Can President Mills Go Beyond Cocoa Export?

Ghana, the first nation south of the Sahara to gain independence has been left behind in everything that concerns human life. Fifty years of dictatorships, coups, political instabilities, misrule, economic mismanagement, endemic corruption, lack of transparency, scant accountability and the weak application of the rule of law has resulted in Ghana still marking time while other countries mostly our independence peers have moved forward economically and socially. Our education, our health system, our environment, roads, electricity, water, agriculture and above all our economy are all behind. We still wash our clothes with our hands and our farming practices are still dominated by the use of cutlasses and hoes, tools our great grandfathers used before they were colonised. Our communities are without running water, toilet facilities, electricity, shopping centres, children playgrounds, schools and libraries. Our streets are unpaved and many of the houses in the rural areas are still built with mud and roofed with raffia leaves. Diseases and sicknesses such as malaria eliminated in Europe five hundred years ago are still with us.

All these years Ghana has had a number of dictators and politicians, some claiming to be messiah but unable to lift Ghana beyond poverty and malnutrition. Today we are one of the poorest nations on earth, with our infrastructures woefully inadequate and decaying and the economy barely functioning. We are unable to feed ourselves and rely on aid and handouts to survive despite promises and pledges by those in power to root out poverty.

Children as young as seven are selling whatever they can in the streets of Accra, Kumasi, Tema, Takoradi and Koforidua. Homelessness and illiteracy is entrenched with more than 40% of the population unable to read and write. The poor either NDC or NPP supporters can only survive on second hand clothes and other used commodities imported from abroad.  The gap between the ruled and the rulers is widening astronomically with no ending sight to poverty. There is the talk of former presidents and ex-ministers owing fleet of cars and luxury apartments while majority of the people live on one dollar a day. Fifty years of independence and our exports are still dominated by agro products with no value added to cocoa and timber. Up till today Ghanaians do not know where the gold and diamond we mine go, who buys them and where the proceeds go.

All these should not have happened but they have because of the politics of lies, corruption, mismanagement, broken promises and lack of strong, competence, dedicated and visionary leadership. Selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, transparency and strong leadership have disappeared from the ruling class with every politician, MP and minister saying it is harvest time. While faces of the people are full of hopelessness and desperation the politicians are harvesting while they have not sowed. But the people must also share part of the blame for allowing themselves to be taken for a ride and for tolerating their lies and not putting them on their toes to deliver on their promises. Our peers in Asia have moved forward socially and economically while our politicians are fighting over petty things.

There was sighing of relief and hope that with a professor at the helm of affairs in the country, Ghana will see transformation in the economy but we have not seen any sign that he will be any different from his predecessors. And the problem is compounded by the way the president has been besieged by his the founder of his party and his party’s executives forcing him to dither on major issues affecting the nation. His comment that he would consult Ex-President Rawlings 24 hours has given a blank cheque to Mr. Rawlings to criticise him and even questioning his authority.

The problem is that we do not know what President Mills stands for or what he is going to do for the nation. For the past four months his administration has been torn apart by in fighting while he looks on unable to intervene. His appointees have been described as mediocre and lacking character and substance.  There are fears that his administration will not be any better than hid predecessors. The initial promise of continuing the policies of former the administration has been sacrificed on the altar of political ‘witch-hunt’ with daily snatching of cars and seizure of properties.

What is more, there seems to be lack of coordination between the various spokespersons in the administration with various personalities putting different messages and interpreting the messages of the president differently sending the message that there is disunity and power struggle between the various communication departments. One major example concerns the office to be used by former president Kuffour where P.V. Obeng claimed the president gave his verbal consent only for his spokespersons to counter the claim.  

What is shocking is that President Mills, who campaigned on the ticket of putting money in the pockets of Ghanaians through job creation, has so far not shown any indication that he is going to do that. While the global economic crunch continues to decimates families, companies, forcing governments around the world to propose financial stimulus packages to cushion the economy and minimise the impact of the crisis, so far we have not heard any such effort from the president and his team of economic advisers.

It is true the president and his team need to secure cars and properties that the former administration used but that should not be the main priority of government. So far there is every indication that the president and his team do not have any major priority beyond securing few cars and houses used by the former administration.    The cedi is free falling, inflation is rising, cost of living is skyrocketing and all that the president could do is to offer promises and pledges without any concrete solution being put on the table as to how he intends to salvage the economy from its current predicament. He has not expressed his vision to nation as to how he wants Ghana to be four years from now or if he has, he has not showed any indication that he is working towards achieving his vision.

Apart from the economy, his government has been virtually silent on energy, housing, crime, food security and infrastructures especially the rail sector which has been left to rot by previous administrations. Where he has offered some policy it is often scanty, bony and lack details and substance, direction and purpose. Even though he has reduced the price of fuel it was not drastic as promised during his campaign.

His party was very critical on the number of travels made by members of the former administration and we are getting report that his maiden visit to the UK consisted of a thirty man contingent. Mr. Mahama Ayariga has put the figure at 27. The fact is that whether it is 27 or 30 it does not make economic sense for a president of a poor country to travel with such a large army.

Based on signs coming from the seat of government, it is hard to envisage President Mills achieving anything remarkable during his first term of office. It is difficult to foresee Ghana going beyond cocoa exports. It is hard to see farmers exchanging their hoes and cutlasses for tractors and improved seeds and it is hard to see farmers being offered irrigation facilities instead of relying on nature to plant their crops.

President Mills may succeed in stabilising the economy but he may not succeed in growing it beyond what he inherited from Kuffour’s regime and that will mean increased poverty. In the final analysis it will be more broken promises and Ghanaians will be left to pick the pieces to fend for themselves as they have always being.

However, there are a number of things President         Mills and his government could do to make Ghana the new Africa Tiger. First of all the President and his team must have vision as to how they want to see Ghana after four years and those visions must be formulated and integrated into national policies and programmes. We all know Dr. Nkrumah’s vision led him to build Akosombo dam, two universities, Tema and the harbour, nursing and teachers training colleges, numerous secondary schools and a number of factories most of whom have been sold or left to rot. All these were achieved during his nine years as president.

To revive the economy and create jobs for the youth, government must set aside a certain percentage of Ghana's Gross Domestic Product ( 5% annually) to build the infrastructures including roads, power plants, rail lines, hospitals, schools and housing and a single department must be made to coordinate the infrastructure building in the nation. The building of infrastructures will not only create jobs but will also provide the enabling environment for investors to invest in the country which will lead to further expansion of the economy. Government must work with the private sector to establish processing factories to take care of the waste that occur in the Agricultural sector.

Government must also take the opportunity to fight corruption which is slowly destroying the nation. Therefore, the president must ensure that anti-corruption watchdog institutions are made independent, strengthened and adequately resourced so they can do their jobs properly. 

The years of aid dependency and loans and its associated odious debts must end. No nation has ever developed by depending on hand outs and left over from other nations. Government must therefore come up with ingenious ways to mobilise internal and external funds for use in building the nation. Government can do this by marketing the nation abroad through the sale of bonds and stocks. Government must work vigorously and aggressively to sell the nation to those with private capital. What Ghana needs are investment, trade and not aid which cripples us and makes us beggars in the eyes of donors. Government must seek genuine and equal partners in development not multinational corporations whose intentions are to rip the nation off.

All these require President Mills to show strong, competence, dedicated leadership and commitment to diversify and build the nation beyond just exporting cocoa, gold and importing used stuff from abroad. Ghanaians deserve better than that. Government must encourage Ghanaians to work hard. China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia have all done it because both government and citizens all worked hard.

Now that the elections are over and the president has finished enjoying his honey moon, Ghanaians must unite behind him and his ministers as they try to move the nation forward. Democracy is not just about multi party elections but include the whole process of development and nation building. Citizens must therefore get involved in the building of the nation as they did during elections.

As the President and his ministers begin to travel abroad they should look at how the nations they visit have developed and how their citizens are enjoying better education, health, and high living standards and try to think about how they can help Ghanaians to do the same. Every travel by the president, his vice or any of his ministers must be a lesson to be followed by action. The days of unfulfilled pledges, promises must be a thing of the past. 

Whatever Ghana receives as GDP must be used judiciously to develop all the sectors of the economy and not be siphoned away by corrupt entities who only reason for asking for ministerial and district chief executive positions is to enrich themselves at the expense of millions of poor Ghanaians.

President will be remembered for what he does and achieve for Ghana. Some of his ministers may be given credit for what they do but eventually he will receive the blames or praises for whatever happens in his government. That is the more reason why he must be firm on his ministers to ensure that they are implementing his agenda and moving towards the vision he has.

Ghanaians must rise above party politics and contribute whatever they can to make the nation a better place so that future generations will not experience economic hardship the way we are today. Ghanaians must end the petty bickering and partisan politics and device more ingenious ways to build our nation. The president must take steps to diffuse the tribal and ethnic tension in the country by bringing the tribal and ethnic leaders in the country together. Such tensions are unnecessary detraction and do not serve the country any good.

What is important is for Mills government to build on what the former government left off so that by the time his term of office ends the nation will be more secured, more peaceful, more united and more developed than ever before, for this is the sole duty of government.

 By Lord Aikins Adusei

Political Activist and Anti-Corruption Campaigner. He also blogs at www.ghanapundit.blogspot.com