Comment - IMF and Ghana
On December 31, 1981, when Flt-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings and his band of soldiers took up arms to wrench power from the popularly elected government of President Hilla Limann, the people of Ghana, unarmed as they were, had no other choice than to succumb to their conquerors.
Initial support for the new government, far from being spontaneous. and massive, was as subdued as would be expected from a stunned nation.
The latest issue of the London based International Currency Review, a journal of the World Financial Community finds Flt-Lt. Rawlings government one of the most irresponsible and chaotic administrations in the whole of the African continent and therefore takes the International Monetary Fund to task for approving a loan worth $377 million to it.
It wrote, "financing a brutal, chaotic dictatorship is more than usually a complete waste of time."
The point being made here is that 14 million people of Ghana made up of hard working farmers, fishermen, teachers, administrators, artisans, housewives and their children deserve a more dignified life than the subjection to abject deprivation by their military rulers for fourteen out of twenty six years of independence from British rule.
Any assistance from the International Monetary Fund to lift them from their gloom is therefore welcome. Besides, Ghana as a member of the Fund is by regulation entitled to draw 150% of her quota as a stand-by facility to support her economy. On current basis the 150% of the quota amounts to $250 million.
Above all, the peace-loving people of Ghana did not vote Fit-Lt. Rawlings to power, do not deserve a violent blood-thirsty government and therefore should not be tied to the fortunes of this regime.
However, if the International Monetary Fund is willing to grant a loan to a country without ensuring that the country has a responsible government, then it would soon realise that the welfare and interest of the millions of farmers, fishermen, teachers, children etc have been sacrificed for the retention of power by a handful.
This is how we view the concern of the International Currency Review over the granting of a loan of $377 million to what the journal refers to as a "Rawlings anarchic government".
Beside the government's irresponsible behaviour the currency Review is not enthused about the government's Recovery Plan which was outlined in a memorandum to the International Monetary Fund. The journal doubts that the plan has any chance of succeeding when workers are being encouraged to seize their factories, foreign investment is frowned upon, managements have been placed under the control of Workers Defence Committees, and enterprises are forbidden to lay off workers even if they have no raw materials for production.
Given the world wide economic depression, the government's encouragement of the expansion of state institutions and increase in government expenditure as reported lately by the Bank of Ghana make the recovery plan a non-starter. The entire fabric of the Ghanaian society has been diagnosed by the country's super human rulers to be bankrupt and is being restructured.
The Judiciary, Media, Civil Service, Education with the universities still closed and the military overseeing the training of cadres are all being re organised. And until the restructuring and re organisation are completed the whole nation is in a state of turmoil which forbids any meaningful recovery plan to be implemented. In the meantime there is no let up in the imposition of unnecessary hardships on Ghanaians by a heavily armed few.
For nearly two years Ghanaians have lived under a curfew even though the revolution is supposed to be popular with the masses.
Contrary to the governments' condemnation of President Limann for hatching a deal with the IMF the steepest overnight devaluation of the cedi has been slapped on Ghanaians and currently the minds of the people are being prepared to accept intolerably high prices for petrol, through deliberately created shortage of fuel.
Otherwise how would one explain the current acute shortage of fuel in Ghana when it is a well known fact that oil rich Libya which patronises the Ghanaian revolutionaries is in a position to bail the country and ease the hardship of Ghanaians? (We reproduce elsewhere in this magazine excerpts of the view of the "International Currency Review" on IMF loan to Ghana.
