Unenviable feats
Lighthouses do not ring bells and fire canons to call attention to their shining. They just shine.
— Chris E. Kwakpovwe.
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In 1999, a journalist sent a questionnaire to the Chairman of the Council of State asking whether as chairman he did not think it was improper for members of the council to run errands for the President.
Quite naturally, the chairman became offended and refused to respond and rather lodged a complaint with the National Media Commission as to whether the journalist exercised professionalism and dexterity in the approach to get answers. Such prejudicial questions underline journalistic incompetence in the art of interviewing and open up to accusations of bias.
But when at the inauguration of the district assemblies recently it was reported that the President of the National House of Chiefs represented the President at one of the assemblies, it became imperative if we do not have to ask questions about the propriety of such representations.
All those who listened to the replay of the interview granted the German broadcasting company, Deutsche Welle, by President John Dramani Mahama, admire the skill and display of knowledge by the interviewer, establishing the fact that he knew what he was about before the President came up for the interview.
That is the kind of competence we expect from our journalists, but many times we are let down because some of them bring to public discussion issues which they themselves have no knowledge about. Unfortunately, we present ourselves above reproach and anyone who dares to question our competence is sent to the cleaners. We allow the journalists to inflict their ignorance on us.
We have just contracted a loan of about a billion dollars at a high cost of almost 11 per cent and the Minister of Finance thinks that we have achieved an enviable feat for which he and his group, who led the process, must be patted rather than condemned.
In the circumstances that some African countries are attracting sovereign bonds at three per cent or less, we cannot congratulate ourselves merely because the duration of the loan is 15 years. This is where we as journalists must bring our profession to bear on the minister to explain to our people where he excelled to be acknowledged.
We should have managed our economy so well that we could have been in a position to support other countries but because we have mismanaged our economy, we have become addicted to loans for the simplest of development programmes. That is why officials paid by the state could lampoon their predecessors for daring to depend on internally generated funds to carry out major development projects instead of enmeshing ourselves in loans, as if it is criminal to live within our means.
The premise of the minister is puerile and untenable. We must not be so desperate to take up any loan no matter the real cost to our people. For as someone has argued, “ in the smallest duty well executed lies joy for everyone.” The fact is that our people cherish hard work and recognise initiative and resourcefulness. Thus where public officials have excelled, they would be appreciated without asserting or demanding recognition. The public expect us as journalists to take the lead in asking the minister what he has achieved to be applauded.
The point is that when the news initially broke out that we had refused the offer due to the high interest rate, many, including the World Bank, applauded the government for being resolute since the offer was not in our interest. After that, we fall for the loan and we are asked to be happy because we are the only African country to have attracted a sovereign bond with 15 years maturity and, therefore, we have done great.
In our competitive world, there is nothing which happens anywhere which remains a secret. Thus where countries whose economies are noted to be worse than our own attract sovereign bonds of low interests, no matter the tenure, we should not feel any sense of pride that we have secured bonds for 15 years. We have a pedigree and an enviable record as the first black African country south of the Sahara to have gained independence.
So if countries which followed our footsteps and whose economies are nowhere near our own can go into the open market and raise loans at lower interest rates, we should not be deluded into thinking that there is so much global confidence in our economy that is why people are willing to invest with us for 15 years . If anything at all, the unwillingness to support us at lower rates means we are a risky environment for cheap capital. It is to compensate for the high risks that the interest is very high.