Zimbabwean Vice President, Mrs Joyce Mujuru, mistakenly pulled Ghana into Zimbabwean politics this weekend by using Ghana as a reference point of good democratic governance and a shining example in Africa’s development.
Typical of President Robert Mugabe, he bluntly refuted Mujuru’s choice of reference and cited the state of Ghana’s development in the 1960’s comparing it to its present condition to support his assertion. Mugabe claimed that Ghana’s economic development has not changed since the 1960’s when he visited or even schooled here. This remark forced former President Kufuor and other Ghanaians to rebut in a characteristic manner. The statement equally transported the minds and lenses of the media in Ghana from London where the Nayele cocaine trial is taking place, back home. Almost all television and radio stations focused their evening and late night talk shows on this simple matter which has only been repeated by Comrade Mugabe.
Very many Ghanaians; journalists, political scientists, university lecturers, teachers and social commentators have made exact comments ad infinitum, but their comments did not receive the kind of attention Mugabe’s is receiving now. For example, Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr, Prof. Agyemang Badu-Akosa, Sydney Abugri of “Letter to Jomo” fame, Kofi Akordor , Dr Vladamir Antwi-Danso and many others have said the same thing or probably far more penetrating than the simple comment from the Zimbabwean President at various platforms. Unfortunately, the media has been deaf to their comments. I dare to add my voice to this matter and to say in my considered opinion that what these personalities have said in the past and repeated this weekend by Comrade Mugabe is nothing but the plain truth.
Some indicators
Ghana has not developed economically since the 1960s. We may have increased in numbers, yes, but there is no positive change. If there is any change at all, it probably has been for the worse not the better. I will cite a few backward achievements to support my point. We have grounded Ghana Airways and transformed the abandoned airplane into a fufu chop bar. We have grounded the Black Star line, and are scouting for foreign aid to build a drydock in Takoradi or somewhere like that. We have grounded our diamond and gold processing plants in the Eastern Region and licensed some Chinese nationals to do small scale mining. River Pra is polluted in consequence. We have grounded our rubber, jute and sugar factories in Kumasi, Asutuare and Komenda, and are looking for Public Private Partnerships to revamp the starch processing plant under the defunct Presidential Special Initiative on cassava.
We spent over US$470 million this year (twice the cost of the Akosombo dam in 1966), in rice imports while the Aveyime, Afram plains, Tono and Via rice fields are laying fallow. The meat processing plant in Bolgatanga built in the 1960s has deteriorated under the weather. The tomato factory in Pwalugu is producing at less than 30 per cent capacity. The Akosombo hydroelectric dam; the largest artificially created lake in the world built in the 1960s, is now crying for rain water to power its turbines, leading to erratic power supply and unplanned load shedding. The Volta Aluminium Company’s (VALCO) smelter is barely functional. Ghana Water Company now rations drinking water in all regions. Vegetables, grains, fish, sugar, even tooth picks made from bamboo sticks are all imported for domestic consumption.
Furthermore, the Vice President of Ghana had to go into a gutter a few weeks ago to help keep our environment clean. Cholera, flooding, market fires and road accidents are simply annual rituals in this country in recent history.
Critical thinking
Ghana’s position in the world ranking of road accidents in 2014 is indeed enviable. We have turned our universities into mass production machines bereft of critical thinking. Indeed, we have turned even our Parliament into a political turf where law makers compete over which regime sold the largest quantity of narcotics or whether circumcised males or females enjoy sex the most. The chamber of Parliament is now radiant with Chinese symbols over a red-carpeted aisle with other imported gadgets to match. The list is endless. Therefore, to insult Comrade Mugabe over his statement about Ghana’s development amounts to praising a mirror which reveals your ugliness and vilifying your fellow man for pointing at your mistakes.
Those criticising Mugabe as being a dictator in the present matter, to them, I say - ad hominem! Their arguments are neither here nor there. It is neither the leadership style of Mugabe nor his tenure of office which is the matter on the table. The main issue raised by Mugabe is whether Ghana was a good example of economic development to be used by his vice president in her argument.
In any case, those vilifying Mugabe seem not to have fully grasped the historical contexts within which the current democratic system of Zimbabwe is couched. Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980 under the Lancaster House Agreement, signed in London in 1979 following years of civil war. This Lancaster House Agreement gave birth to the Zimbabwean Independence Constitution in which critical policies, including 20 automatic parliamentary seats to be reserved for white Zimbabweans and payment of compensation by Britain for the land reform programme were ‘constitutionlised’. A scheduled programme of land reform was to begin in 1981 to 1990 which was signed by all sides at the conference. However, Britain reneged on its pledge to provide financial assistance to this project after Tony Blair (the then British Prime Minister) took over, in breach of the pacta sunt servanda principle of international law. What then ensued is public record.
Mugabe continued with the land reform programme, economic sanctions and travel bans were imposed by the G8 countries, draught in three successive years from 2005, the economy crumbled, inflation shot through the roofs, and now there is the one million Zimbabwean dollar note. In sum, when discussing Zimbabwe and Mugabe; if at all necessary, may require that history and context are brought to bear, else injustice and prejudice may lead us astray. I do not support the prolonged stay of any political leader in power, whether in Africa or elsewhere. Mugabe may have stayed long enough to warrant the exit, but let us pause a little and examine whether he did not probably inherit this posture from Ian Smith of Rhodesia. As for the issue of the “Yes leaders”, it may be prudent to let our hearts in the spirit of sincerity find answers to it.
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