Return IMF’s Cash -Nkrumah Son Tells Mahama

Dr Onsy Nathan Kwame Nkrumah, son of late President Kwame Nkrumah, has appealed to President Mahama to refund any cash his government has received from the International Monetary Fund(IMF) through the bailout deal between Ghana and the IMF, reiterating strongly that the deal is not in the best interest of the country.

According to him, 'The best way to get out of this bad deal is to send them their $114 million cheque back post-haste or better still by hand delivery for speed and to ask the IMF to please cancel this unfortunate agreement forthwith which was only understood and approved by very few people in the government team, but as our populace were never consulted and who are now very unhappy to carry such heavy noose round our collective necks and heavy shackles round our weary feet and heavy chains round our tired wrists which we don't wish to carry or to hand over to our children to carry in their bleak struggling future!

Government recently received an amount of about $114 million as the first trench of a $900 million bailout deal from the IMF, also known as the Fund, saying it intends to use the money to shore up the declining local currency, the Ghanaian cedi.'

Dr Nkrumah, who made the appeal, the second of its kind to President Mahama over the Bretton Woods' Institute deal with the country in an interview with DAILY GUIDE last Friday in Accra, said the money being taken from IMF was a deliberate ploy to mortgage the future of the youth of Ghana to Western donors.

This, he said, was because the deal places several restrictions on the country, including the fact that until it repays the loan together with its huge interest rate, it cannot borrow from any other lending institution across the world.

'Even if you want to borrow, avoid the IMF,' he said, adding that 'when you borrow from the IMF, they take charge of your country. They come like mortgage lenders and when you have a mortgage lender you cannot go for another mortgage.'

'It is also bad not just because of the limitation on borrowing; I mean you can argue that it's not a good thing to borrow more. But it could be disastrous if you stop servicing the debts. It could become a palaver on the international arena,' he said.

He argued that the initial $114 million from the Fund wouldn't help to shore up the cedi as the Mahama-led administration claimed if certain macroeconomic measures such as fiscal discipline were not put in place by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

Dr Onsy Nkrumah further argued that the economic meltdown confronting the country has been as a result of what he termed as gross fiscal indiscipline among members of the ruling government, saying that until that was addressed with a sense of urgency, the country would remain in its highcost- of-living status.

It would be recalled that from the onset of the whole bailout negotiations between Ghana and the IMF, Dr Nkurmah called on President Mahama to put first the interest of the current generation of Ghanaians and those yet unborn, claiming that any deal with the Bretton Woods organisation would negatively affect the lives of the ordinary Ghanaians who would be overburden with additional taxes in order for the country to be able to meet its loan obligations with the fund.

His call, like many others from well-meaning Ghanaians, was not considered by President Mahama and the government went ahead to conclude the deal many regard as a bitter pill for the nation.