The Sinohydro Deal: Minority’s Nightmare

The name Sinohydro Corporation triggers insomnia in the NDC leadership. When an opposition party takes the diabolic initiative of corresponding to a Bretton Wood institution regarding a financial arrangement between Ghana and China as in the case under review, the action has gone beyond an ordinary political manouvre or gimmick: it is a calculated effort to deny the country a fortune.

Now that the hopes of the Minority in Parliament have been dashed – given the tone of the response they attracted – their dream of giving the arrangement a bad name and denying the country the whopping $2 billion has happily been dashed.

This as a stock-in-trade of the NDC is not only unacceptable, it is against the norms of every rational society. There can only be one reason the NDC would not want this arrangement to materialize.

As we pointed out in a previous editorial, the NPP administration would be offered, through the arrangement, an opportunity to prove to Ghanaians what $2 billion can do for our tattered road infrastructure and more. When the expected turnaround in the state of our roads is accomplished for all Ghanaians to see, it definitely would be an opportunity for the good people of this country to compare the quality of governance of the two political parties. Who has lied to Ghanaians for too long and whose words are veracious and therefore verifiable?

The question posed by the NDC to the IMF rep in the country was in bad faith; we can bet. It was intended in the long run to cast the ruling party in bad light and therefore create complications for the government to undertake any massive infrastructural project that can win more hearts for the NPP. The NDC also sought to incite the Bretton Wood institutions against the government.

Interestingly, the terms are cast in complexity. Not a loan, as it stands, it inclines more towards a barter arrangement and therefore seeking to have the IMF rep declare it as such as they would rather, could not be.

Now, we are the wiser about the political stuff the NDC leadership is made of. Anything which is good for the country should not come Ghana's way if that is not originating from them.

Whopping amounts of money have been attracted by the NDC government over the years the output of which is not commensurate with what has been recorded in terms of infrastructure. The 'good roads' which former President John Mahama said then Candidate Akufo-Addo did not see because he was sleeping are riddled with crater-like openings; in fact not potholes. We do not know which roads he was talking about.

A cooperation or if you like, a barter arrangement, which is what the Sinohydro deal is, cannot add to our debt stock as the NDC wants Ghanaians and the IMF to believe.

For those used to squandering funds raised through loans or even diverting same for largely unproductive ventures, when news about the $2 billion broke, a nostalgic feeling ensued. They cannot but dream about what they could have done with the money recalling previous experiences- the phantom projects et al. NDC, hello.