Ghana needs to go back to General Acheampong’s polices - Prof. Agyeman Duah

The CEO of the J.A. Kufour Foundation, Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah has called on Ghanaian leaders to bring back some of the key policies of General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong that were very beneficial to Ghana’s economy.

Prof. Agyeman-Duah made these comments in a video paying tribute to General Acheampong, the Head of State of Ghana between January 1972 and July 1978, 46 years on from his passing.

Lamenting over the foreign control of Ghana’s economy and the dependence on food imports, Prof. Agyeman-Duah specifically, cited General Acheampong’s ‘Operation Feed Yourself’ and the policy to make Ghanaians take control of the commanding heights of the economy as policies that would have prevented the aforementioned problems.

“If we had sustained, for instance, the program to feed ourselves, we will not be importing tomatoes from Burkina Faso today. If we had continued ‘Operation Feed Yourself’, the cost of food in Ghana would have been lower than we have today. So, I think these were important programs that we should have sustained through the years,” he stated.

General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong and Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah

To further buttress his point, he added, “we have been incapable of feeding ourselves and, therefore, we are spending a large chunk of our resources importing basic food items that we can otherwise produce here. All this has added up to the indebtedness and, I think, if we were to revert to some of the policies of Acheampong, especially in food production. Taking [control] of the commanding heights of the economy. I think, by now, this country would have been far better off than we have today.”

“So, I think it is important for us to remember that even though he was a military leader, certain policies he initiated, we should be proud of them and find a way to revert to those policies in order to build this country the way it ought to be,” Prof. Agyeman-Duah emphasised.