Hurraaaay! From Senchi with an economic miracle wand
Every government, for example, has succeeded, to various degrees, in attaining macro-economic stability, but as of now none has been successful in finding a way to sustain it.”
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This is what President John Mahama told the participants in the just-ended National Economic Forum held at the Senchi Royal Hotel at Akosombo.
He added: “In deed, almost every government leaves office with a less-than-desirable macro-economic situation and the government that succeeds them then spends the next one to two years bringing the economy back from the brink.”
Based on his observations, the President expressed the hope that “the forum would tackle some of the challenges that had defied successive governments over the past decade.” Well, I’m not sure that truly only governments in the last decade according to the President’s calculation, had not been able to find what he terms “desirable macroeconomic situation.”
In fact, the 11-year rule of the PNDC, followed by the eight years of the NDC - both led by Rawlings (making a total of 19 years for Rawlings) - also did not attain the ‘desirable macroeconomic situation.’ We may come to this analysis another day, Insha Allah!
Interests
The much-trumpeted forum ended on Wednesday, still without the controversies surrounding its organisation and possible outcomes going away. At the end of the forum, a 22-point communiqué was issued. Two points of the communiqué struck me hard. The first is that the long-term interest of the state should supersede all other interests. The other was that succeeding governments must continue the projects began by previous governments.
I have been troubled since Thursday evening when I heard parts of the communiqué read on radio. My trouble stemmed from the fact that aspects of the communiqué were clearly stated in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. Chapter Six of the Constitution, under the Directive Principles of State Policy, Article 35(7), specifies: “As far as practicable, a government shall continue and execute projects and programmes commenced by the previous government.”
Once this is a constitutional provision and every government we have had since 1993 was set up and empowered by the same constitution, are we being told we have never been aware of this provision until Senchi? And do we need about 400 assembled Ghanaians before we can read a simple article in our own constitution and understand? And if we have not been able to hold the Rawlings, Kufuor, Mills and Mahama governments to comply with this simple constitutional provision within the last 21 years, what is the guarantee that Senchi can become the magic wand to compel compliance?
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The other point of the communiqué which says that the interest of the state should supersede all other interests seems to me like we as a people, have now realised what is a cardinal principle and common practice in every true democratic state the world over. Truly, there is no proper democratic state in the world where the interest of the state does not supersede those of the people and institutions, otherwise how could nations have the power to declare state of emergency or other directives?
Big Question
The bigger question which arose but never received any clarification from the government before, during and now, after the National Economic Forum (now popularly referred to as Senchi), was the expectation. A day before the forum, the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, told us that “we (the government) have already discussed with IMF what we want to do, so the people coming tomorrow are just coming to endorse what we already agreed.”
The President, in opening the forum, also told us that “as President, I have not taken any decision to enter our country into an IMF programme…What I am concentrating on is the preparation of a home-grown strategy of fiscal consolidation.” The problem here is what happens after Senchi with this dichotomy between the President and his Finance Minister over the key reason for gathering about 400 of our best economic brains.
Other issues associated with Senchi are the boycott of the forum by the NPP, which the President described as a “tragedy,” the criteria for selecting the best economists for the forum, and the manner in which the forum was organised. The NPP claimed its invitation was sent very late and did not give the party any time to prepare its position. Is it true that the invitation for such a forum, which was to produce the magic wand to solve our 21 years of economic woes, was sent out late to the biggest opposition party? Was it also true that the organiser sent an invitation without any document which would have given the invitees an idea of issues to be discussed to enable them to prepare?
Who did the selection of the participants and what were the criteria? Is it true that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the 2012 running mate of the NPP presidential candidate, who had once been the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana and served in some of parts of the world as an economist, was not invited? And why were Dr Kwabena Dufuor, the immediate past Finance Minister, and Mr Kwame Peprah, a former Finance Minister not invited?
Why Senchi?
Far from looking down on people who do not understand and who can’t speak the English language, may I ask on what basis was Madam Akua Donkor, one of the many people who attempted to contest the last presidential election, invited to the forum which used English as its working language where no simultaneous translation was provided for non-English speakers? Did her presence not defeat the idea that the forum was not to be politicised?
Oh, and my biggest worry. Why did we have to go to Senchi when most of the people travelled from Accra? Could this forum not have been held at the Accra International Conference Centre where the participants, most of them resident in Accra, could have attended from their homes, as a first step of showing to Ghanaians that were serious and want to cut down cost to save our economy?
When the late President Hilla Limann took over as president, one of his first priorities was to seek support from foreign countries. He travelled to the United Kingdom to beg for money. Iddrisu Seini was the Daily Graphic reporter who accompanied Limann’s delegation to the United Kingdom. His first story was that the delegation which was going to beg for money for a poor country in need was rather too large considering the huge cost (catering for them in London). Seini was put on the next flight back home to Accra.
So if our economy is in trouble and we are seeking ways to revamp it, do we have to assembly about 400 people in a hotel which charges between $240 and $560 a night? Did the organisers do a simple calculation to see how much it would cost the country to hold the forum at Senchi? Assuming the hotel gave some discounts, there was no way the rate would be less than $200 a night, which did not include meals and drinks.
What next after Senchi
The President has already conceded that some of the things the forum recommended in its communiqué were things the government was already doing. In addition to that, many of the points in the communiqué are not new to Ghana and Ghanaians as many of us have been talking about them in the last 21 years.
For 21 years until Senchi, we have been looking for that economic magic wand to enable us to get the desirable macroeconomic situation. Thank God we have come from Senchi with that magic wand. The big question now is, what happens after Senchi?
PS: Mr Inspector-General of Police, having openly accepted that the Police Service had done some wrong in recent past, would you please respond to the children and widow of Adjei Akpor, the 22-year-old man your men killed at Adenta on January 6, 2014 and give them justice? This is the 18th week since the man was killed.
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The author is a Journalist and Political Scientist. He is the Head of the Department of Media and Communication Studies, Pentecost University College, Accra. - fasado@hotmail.com