Why Bernard Avle does not agree with Ghana Beyond Aid (AUDIO)
The General Manager for Citi FM and Citi TV, Bernardino Koku Avle says he does not agree with the government's Ghana Beyond Aid policy as the main vision of the country.
In an address on Thursday, January 16 at the Annual New Year School in Accra, Mr Avle said of the many ills facing the country, aid was not the worst.
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"I don't like the concept of Ghana Beyond Aid because aid is not the only thing we have to go beyond," he said.
"Of all the bad things a country faces, is aid the worst? If I were to ask you three things that you don't want Ghana to have in the next 10 years and we didn't talk about Ghana Beyond Aid, will you choose aid as the first one?
"...So, why don't we have Ghana Beyond Filth? Why don't we have Ghana Beyond Poverty, Why don't we have Ghana Beyond Corruption? Why should we limit ourselves to only aid.
"So, as for me, I don't agree with Ghana Beyond Aid as the main vision for the country. We should have as many things that we want to move beyond as possible, I have no fear saying this. Ghana has many things to go beyond...".
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The 2017 GJA Journalist of the Year was addressing the topic: Attaining Ghana Beyond Aid: The Youth Perspective.
He suggested that Ghana Beyond Aid was an agenda by donors in the Western world who do not have money to spend on developing economies anymore.
"I don't think Ghana Beyond Aid is necessarily our agenda because if you gave me the chance as a leader of a country to choose what I want to go beyond, it's not aid that I will choose".
So, I personally believe that this is not necessarily a Ghana-originated agenda. I, think If you look at what is happening in the Western world, Brexit, Trump and all the problems they are facing with poorer parts of their countries, a lot of European and Western countries don't have money to spend anymore.
"So, they've cleverly designed a concept that these Africans who are not developing themselves, we can't keep giving them money, so let's create something called Ghana Beyond Aid to make it look like the government wants to be economically independent.
"And now, we are saying we are Ghana Beyond Aid but mostly, if you go for those programmes it is the Western people who are leading that agenda because they are the ones who are having to restructure their economies, so I don't believe that aid is the most important thing we should go beyond".
He argued that even developed countries such as Australia still received aid, stressing that it was more important for Ghana to be beyond aid dependence.
LISTEN TO THE CONCLUDING PART OF HIS ADDRESS BELOW;