The problem of this country is that there are too many paid agents passing as social or economic commentators. They either speak for or against government depending on their interest. As a result, it is no longer interesting listening to radio or watching morning TV shows because of the apparent show of political biased analyses that are not based on facts or precedence.
Sometimes, it amazes me to hear people paint a bleak picture of Ghana’s economy that feed into international media and thinktanks who then use it to downgrade Ghana’s economic outlook. Same people will then turn and blame government of the day.
Listening to one radio morning show today, I was horrified to listen to arguments like ‘It will take 60yrs for Ghana to get back to 2016 economic levels’. Other panelist said it will take 15years for Ghana to complete its economic recovery and even apologizing for their past support of certain parties. These were people who are all above 40years and might have witnessed Ghana’s economic challenges in the early 1980s and 2000s. These are people who might have read Economics and be familiar with the economic history of Ghana from the First Republic.
As former President Mahama once said, Ghanaians have short memories. But in reality, we do not have short memories but pretend to remember what is of convenience to us. These people forgot that by the 1990s, Ghana’s economy had recovered from the 1980s challenges. Ghana became Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) by 2000 and by 2006, Ghana had moved from HIPC to Lower Middle Income in record 6years that even amazed the Breton Woods institutions. As President Nana Addo said, Ghanaians know how to bring the Economy back.
Anybody worth calling himself/herself an Economist, knows that our current challenges prior to the advent of Covid-19 and Russian-Ukraine war started in the last quarter of 2012 when people sacrificed the economy to win elections. We never recovered as a country until Covid-19 Pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine war came to deepen our woes.
It is therefore quite disingenuous and open display of ignorance for anyone to suggest that it will take over 10years for Ghana’s economy to get back to the 2016 economic level. An economy which couldn’t employ into the public sector for 4years, Dumsor for 4years, No chalk in public schools, less than 25 operational ambulances for the entire country, no mobile money interoperability, schools under trees, cash and carry NHIS, One interchange ( at a cost of 4 interchanges as compared to current interchanges being constructed) among others.
The current economy despite the Pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war has produced over 300 well-fitted ambulances, over 12000 kilometers of roads and 7-interchanges, restore teachers, nurses and Arabic instructors allowances, mobile money interoperability, Free SHS, TVET and STEM schools, schools now using markers and boards instead of chalk, provides the entire course work on ipad for students, pay for all examination fees for all students at both JSS and JHS students, provided unprecedented educational infrastructure across all levels of education, cleared the backlog of unemployed nurses, teachers, doctors, lecturers, teachers, security service staff, public sector workers from 2012 to 2023 (over 2.5million employed by both public and private sector under this government, if you doubt the employment numbers, check with 300 ambulances with 3 staff each, assuming it is one shift, that is 900 personnel alone), Digitize NHIS and restores it to its former glory, managed covid-19 Pandemic to the admiration of the whole world among many others interventions but just to mention few.
To say, such an economy will take over 10years to restore it to the 2016 economy that had a GDP growth of 3.7% without any domestic or international crises (the lowest in 23years) is to say the least, characterizes a paid agent doing the bid of someone.
It is alright to engage in partisan political talks or analysis on rally grounds or paid political TV or radio programs. But it is disingenuous and deceitful to sit on radio or TV show as a neutral social commentator and spew out such untruths and dishonest analysis of our economy. Especially, for people of such calibre that I and many others have huge respect for, international correspondence of major international organizations and thinktanks take these people seriously and quote them when filing their reports.
To do such an appalling analysis is very worrying. Yet, such utterances result in down grade of Ghana’s economic outlook and the same people will come back to criticize the government of the day. These same supposed neutrals have opposed every conceivable programs of successive governments, propounding theories from Archeology to Zoology to support their arguments against VAT implementation, NHIS, Free SHS and many other policies.
Parliament rancorous approval of the E-levy during the 2022 Budget Statement debate sent wrong signal to the international market resulting in Ghana being logged out of the international capital market resulting in the cedi depreciating from about GHS7.5/$1 to nearly GHS17.0/$1.0 in 2022 and a litre of petrol jumping from GHS11.5/litre to about GHS21.0/litre before the ‘Gold for oil’ program intervened to reverse some of the losses.
Do we want to go back to such worse conditions?
The political class or those directly involved in politics are less than 20% of the population, but the actions and inactions of the political class affect the entire population. So, politicians must be guided by their utterances especially when the analysis are not based on facts and precedence but by partisan patronage.
We must first consider Ghana and the plight of Ghanaians first before our political loyalties. Some battles can be won through deceitful means. But the suffering of the masses will forever be on the conscience of those who caused it.
For God and Country.
Assallamu Allaikum!