not have voted for Trump if I was an American. But the underlying principle behind Trump’s thinking which millions of Americans agree with is very simple and sensible; he wants to “Americanise” America. He wants the American economy to work for Americans. He wants to make it less complicated for the ordinary US citizen to fulfill the American dream. He wants to secure American borders from dangerous trespassers and cheap goods and services that are collapsing American industries.
So, although his plans to sack immigrants and ban Muslims from entering the US sounds crazy, his push for a re-negotiation of trade deals with China so Americans benefit more makes complete sense. Donald Trump has talked about shutting the borders of America to Mexicans. Maybe; it’s about time Ghana shuts its borders to the guys who have come to mine our gold, buy our cocoa in its raw state, drill our oil, and coach our national teams for 50 times the salaries locals would take. Trump has spoken about re-negotiating America’s trade deals so that the people of that great country are the beneficiaries of the American business success stories. Ghana must consider that with the multinational companies mining our natural resources. Afterall, that’s what nations are created for. To pursue national agenda, not create a better economy on the other side of the shore.
A country like Ghana that is struggling to get off its knees actually needs that kind of self renaissance Donald Trump is preaching far more than America needs it. It’s time to make our natural and human resources more beneficial to the ordinary Ghanaian and not the foreigner, as if it is theirs and we are just chewing off them.
Light Note
Unfortunately Donald Trump’s wealth which independent analysts estimate to be about 4.5 billion US Dollars, but he claims is twice that figure, cannot buy Ghana. Otherwise, I would have suggested we sell the country to him so he can attempt “Ghananising” Ghana for us. But just maybe it’s about time we outsourced the country’s management to his Trump Organisation. I believe he has the skills to take Ghana very far. We pay him a good fee, he will deliver.
But on a more serious note, I think it’s about time we returned to the basic principle Trump is propounding. Let’s make the Ghanaian economy work for us. Let’s cut down on the deals that hand over our God given resources to foreigners while the politician takes 10 percent kickback, and negotiate deals that put the interest of the Ghanaian first.
After 59 difficult years that started with pump and pageantry and but veered onto a path of despondency and gloom, I am angry that the better days that were promised on the eve of 6th March 1957 are nowhere in sight. I’m not satisfied that in a country where people are working harder and that has more educated folks today than ever in our history, the lives of our people continue to deteriorate with the speed of an asteroid. Before our country retires from active service at age 60 next year, and before the troubles of this country overwhelm us all, let us remember these timeless lessons of history that every nation determines its destiny by itself, not in cahoots with the international community. Our nation can be better than this.
May God bless our homeland Ghana and Happy Independence Day.
By Joseph Opoku Gakpo / www.josephopokugakpo.wordpress.com
