Messiah or Judas

When Flt.Lt Jerry John Rawlings took power from elected government, most people in Ghana, mostly the youth hailed him as the messiah who has come to redeem Ghana from its hardship. He was given names like Junior Jesus, Ghana messiah and others. Little did Ghanaians know that this messiah will soon betray the country.

Calling himself the founder and leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) he and his cohorts have committed many atrocities in the country.

Back from AFRC, PNDC to NDC era, Ghanaians can count many atrocities including the mangled economy.

The (P)NDC regime left Ghana a weak and directionless economy. An economy that had not a definite direction to improve the lot of Ghanaians. An economy very alien to the private sector. An economy hostile to investors, both local and foreign. The evidence is expressed in the collapse of many state owned enterprises (SOE's). The Bolgatanga Meat Factory, Wenchi Tomato Cannery, Komenda- Asutuare Sugar Factories, Kade Matches and Kumasi Shoe and Jute Factories are just a few which readily come to mind for illustration.

The evidence again is expressed in the fact that when the NPP government took over power the nation was steep deep in debt and was being shoved by our creditors left, right and centre.

Ghana had borrowed so much, if not too much and had used the loans for so little. The next obvious step was to declare the nation HIPC - Highly Indebted Poor Country. Though we had received several forms of foreign aid not so much profit had been realised from such donor inflows. By the time the NDC left the scene, the credit worthiness of the nation had evaporated.

The dreadfulness of the situation was such that at the point the NPP administration came into power Ghana had only six days of fuel reserves and not even our own Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) was willing to open letters of credit for the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) for more imports because of our heavy indebtedness.

The President had to journey to Abuja, Nigeria to negotiate with the Federal Government of Nigeria to send us some S.O.S to forestall any catastrophe by way of shortage of fuel. Around the same time, La Cote d'Ivoire threatened to cease the supply of Hydro-Electric Power (H.E.P) to us, obviously because we owed them so much. Remember, this was the nation that used to export excess power to La Cote d'Ivoire, Togo and Burkina Faso.

As for inflation and interest rates, the least said about them the better. We were permanently yoked under an intractable regime of high interest rates of over 50 percent in the banks and inflation rate over 40 percent. Bank borrowing therefore was unattractive leaving many businesses suffocating for financial aid. Prices of goods and services could well be described as cutthroat, while consumers were left perpetually gasping for breath. This condition stifled the growth of the private sector, which in modern economies is touted as the engine of growth.

It is also worthy of mention, that throughout its reign the (P) NDC introduced a number of economic initiatives, yet none of them really achieved any positive and lasting dividends for Ghana. The Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), the Programme of Action to Mitigate the Social Cost of Adjustment (PAMSCAD) and the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) were all programmes in futility.

One other mishap that occurred during the regime of the (P) NDC was the overt and covert persecution of private businessmen. It was common in those days to brand businessmen and women as corrupt, economic saboteurs and enemies of progress. This state of affairs dampened the spirit of many entrepreneurs and the private sector suffered as a result. A convenient example is the case of Apino, a product of Appiah Menka Soap Complex. The former President Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings is reported to have exhorted his supporters not to patronize products from the industry since that amounted to arming one's enemies. The result was expressed in the near, if not total, collapse of the once enviable local industry.

In short, it could clearly be deduced, that the unwarranted overthrow of the constitutionally - elected regime of Dr. Hilla Limann, and the subsequent institution of the illegal PNDC regime, capped with the 8 years rule of the NDC during which time very little pragmatic steps were taken to build a vibrant economy have, to a very large extent, brought this otherwise rich nation to this state of economic impoverishment. Given the number of years of these two regimes, many political parties could have pushed the nation further than where it is now.

Does these make him a Messiah or Judas? How can we vote for such party to rule Ghana again while the NPP government has made the economy so soft for us?

You be the judge and stay tuned for more atrocities.