When the wise speak....

"Life and death lies in the power of the tongue," says the bible. The import of this statement is contained in its brevity.

While the wise express themselves in few words, the slow in thought make the loudest noise with plenty words. This diametrically opposed attitude of these two characters is best explained by the part of the bible that says, "In the multitude of words, there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise." (Proverbs 1:19, KJV)

Due to the hardships the global economic crises caused Ghanaians, some citizens, largely members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), polutted the nation with complaints, negativity and partisan inspired accusations. The worst of it all is the manner in which they talked down the Cedi and amplified the down grading of the economy by international credit rating agencies.

President Akufo-Addo, however, exposed them as state saboteurs when he addressed the 77th United Nations General Assembly meeting on 21st September, 2022. The President condemned the position of these credit rating agencies on African economies, a phenomenon, he claims denies African countries cheap borrowings and makes it difficult for them to service their debts.

“To make matters worse, credit rating agencies have been quick to downgrade economies in Africa, making it harder to service our debts. The tag of Africa as an investment risk is little more than, in substance, a self-fulfilling prophecy created by the prejudice of the international money market, which denies us access to cheaper borrowing, pushing us deeper into debts,” President Akufo-Addo frowned at international credit rating agencies.

One would have thought that the Pan Africanist position of President Akufo-Addo on the Western powers and their crafty imperial institutions and agencies was enough to stop the parochial, partisan, inflamed, nation wrecking activities of the NDC operatives. Alas, the opposite happened! The NDC intensified their anti-state activities.

They continued to talk down the Cedi as they amplified Bloomberg's description of the currency as the worst performing currency against the USD in the world. They did their worst by speculating further fall of the nation's currency. The more they did that, the more the Cedi depreciated. The more the Cedi fell, the higher the prices of crude products shot up. The result of this was the high inflation and its concomitant effect of untold hardships on the poor masses.

In the wake of all these, President Akufo-Addo decided to speak to the people of Ghana in his capacity as the Head of State. So, on October 30 2022, he empathised with Ghanaians and informed them on 12 major measures his government had adopted to stabilize the economy and bring it back on its feet.

He did not also hesitate to condemn the contribution of the noisy speculators to the depreciation of the Cedi as he observed that money does not like where there is noise and confusion. The NDC propaganda machinery would not want the citizens to know their contribution to the fall of the currency so, they twisted the meaning of what the President said to incite the citizens the more against him. Consequently the gullible masses imbibed nothing from the speech, except "Sika mpe de de," which was misinterpreted by the NDC propaganda machinery.

Nonetheless, since the words of the wise heal and tranform, the President's speech preceded the stabilisation of the Cedi as the Ghanaian currency has started appreciating against the US Dollar. The Cedi is no more the worst but the best performing currency to the USD. Prices of petroleum products have also started falling.

It is clear from this that when the wise speak, problems are solved so woe unto the country that entertains the speeches of the slow in thought.

The Author is a political activist and a social commentator.