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19.09.2017 Feature Article

One Man’s Flaws Is Another’s Straw: Did Tony Get It Right In Saying That Bawumia’s Comparative Analysis Had Flaws?

One Mans Flaws Is Anothers Straw: Did Tony Get It Right In Saying That Bawumias Comparative Analysis Had Flaws?
19.09.2017 LISTEN

Gordon Offin-Amaniampong examines
Your Excellency it’s my singular honour to welcome you back home. You’ve been gone for so long just like me—serving humanity as part of your diplomatic duty in the Netherlands. Indeed Ghana appreciates your good services to its people both home and abroad. Good job good man.

When you think your ears had had enough and need some breather…guess what there comes yet other exasperating sound bites. They’re sounds that rattle like beads. They’re sounds that echo from the straw man’s ramshackle shack. Drumming from afar louder and louder, seeking attention, raising the alarm bell and of course resorting to the proverbial blame game.

What perhaps Ghana’s largest opposition party—National Democratic Congress (NDC) Communication Team didn’t pay attention to or never saw it as a thorny issue back then in 2012 up to 2016 has now been revealed by Uncle Tony as something that possibly caused the party’s downfall.

Ambassador Dr. Tony Aidoo says: “Dr. .Bawumia was the Achilles’ heel of the NDC. Not only for the 2016 elections but he started way back in 2012. He ignored the fact that for the most part of the Kufuor administration, the eight years was virtually carried by donor financial support. All the social interventions that Kufuor implemented were donor supported>”

I view Dr. Aidoo’s comments as an admission that then vice presidential candidate of the NPP Dr. Bawumia was a force to reckon with and for that matter a real thorn in the flesh of the NDC. His comment also smacks an act of sour grapes.

It is true the Kufour administration received much donor support but the government didn’t leave the country broke after its tenure. In 2011 Ghana was ranked the fastest economic growing country in the world, according to Economy Watch.

The statistics for 2011 economic growth indicators put Ghana at 20.146%. It was in part due to the HIPC initiative no doubt about that. But one can also not downplay the fiscal discipline by the NPP government enforced. President John Mills was a good man unfortunately his goods deeds weren’t good enough to salvage the economy --his team failed him and disappointed Ghanaians.

xxxxx“What I missed was the inability of the NDC communication team to bring out the facts so as to challenge the comparative analysis that Dr. Bawumia was making,” the known out-spoken NDC ranking member told TV3 in his first-ever interview after he returned home from his diplomatic assignment.

Yes, Mr. Ambassador you missed that one big time. But did you suggest to the team or anyone, for example, this is what we need to do?

According to him it was important for the NDC’s communication team at the time to have had people with “historical recall” and “administrative memory” to counteract, emphasising that even though Dr. Bawumia had flaws in his analysis of the economy ahead of the 2016 general elections, then ruling-NDC, failed to put up an effective communication strategy to counteract the analysis of the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana now Ghana’s Vice President of Republic of Ghana.

But where was Uncle Tony when the NDC communication team was supposedly not working or didn’t know what to do about Dr. Bawumia’s supposed comparative analysis flaws? How far is it from Accra to Amsterdam? It’s approximately five and half hours trip so he could have come down, he could have sent a tweet, he could sent a telegram, he could have also yahooed the team and he could have phoned them too.

Did Dr. Aidoo reach out to the team? Did he offer any advice to the team or tell the team what to do?

Maybe he did but the Anyidohos and the General Mosquitoes ignored him.

May I crave your indulgence Mr. Ambassador, much as I respect your opinion regarding the subject matter, wouldn’t it have been better if you didn’t mention what you called ‘Bawumia’s comparative analysis flaws.’ And here’s why: You will never get your opponent (Dr. Bawumia) to debate him on the issue. And that makes your argument fits into a Straw Man fallacy .You know their tactics and antics already so I am not going to dwell much on that.

However, at best it seems to be the old chestnut game. I’ve heard it over and over yet there hasn’t been any NDC economic guru that’s come out to pin point the flaws in any of his analyses on the state of Ghana’s economy under the period in question. Even after his (Bawumia’s) 2016 big lecture, which I described as ‘Mother of All Lectures’ nobody showed up.

So my question is: why now when the milk is snaking on the ground.

What can you salvage from the spoilt?
Don’t you think you’re making the party look sorely miserable as though it’s bereft of ideas?

I think there’s nothing to counteract though... I‘ve said this before and I won’t shy away reiterating it here. A little bit of partisanship is good for Ghana’s democracy but too much of it isn’t helpful. Too much partisanship, I believe would rock our sailing boat. And everyone in the boat would suffer. Fact is if we politicise everything Ghana cannot work, the country will be like a man on a treadmill. The nation cannot move forward, there will be no development or progress.

Argument on HIPC or donor support
I think Dr. Aidoo’s argument that the Kufuor administration had a lot of burden taken off his government’s shoulders when Ghana’s creditors wrote off 66% of the country’s debt as a result of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative is untenable.

“…At the time our national debt was about 6.8 billion dollars. In effect, our debt-to-GDP ratio certainly dropped sharply so on what grounds can Bawumia compare that an economy that was virtually carried by donor financial support was managed better than an economy that did not have those support?” Dr. Aidoo argued.

First of all why did Ghana join HIPC?
I’m of the view that if one cannot appreciate or factor into where we were before the country joined HIPC then one must as well forget the argument or the comparison analysis because there were stars when the Moon showed up. Ghana joined HIPC in March 2001 and it subsequently progressed to the decision point in February 2002. It wasn’t a pleasure to join the programme. The decision was borne out of necessity.

How was Ghana’s economy at the time? What was the nation’s GDP ratio? Who ran the economy down? Needless to say that the economy had hit rock-bottom, the national kitty had been run empty. Who doesn’t want to be pardoned with debt? Is it wrong for a patient to see a doctor for medical treatment or physical therapy after you’d physically and financially assaulted her?

I could also infer from his argument that it was wrong for Ghana at the time to join HPIC or get facelift for our bloodied nose and broken jaws, a condition then governing NDC bequeathed Ghana in the year 2000.

History
Top of Form
In February 2002, the Executive Boards of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Development Associations (IDA) agreed to support a comprehensive debt reduction package for Ghana under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative at the decision point. A set of floating triggers at the time was established for Ghana to reach the completion point.

The Boards also agreed to provide Ghana with interim assistance to cover part of the debt service falling due to the IMF and IDA until Ghana reached the floating completion point. The IMF provided interim debt service relief in an amount equivalent to SDR 25.1 million in nominal terms between February 2002 and May 2004, while IDA provided interim relief amounting to US$98 million over the same period. In addition, both the AfDB and the EU/EIB provided interim relief in the amount of US$52 million and EUR4.7 million, respectively.

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