A Rejoinder - NPP Must Now Apologize For Bui Dam Delay – CPP

Family, let me indulge your attention a little bit to put to rest certain falsehoods and propaganda that has been the commerce of choice by the stunted CPP from time immemorial. Truth be told, if the CPP did not learn anything at all from the erstwhile Soviet Communist Party, of which it fashioned itself and was inspired by, it was not their propaganda tactics of bending facts to suit their whims and caprices. One of such falsehoods was out-doored, the other day on Tuesday, August 28, 2007. (See Ghanaweb of that date.)

This time the charge was that NPP must apologize to Ghana for the Bui Dam delay. Oh really? It is the position of yours truly that, the CPP more than the NPP must apologize to Ghanaians for the slavish contract that they shackled and bamboozled Ghana and Ghanaians under. I am not kidding, if there is any party that needs to apologize to Ghana regarding the construction of any hydroelectric dam, then the CPP, more than the NPP, owes Ghanaians tons of apologies.

Here is why. It is very easy to gloss over the meager benefits that the construction of the Akosombo dam accrued to Ghana by way of electricity and say glory halleluyah, praise the lord, and thumbs up to the CPP. But then any serious examination of the contractual obligation that Nkrumah and his CPP subjected Ghana to, should make you want to pick up a baseball bat and crush some skulls. Here we go. In today's terms the construction of the Akosombo Dam cost about $1.5billion dollars. Of this expense Ghana was assigned ONLY 20% of the power output from the dam whilst the remaining 80% went to prop up VALCO. Let me remind readers that until recently, just last year 2006, VALCO was not owned by Ghana, but a consortium that included Kaiser Aluminum Corporation of USA. Whichever way you look at it, Ghanaians were paying more than 3 times the rate that VALCO was being charged, and yet VALCO was not even using Ghana's bauxite. The bauxite for the smelter was imported from Jamaica and Guinea. So what sense did it make for Ghana to incur that huge cost, only to subsidize Kaiser? VALCO had preferential treatment ahead of us the citizens, under the agreements, even though we bore the cost of building the Akosombo dam. Herein lays the opposition of the UP against the Akosombo dam construction. Their objection was against the terms of agreement surrounding the construction of the dam, and not strictly against the construction of a dam per se. In one typical exchange in parliament between the then opposition UP and CPP government regarding the fiscal sensibilities surrounding the Akosombo dam and its relationship to VALCO, Ghanaians would recall this tepid exchange between Krobo Edusei and Dr. KA Busia, leader of the opposition. Krobo Edusei said: "Kofi, nea wo reka yi, eye nokware, na enso yemfa", unquote. Meaning: "Kofi, what you're saying is perfectly right, but we'll not buy that idea" (courtesy, Owuraku-Yonkers, NY). Besides all the big talk of Nkrumah, imperialism this and that, Ghana - A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY- ENDED UP SUBSIDIZING A FIRST WORLD COUNTRY, USA. Compared to the Bui dam, Ghana would own 100% of the power output. In actuality Ghana gets more from the Bui dam than the Akosombo dam, even though the Bui dam is a smaller dam.

So CPP must shove the misinformation, and just may be move to Ghana, instead of becoming a party, which center of gravity, has moved into self-imposed exile in London, UK. It is this kind of misinformation and falsehoods that this party has been propagating for 50 years that gets critical observers of Ghana's political economy history amazed. Another falsehood is that the UP did not want independence, when in fact it was the UP, under the UGCC that had initiated the independence movement. Go back to the records and inform yourself. There were two main reasons whilst the UP took the stand of demanding for the postponement of independence in the months leading up to March 6, 1957. The first was that, the political stake holders had not come to a firm agreement what political structure Ghana was to take. Whilst they were very mindful of the breakup of India into Pakistan and India, the wise leadership of the UP wanted the issue of whether Ghana was to be organized as a federal or unicameral state solved first. When that issue had not been settled, I think it was right to call for the postponement of the handover, lest the country quickly implodes into a civil war - India and Pakistan class. Since when did caution over recklessness become a bad idea?

Again there was this noble push by Danquah and others to work through the colonial government, the United Kingdom, to go into talks with France so that France would agree to the merging of its Ivory Coast colony with Ghana, since they argued, the Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) was part of greater Ghana; that the people were of the same ethnic composition as Ghana (over 70% of the Ivorian population are Akans, Gonjas, Dagombas and Walas). The leaders feared that if Ghana alone went ahead, chances of getting the Ivory Coast fused to Ghana to form a bigger country would grow dim and fade with the passing of time. If you know the Ivory Coast like I do, you would know it is the other half of Ghana; to wit we even have Half Assini. Have you ever asked yourself where the other Half is? The other Half is in the Ivory Coast. When Nkrumah and Offei-Boahen (spelt, Houphouët-Boigny, in French) first met, they put protocol aside, dismissed their interpreters and rather spoke in Twi. This is the beat Nkrumah should have been working on, instead of going for that bizarre incongruent Ghana-Guinea-Mali union when in fact those that we were ethnically compatible and identical with, and share borders together, i.e. the Ivory Coast, Togo and Burkina Faso were staring him in the face. Togo and Ghana share over 80% identical ethnic groupings. Between us and the Ivory Coast, for instance, neither English nor French would have been a problem as we had the ethnic and linguistic linkages that predate European colonization. The same can be said of Togo. As I speak there are chiefs in the Ivory Coast that swear oath of allegiance to the Golden Stool and the Asantehene.

It is about time the records are set straight. There is nothing to apologize for, by the NPP. The Nkrumaists rather have to apologize for failing to apply wisdom and effie nyansa to build the Akosombo Dam, and also missing on the opportunity to unifying Ghana and the Ivory Coast to achieve independence together, the way Cameroon and Eastern Nigeria joined to become one country, or even plucking from the logics that led to the Volta Region becoming part of Ghana and duplicating the same to secure the Ivory Coast. Today Ghana is in fact, half of its pre-colonial size and glory. The Asante Empire, for instance, at its height and glory was bigger than present day Ghana. Muff there CPP. Fei modin, as the Gas would say.

Presented By,

Eric Kwasi Bottah, (Alias OYOKOBA)

Philadelphia, PA, USA

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