Living In Fear

It would be intellectually disastrous to assert that the IMF is a poisonous institution. Many nations, today, owe their well-being to it. However, its recommendations are not necessarily helpful to all nations. Following this, several development activists and think-tanks point to the fact that achieving the desired outcome in adherence to its recommendations is context-specific.

What works for country Q, might not necessarily work for country Z. This is because of the monumental variations in conditions between nations. At a time a country is already facing innumerable social and economic challenges, the recommendations or conditions of the institution have proved demonstrably inefficient and have aggravated the plight of the inhabitants of that particular country.

What the above means is that it is not advisable for a country already beset by a kaleidoscope of social and economic challenges to run to the IMF for help. From this perspective, numerous questions can be asked about Ghana: Why do the leaders of this country keep running to the IMF for a bail-out, regardless of all the challenges we are already plagued with? Is it a calculated attempt on the part of our leaders to keep punishing the inhabitants of this nation? For how long do we have to continue suffering in the hands of our leaders and the IMF? When will Ghana be free from adversities?

It needs to be stressed that it is shameful that after so many years of achieving the status of independence, we are still grappling with the canker of unemployment. This canker has wreaked on Ghanaians disenchantment and disillusionment; many dreams have been left unrealised. The problem seems more alarming now that governmental agencies are reluctant to offer employment. Disappointed, frightened and tired of such a development, several people look elsewhere, hoping against hope that something good will come from Nazareth. But the private sector has not been able to live up to that expectation, which means the remarkably efficient economic system which existed in the nation some few years ago has been irreparably extirpated.

Yet, it is extremely important to go beyond such a collateral damage and focus on the effect it can have on the well-being of the people who are unable to secure jobs. In the search for "win-win" scenarios that maximise the benefits of employment for nations on the one hand, and employees on the other hand, there is an underlying notion that the well-being of people impenitently impinges on their ability of securing employment. Therefore, the inability of those people to secure jobs is likely to plunge them into a bottomless pit of poverty.

Unfortunately, however, the scourge of poverty is not confined to only the unemployed. The average worker in the country can hardly boast of having escaped that scourge. The predicament of the worker can be likened to a beast of burden on a desert, toiling from morning till evening. Regardless of status or class, public-sector or private-sector involvement, the worker's wage is woefully and dishearteningly inadequate. This has led to a voracious uproar among several individuals and organisations. For instance, the leaders of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) are known to have recently, without reservation, admonished His Excellency President Mahama, based on the eye-sore realities and the repugnant conditions of the workers of this country, to increase, without any modicum of restraint, the wages of the public-sector employees. And this, indeed, would be crucial for the well-being of the workers of this nation.

With such a high level of poverty, it is quite retrogressive that the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC) keeps increasing water and electricity tariffs. This has contributed immensely in aggravating the predicament of the Ghanaian worker. And so, what the PURC appears to be putting across is that the terrible conditions the workers in this country find themselves in are not disturbing enough. Otherwise, why should it hit us with a high-electricity-and-water-tariffs bullet, when we are already struggling to find our feet in such terrible working conditions? This vividly, but rather unfortunately, demonstrates how intelligibly insensitive the PURC is to the plight of the workers of our country.

Nevertheless, the above should not pull any individual into a rancorous belief that I am against the collection of tariffs. Not at all. The fact is that, much as I support that such tariffs can be garnered towards the massive development of our country, it is imperative to weave their valuation in tandem with the wages and conditions of the masses. Using a sizeable amount of our meagre wages to foot huge utility bills can never be said to be helpful. So such a laudable enterprise must be meticulously planned with our wage levels in mind, if indeed our creedal wish of developing our nation is to materialise to the benefit of all and sundry.

And as if all the above are not distressing enough, the NDC government decided to dismiss some untrained teachers, a move which has shocked many people. Several people thought that the issue of these untrained teachers had been settled, and hoped that these workers were going to be maintained in the service. Those people, together with the affected teachers, may wrangle a little with representatives of the government but do not stand a chance of reversing the situation. To the affected teachers, exclusion from the service would virtually mean annihilation. Their anxiety must, therefore, be pitiful, given all the economic and social woes the nation is saddled with, raising the most important question: If governmental agencies are no longer willing to employ people to ameliorate our unemployment crisis, why dismiss workers to aggravate it?

It is, thus, interesting to observe that the government is utilising the power it has over the teachers to deepen the woes of the nation. But should a mother deliberately punish her children for no tangible reason? The answer to this question brings into focus the involvement of the IMF in this astonishing dismissal. Many have alleged that the dismissal is one of the recommendations of the IMF towards reducing our wage bill as a way of solving some of the nation's economic woes, which is indicative of the fact that those teachers are paying a heavy price for "crimes" they know nothing about. Sacrificial lambs, so to speak.

And just as I thought the name "IMF" is now out of our political landscape, the issue of it putting pressure on our government to remove the subsidies on energy and petroleum products (See "Fuel prices could go up", Ghanaweb.com 27th September, 2014) has surfaced. But that does not mean the IMF is insensitive to the problems we are already plagued with. It believes we have to do what we have to do to revamp our economy, hence its recommendations. However, our focus should not be on the subsidy removal. Rather, attention should be focused on the impact such a move is likely to have on the prices of our energy and petroleum products as well as other goods and services. Increased prices of all goods and services! Simplicita!

All the above put the Ghanaian in utmost fear. Sleeping very late in the night and waking up early in the morning, oblivious of what is going to happen the next minute, one gets thrown into an ocean of uncertainty and fear. Who is next to be sacked? A group of professors? Is the IMF going to ask the government to sack our junior doctors as a way of revamping our economy? Who is safe? So if one gets sacked tomorrow, how is s/he going to take care of herself/himself and her/his family, with such excruciatingly high utility tariffs and the exorbitant energy and petroleum prices?

Living in fear can be dreadful and perilous. Only our politicians can save us from such a pathogenic situation. We, therefore, appeal to them to know when to approach the IMF for help, given that its recommendations or conditions, regardless of the time and prevailing conditions in a country, are sacrosanct.

Kwabena Aboagye-Gyan
([email protected])