Every nation borrows; even America does. So to have gone cup in hand to the IMF is not necessarily an indication of a failed state.
To have gone to IMF 17 times, however, is a different tale, especially about a country which, in 1957, led Africa to declare that the Black man was capable of managing our own affairs, a country which, as recently as 2018, declared its intention to lead “Africa beyond aid”
Since very few Third World countries have been known to have bettered the lives of their citizens as a direct consequence of an IMF bailout – otherwise, why do they all keep going back? – and since Ghanaians doubt that our current love affair with IMF will be our last, Yours Truly, is by this article, advocating a permanent relationship.
In other words, let us hand over the governorship of Ghana to the Bretton Wood institution – forever!
Someone would ask: Haven’t we already? On February 15, 2023, Ghana lost its sovereignty or the right to call itself an independent nation when an IMF big man took his seat at the Bank of Ghana. There is another one at the Ministry of Finance, I am told. Invent as many euphemisms as you can, their role is to supervise the management of our economy.
We have proved Kwame Nkrumah wrong. We simply have lost the ability to govern ourselves.
Take the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). The workers insist that 40% of the millions of dollars used to import refined crude can be saved if TOR does the refining. They say there is nothing fundamentally wrong with TOR’s machines; it simply has no crude to refine – in a nation that produces crude.
The Minister for Energy insinuates that TOR is not working because the workers are thieves. While that is bad; in fact, inexcusable – if it is true – something worries me. Is there management in place? And for one year, it has not been able to catch a single thief? Meanwhile, TOR cannot settle its electricity bills.
Back in 2021, the Energy Minister lamented: “We cannot understand where, on your books, people TOR has worked for, owe TOR as much as US$13 million-US$18 million and we cannot find money to pay TOR workers”.
Do you remember Nigeria’s oil boom era? Politicians and business magnates with connections to the ruling party, and backed by military generals, allocated oil fields to themselves. The result was that Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil exporter, was importing refined oil though it had oil refineries. Politicians and their military backers were the importers!
In its ‘Golden Decade’ of the 1970s, Nigeria became the wealthiest country in Africa. Between 1950 and 1974, oil production rose from 5,000 barrels per day to 2.3 million barrels, and government revenues rose from 200,000 naira to 3.7 billion naira! Yet, as recently as 2020, the IMF was considering a $3.4 billion emergency bailout for Nigeria!!!
Back to Ghana. When a country closes down 36 toll booths that earn GH¢1.8 million a year “because toll booths cause traffic congestion” (so they said), are we not admitting that we are clueless to do anything for ourselves?
I am prepared to amend my proposal if it will prove too deep a wound to our pride. If Ghanaians cannot bear the thought of its economy being entirely in the hands of aliens, why don’t we empower IMF/World Bank to be in charge of procurements?
Governments (NPP/NDC) could come up with their programmes for infrastructure development – schools, clinics, bridges, Agenda 111, One Village One Dam, One Constituency One One Million Dollars 9!!!); fine. After approval by Parliament, leave the procurements in the hands of IMF.
We have proved, after 31 years of the Fourth Republic, that cannot trust our governments not to bloat the cost of these projects. Remember Akufo Addo’s accusation in 2016 that NDC had overbloated the cost of the Kasoa Interchange. Remember the NDC alleging over bloating of the cost of Kumasi interchanges by NPP.
I tell you, reader, unless we have a sure way of tracking the procurement process, all the money in the vaults of the IMF and World Bank will not be enough to finance our basic needs. We are just too greedy.
Kudos to our only civilian minister with a military attitude – none other than the Greater Accra Regional Minister. It was time somebody attempted what he did this week, namely halting further development on the Kayayei Hostel Project.
Life is tough for the marginalized, we know, but where is the money going to come from to accommodate the hordes of young girls and boys? How many such hostels can we build in Accra alone? What about Kumasi, Sunyani, Takoradi etc?
Are we really planning this country?
PS: Do you know that it is impossible to hum while holding your nose?
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