There is this segment on a BBC Africa Channel called the Resident Presidents. It is about two hilarious characters who try to take the lighter side of issues. Presidents Olushambles and Kibarkingmad’s satirical take on issues have won my heart and keeps me yearning for more after each episode.
In one of their episodes, these two characters argued about God. One of the characters argued that God is a dictator and doesn’t want a competitor that is why after creating the world he didn’t institute a democratic regime for people to vote either to approve his kingship or otherwise and has lorded himself on both the heaven and earth.
Although their conversation may have sounded blasphemous to the religious zealots, it presented some truth. Man would have instigated a coup against God if ordinary mortals wielded that power to either vote for or against His Kingship.
That leads me to what I want to say. President John Mhama inaugurated the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, the highest flyover in West Africa which comes as a welcome news to many commuters who ply their daily activities within the Central Business District of Accra and other surroundings.
The commentary in the aftermath of the inaguration on social media however was as usaul a mixed bag. While others praised the government for the magnificient project, others felt it was a waste of tax payers money arguing that the cost was inflated.
I regard the latter commentaries as political rhetorics. Just the usual things members sympathetic to the main opposition party do to court public disaffection for ongoing government projects.
But after a second look, I realised some seasoned journalists and people who I do vouch their objectivity including my own Manasseh Azure Awuni joined the fray and started casting innuendos and sneer at the project.
Manasseh wrote on his facebook wall: “I thank God I know Dubai. And I felt ashamed of my country when I visited Nairobi, Kenya. I kept complaining to Mabel Aku Baneseh how disappointed I was that my capital city could not compare with that of another African country. Thanks to an interchange and a dancing fountain amidst slums, Ghana is now equal to Dubai. Ignorance is, indeed, bliss.”
How did we get here? Okay, I am sure whoever made an attempt to compare the project as turning Ghana to Dubai said so in a metaphorical sense. It is only a drunkard who will try to make that comparison. But should that undermine the strategic importance of the project and the relief it would bring to road users?
Instead of acknowledging some of progress we make as a nation, we have turned ourselves to angelic quantity surveyors, attacking and criticising every good without any shred of evidence.
People including Captain Smart of Adom FM, founding member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe and others admit that the current government’s infrastructural expansion drive is massive and readily exhumes the memory of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
Let me digress a bit. At the university, I studied courses including Classics which mainly talks about Greek mythology and I often wondered the relevance of Greek mythology to a 21st century student who should be studying how to go to the moon or develop a software application.
But I was wrong, history helps us to make retrospective evaluations of past events and try to connect the dots to the present so that we can make sense of the future.
Back to the subject, it is common to hear some Ghanaians say Ghana would have developed into a first class modern economy if the Nkrumah government had not been overthrown.
The truth is that, Nkrumah was no angel. In fact, history tells us that Nkrumah was a dictator par excellence!
Even though, some historians argue that Nkrumah’s iron grip on power was as a result of the exigencies at the time, it does not still erase the fact that Nkrumah instituted many policies that made Ghanaians at the time see him as evil despite the massive infrastucture he undertook.
If for nothing at all, he instituted the Preventive Detention Act, Avoidance of Discrimination Act, a one party system, all in an attempt to silence his critics and hold firm to power.
He dole out 10 million pounds of Ghana’s hard earn money to his friend, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, while my grandparents drunk from guinea-worm-infested wells.
Nkrumah also built the defunct Nkrumah Idealogical Institute (which was later converted into the University of Education, Winneba) and spent tax payers money to educate other African nationals including Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, the late Patrice Lumumba of Congo and host of others.
On top of that, they received monthly stipends and other benefits while there was no electricty at my Village at Bawku not to talk about a school.
Nkrumah’s government was not also immune to corruption. In fact, people like Krobo Adusei and others were accused of corrupt practices and that made the ‘wisemen’ rise up and overthrow the CPP on February 24, 1966.
In fact some of his critics say thatthere was virtually no external or domestic debt and Ghana’s population was only 6.5 million after indepndence but our external reserve position deteriorated significantly between 1957 (when net reserves stood at $269 million) and 1966 when they stood at (-$39 million).
With all guns blazing, we were poised to get the tyrant out. We overthrew him. He miserably went to went on exile in Guinea where he was made co-president and later died of cancer.
After many years, our appetite to get Nkrumah back or someone with his charisma and attributes keep growing. We curse those who overthrew Nkrumah and curse the Alimighty Himself for giving us only corrupt leaders.
Ghanaians and even the foreign conspirators call him a hero and give him accolades and posthumous awards including making him “Africa’s Man of the Millennium”. What has changed? What happened to all the evils he committed? Does this connote the saying that a prophet is not valued at his time?
Despite how we regret as Ghanaians for overthrowing Nkrumah, I would stil bet with my last dime that if Nkrumah resurrects from his grave and made President of Ghana, his tenure in office would not last beyond one term in office.
It would not be foreign conspirators who would overthrow him this time around but the so-called educated people who have read all the history books sitting at the Balme Libray!
It is not a curse, it is in our bloodstream like cancerous and continue to replay in our body politics. We over concentrate on the negatives, so much so that, we can’t even acknowledge the good works.
We have all well rehearsed slogans like ‘coruption’, ‘incompetence’, ‘Mahama must go’, ‘The economy is hard’ Bla bla bla. And have conveniently overlooked the gains the government has made.
As the sages aptly put it, you can’t have your cake and eat it. Inasmuch as Nkrumah’s governement committed some crimes, the long term benefits of the seed they sowed like the Akosombo Dams, the Tema Motorway, Job 600 building, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Tema Harbour, University of Cape Coast and the numerous projects still serve as.
Many economies around the world have seen challenging times. Countries like Singapore, China and the rest prospered through sacrifices and hard work. Democracy requires that we put governance under scrutiny but we ought to be measured in our criticism so that we don’t end up letting down the morale of a government that’s trying hard to lessen the suffering of its people.
I have always wondered, If President Mahama had turned Ghana into a first class city like New York within his first tenure in office, would Nana Addo concede not to contest him?
The politicians will play politics, it’s the only way they see themselves coming back to or retaining power. And it’s for the citizens to criticise when their governments fail at their mandate and praise where the government is doing well. Without this balance, I’m afraid the second coming of Nkrumah will still see that government overthrown.
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