Of Bankruptcy And Bad Governance In Ghana

Bankruptcy – I was a 16-year-old high school kid when I heard this word for the very first time. It was contained in a speech delivered by one of the lead traitors who had betrayed their sworn loyalties to the government and peoples of Ghana. They have at the behest of neo-colonial interests, violently and illegally removed a legally installed government from office. The voice that said it belonged to an old, disabled soldier known for outstanding bravery but short on scholarly credentials, a minion whom history has thankfully forgotten. We can forgive him, albeit reluctantly, because he knew not what he was doing. The rest of his soundly corrupt tribalist colleagues who had bonded themselves into a Council of sorts deserve no atonement. Their selfish acts halted, perhaps interminably, the evolution of “a new African capable of managing his own affairs”.

That speech, perhaps written and vetted by agents of western neo-colonial interests, particularly the United States, levelled accusatory justifications for the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah’s administration. The presentation essentially alleged that the “Greatest African” ever had been such a reckless spendthrift who had driven the country’s economy onto the brink of bankruptcy. He had squandered ‘huge reserves’ bequeathed us by our ‘generous’ British colonial ‘masters’ on his ‘continental African leadership ambitions and prestige projects’ in Ghana. Other spurious charges were that Nkrumah was a dictator and oppressor who had denied freedoms to the people, jailed indiscriminately, confiscated properties, fanned tribal dissonance and rivalry. He was literally mortified, feathered, and quartered by a bunch of conspirators with quite a few bad character flaws in common – traitors, uninformed and clueless, hypocrites, liars, irredeemably corrupt individuals who would betray themselves to the devil for a pot of potash.

Today, one wonders what those poor specimens of human traitors would say if they were alive to speak on the report card of their proteges running and ruining the country driving it beyond the fringes and deep into abysmal depths of bankruptcy. Ghana is so deep in the dung that she, deservingly, has become the universal poster image of a bankrupt entity. Akuffo Addo’s administration has Ghana marching into failed statehood identifiable by bankruptcy, corruption, lawlessness, graft, and insecurity.

If only we can resurrect Nkrumah and beg that he “squanders” our collective wealth on more “prestige projects!” Social infrastructure like schools, roads, bridges, medical facilities, research facilities, electricity grids, irrigation dams (as in engineering marvels, not puddles in town streets), agricultural silos. One would beg for the return of a visionary who could conceive of harnessing nuclear power for whatever purposes in Africa as far back as in the 60s, at a time when tribal simpletons were cluelessly and foolishly parroting the catch phrases of neo-colonial imperialists hell bent on keeping Africans permanently confined to the marginal fringes of modernity. They still are, only that this time their offspring who took over from them are neither ignorant nor foolish. They are intellectually sophisticated and devious. Very devious. They will quote scriptures, assume humble and pious religious postures and swear oaths on the Bible to hide from which hell they had fallen. They will abrogate communal assets to themselves and call it free private enterprise; pursue personal dreams (like build a cathedral) in the name of national salvation; shut down opponents’ businesses and call it sector reforms; freeze personal assets and incomes and call it haircut; build toilets and call them “one district one factory” projects; manipulate elections and say it is democracy; betray (like their ancestral mentors did) pan-African liberation aspirations and frame it in terms of pursuing regional integration.

But the rest of the world, unlike insanely gullible Ghanaians, will not be fooled. We are mocked for being broke even as we are surrounded by unfathomable wealth. Ghana’s situation is the classic illustration of living on the banks of a stream and washing your hands with spit. The once revered banner of total African emancipation and empowerment is now reviled as a pro-western neo-colonial puppet pennant.

Given options based on our politico-socio-economic experiences and outcomes, one would rather root for a ‘patriotic dictator’ (if indeed Nkrumah was one) than a kleptocratic pretender trailed by a long line of equally dishonorable family members and friends.

Of them, five can be designated as the lead harbingers of the apocalyptic distress our country finds itself in. Call them Ghana’s Five Horsemen of Apocalypse - Nana Addo, Dr Bawumia, Ken Ofori Atta, Gabby Otchere Darko and Asante Bedeatuo. Not that we never have had to deal with the chaotic scourges of corruption, unemployment, diseases, poverty and tribalism. But never has it been this bad for us to think these are the apocalyptic end times talked about in the Book of Revelations. Fact that the Bible has four horsemen, but we have five should tell you that the battle in not the Lord’s. It is ours – youth, market women, workers, traditional leaders, the suffering masses.

Let optimism cradle our anger and despair because Nkrumah Never Dies. Now that we are catching up to what he envisioned and said, let patriotism fortify us (the youth, informed adults, chiefs, workers, market women) so we can withstand the darts of myopic tribal and self-serving treachery. Our hero did it over sixty years ago and brought us independence. We can do the same today and achieve total liberation.

Nkrumah Never Dies.