Why must Africa's natural resources and cash crops be considered a curse? Oil in Nigeria is a curse; diamond in Sierra Leone is a curse; and now cocoa in Ghana is a curse, which I fully agree. Resources that are perfectly man ... read full comment
Why must Africa's natural resources and cash crops be considered a curse? Oil in Nigeria is a curse; diamond in Sierra Leone is a curse; and now cocoa in Ghana is a curse, which I fully agree. Resources that are perfectly managed elsewhere in the world to benefit the citizenry, suddenly become a curse on African soil.
I have always maintained that, in spite of Dr. Nkrumah's achievements in building monumental infrastructure to spearhead Ghana's economic development, he is partly to blame for the present economic malaise that that we face in the country today. Dr. Nkrumah's whole fiscal policy was centered on proceeds from one cash crop, and one cash crop only - cocoa. While countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (the Asian Tigers) pivoted their fiscal policies on taxation, and used same to attract foreign investment to boost their economies, Dr. Nkrumah was rather spewing the colonialist imperialist mantra to discourage the rich countries to invest in Ghana.
Pivoting his fiscal policy not on a single cash crop but on taxation, would have provided a solid foundation by widening the tax base to provide revenue to develop the country; to use tax incentives to lure desired or specific companies to invest in Ghana and provide jobs for the people; to use special forms of tax incentives to promote specific industries targeted by his administration for economic development; and d) to pay tax himself to set an example for future leaders to pay their fair share of taxes for the development of the country. As it is now, because Dr. Nkrumah nor none of his successors paid taxes, the Rawlings' induced 1992 Constitution forbids the President of Ghana to pay taxes.
It is the bad foundation Dr. Nkrumah bequeath to the nation that has partly resulted in economic stagnation and apathy in national politics in the areas of government fiscal policy and taxation.
Ace 7 years ago
Great article and your comments too are insightful
Great article and your comments too are insightful
Prof Lungu 7 years ago
Kwabena Yeboah is back to his old habits, again!
Kwabena Yeboah never offers any data that shows Nkrumah is responsible for Ghana's development quagmire, in 2016.
Next, even Akosombo and Tema Township will be a curse, ... read full comment
Kwabena Yeboah is back to his old habits, again!
Kwabena Yeboah never offers any data that shows Nkrumah is responsible for Ghana's development quagmire, in 2016.
Next, even Akosombo and Tema Township will be a curse, huh!.
But, that is how preposterous it still is evolving.
READ: "... As it is now, because Dr. Nkrumah nor none of his successors paid taxes, the Rawlings' induced 1992 Constitution forbids the President of Ghana to pay taxes..."
WE SAY: It is neither here, nor there, Nkrumah-basher(s)! Just "60-Year Olds" with grown grand children talking about "bad foundation" of their father(s).
Again, next, they will be saying Akosombo, Tema Township, Legon, Adomi Bridge, etc., are all curses on Ghana.
And the many they even stole and/or sold for a song, long after the Father was gone.
What a life!
Kwabena Yeboah - While we wait for your data-driven paper on your unfair charges, get ready for our final paper on the "60-Year Old" series.
(We've just been too busy on more important stuff).
Greetings.
Kwabena Yeboah 7 years ago
If you may care, I do not copy and paste, and don't have to produce any data-driven paper because I am objective in my assessment of Dr. Nkrumah's term in office. I am neither partisan nor obsequious to any present or past le ... read full comment
If you may care, I do not copy and paste, and don't have to produce any data-driven paper because I am objective in my assessment of Dr. Nkrumah's term in office. I am neither partisan nor obsequious to any present or past leader of our country.
I am an intellectual and trained to be objective. You may quack like a duck and howl like a dog or wolf all you want, but you can't prove me wrong. I said Dr. Nkrumah had no fiscal policy, except by relying on a single cash crop, cocoa. Prove me wrong if you understand what fiscal policy means. I also proposed in my write up the benefits Nkrumah's fiscal policy would have accrued to the nation, with examples from the Asian Tigers. Go ahead and prove me wrong, my friend.
Your spurious defense of Nkrumah is stifling a genuine and progressive debate about Ghana's way forward. You are dangerous, and an anathema to progressive thinking Ghanaians.
Prof Lungu 7 years ago
And again!
Again and again, NEXT, you will be telling us the fable about the Akosombo and Adomi Bridge curses!
And again, we can train even dogs to be objective all day long. And they don't brag about that perhaps reco ... read full comment
And again!
Again and again, NEXT, you will be telling us the fable about the Akosombo and Adomi Bridge curses!
And again, we can train even dogs to be objective all day long. And they don't brag about that perhaps recognizing that is not something to write home about!
Imagine telling a group critically-minded college students your fable, and interjecting you've been "trained to be objective".
It is laughable at any elderly age.
So, like the Bible or any number of your "spiritual stories, yours is merely an article of faith, with mighty doses of projection...about things w'eve already debunked with data, comparing sedentary "groundnuts" to "birds that have already successfully flown away".
Go fetch the data in the air!
But surely, we must be dangerous in your failed attempts "to stop Lungu" with your "progressive thinking".
That is a good thing!
Even so, we see a certain sense of decorum in your words today. And that is yet another good thing, Today.
Nii Teiko 7 years ago
Nkrumah, the father christmas, paid his dues but that is not to say he was infallible. He chalked some monumental successes, much credit to the abundance of resources available for a nation of a population of just 5-million. ... read full comment
Nkrumah, the father christmas, paid his dues but that is not to say he was infallible. He chalked some monumental successes, much credit to the abundance of resources available for a nation of a population of just 5-million. And that is highly recomendable. However, some of his unpopular decisions landed ghana into economic quagmire, just as Kwabena Yeboah is trying to say. His quest to become the leader of Africa, for instance, cost Ghana a great deal of economic fortunes. The money of our hardworking cocoa farmers that freely slipped into the formation of the Ghana-Guinea-Mali alliance is remembered here.
Again, what was the wisdom in extending power from Akosombo to Togo and Ivory Coast at a time when the entire Brong Ahafo and the entire 3-Northern regions were not connected to the National grid? What informed Nkrumah's decision to grant the three Northern Regions with free education? Instead of encouraging them to go into commercial farming that would put money into the pockets of Northerners, the so called visionary Nkrumah, the Father Christmas of all times, made them more LAZY by cushing them with free education - the result of which is the pen-robbers who are stealing everything they lay their hands on at the presidency. Meanwhile then Upper Volta ( Burkina Faso) which share the same geographic conditions with Northern Ghana had their people working hard to pay school fees. Is it any wonder that Ghana now imports tomatoes, onions and other foodstuffs from Burkina? What is more annoying is the so called SADA of today that does nothing but to put free monies of the tax payers into the pockets of these 'Beast of Burdens'. Nkrumah really set a bad precedence of which the NDC is threading now.
Kwabena Yeboah 7 years ago
BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! Lungu at his best, always incoherent and discombobulated.
I made a critical assessment of Nkrumah's administration and invited you to prove me wrong. Is that all you bring to the table? Tweaaaaa!!! Why s ... read full comment
BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! Lungu at his best, always incoherent and discombobulated.
I made a critical assessment of Nkrumah's administration and invited you to prove me wrong. Is that all you bring to the table? Tweaaaaa!!! Why should I waste my precious time on you?
Tawa 7 years ago
You wrote: "It is the bad foundation Dr. Nkrumah bequeath to the nation that has partly resulted in economic stagnation and apathy in national politics in the areas of government fiscal policy and taxation."
Either you are ... read full comment
You wrote: "It is the bad foundation Dr. Nkrumah bequeath to the nation that has partly resulted in economic stagnation and apathy in national politics in the areas of government fiscal policy and taxation."
Either you are dim-witted, or very myopic!
How can you honestly refer to a "foundation" that was violently DEMOLISHED 50 years ago?
Kwabena Yeboah 7 years ago
Like many semi educated Ghanaians, you read without comprehension. Did Nkrumah lay the foundation for fiscal policy to begin with "that was violently DEMOLISHED 50 years ago"?
To quote Martin Luther King Jr., "Nothing in ... read full comment
Like many semi educated Ghanaians, you read without comprehension. Did Nkrumah lay the foundation for fiscal policy to begin with "that was violently DEMOLISHED 50 years ago"?
To quote Martin Luther King Jr., "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity".
How so true in my homeland of Ghana!
Akpet 7 years ago
You cannot wiggle yourself from your own stupid assertions!
Now you are asking: "Did Nkrumah lay the foundation ...."
But what the above poster quoted from your original post was an AFFIRMATION that there was a "foundat ... read full comment
You cannot wiggle yourself from your own stupid assertions!
Now you are asking: "Did Nkrumah lay the foundation ...."
But what the above poster quoted from your original post was an AFFIRMATION that there was a "foundation" by Nkrumah!
Kwabena Yeboah 7 years ago
This is what I wrote, numbskull:
"It is the bad foundation Dr. Nkrumah bequeath to the nation that has partly resulted in economic stagnation and apathy in national politics in the areas of government fiscal policy and tax ... read full comment
This is what I wrote, numbskull:
"It is the bad foundation Dr. Nkrumah bequeath to the nation that has partly resulted in economic stagnation and apathy in national politics in the areas of government fiscal policy and taxation."
Oh God help me to find intelligent people with whom I can have a discourse , but not these blockheaded semi illiterate buffoons who cannot read and comprehend.
I am done with you dimwads! I have better things to do.
Mangtse 7 years ago
What is obvious, other than to you, is that 50 years is way too long after Nkrumah's "Fexit" (forced exit) for you to STILL be yakking about his "foundation/no-foundatio"!
Baba Yara died @ age v33
JJ jolted us @ 32
A ... read full comment
What is obvious, other than to you, is that 50 years is way too long after Nkrumah's "Fexit" (forced exit) for you to STILL be yakking about his "foundation/no-foundatio"!
Baba Yara died @ age v33
JJ jolted us @ 32
Afrifah was executed @ age 43
Kuti was executed @ age 47!
Get the drift?
50 years is a heck lot of EXPIRED and WASTEFUL years!
Brujos 7 years ago
For an intelligent writer, you should know it is the "content" and not the "monikers", that is relevant.
Who gives a fart if your "Kwabena Yeboah" is FAKE?
For an intelligent writer, you should know it is the "content" and not the "monikers", that is relevant.
Who gives a fart if your "Kwabena Yeboah" is FAKE?
Akpet 7 years ago
I think your post is responding to the neo-senile's
"IT'S NO LONGER TAWA, BUT AKPET"!
Anyone that paranoid must be a self-evident multi-moniker shrimp-prick!
I think your post is responding to the neo-senile's
"IT'S NO LONGER TAWA, BUT AKPET"!
Anyone that paranoid must be a self-evident multi-moniker shrimp-prick!
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Why must Africa's natural resources and cash crops be considered a curse? Oil in Nigeria is a curse; diamond in Sierra Leone is a curse; and now cocoa in Ghana is a curse, which I fully agree. Resources that are perfectly man ...
read full comment
Great article and your comments too are insightful
Kwabena Yeboah is back to his old habits, again!
Kwabena Yeboah never offers any data that shows Nkrumah is responsible for Ghana's development quagmire, in 2016.
Next, even Akosombo and Tema Township will be a curse, ...
read full comment
If you may care, I do not copy and paste, and don't have to produce any data-driven paper because I am objective in my assessment of Dr. Nkrumah's term in office. I am neither partisan nor obsequious to any present or past le ...
read full comment
And again!
Again and again, NEXT, you will be telling us the fable about the Akosombo and Adomi Bridge curses!
And again, we can train even dogs to be objective all day long. And they don't brag about that perhaps reco ...
read full comment
Nkrumah, the father christmas, paid his dues but that is not to say he was infallible. He chalked some monumental successes, much credit to the abundance of resources available for a nation of a population of just 5-million. ...
read full comment
BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! Lungu at his best, always incoherent and discombobulated.
I made a critical assessment of Nkrumah's administration and invited you to prove me wrong. Is that all you bring to the table? Tweaaaaa!!! Why s ...
read full comment
You wrote: "It is the bad foundation Dr. Nkrumah bequeath to the nation that has partly resulted in economic stagnation and apathy in national politics in the areas of government fiscal policy and taxation."
Either you are ...
read full comment
Like many semi educated Ghanaians, you read without comprehension. Did Nkrumah lay the foundation for fiscal policy to begin with "that was violently DEMOLISHED 50 years ago"?
To quote Martin Luther King Jr., "Nothing in ...
read full comment
You cannot wiggle yourself from your own stupid assertions!
Now you are asking: "Did Nkrumah lay the foundation ...."
But what the above poster quoted from your original post was an AFFIRMATION that there was a "foundat ...
read full comment
This is what I wrote, numbskull:
"It is the bad foundation Dr. Nkrumah bequeath to the nation that has partly resulted in economic stagnation and apathy in national politics in the areas of government fiscal policy and tax ...
read full comment
What is obvious, other than to you, is that 50 years is way too long after Nkrumah's "Fexit" (forced exit) for you to STILL be yakking about his "foundation/no-foundatio"!
Baba Yara died @ age v33
JJ jolted us @ 32
A ...
read full comment
For an intelligent writer, you should know it is the "content" and not the "monikers", that is relevant.
Who gives a fart if your "Kwabena Yeboah" is FAKE?
I think your post is responding to the neo-senile's
"IT'S NO LONGER TAWA, BUT AKPET"!
Anyone that paranoid must be a self-evident multi-moniker shrimp-prick!