CPP calls for honest assessment of state of affairs
The Convention People’s Party (CPP) has called for an “honest assessment” of the state of affairs of Ghana’s economy and developmental path in the wake of diverse economic challenges confronting the country.
The assessment, the party proposed, must involve experts, policymakers and politicians to find collective solutions to issues of national concern.
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In a press statement signed and issued by the Chairperson and Leader of the CPP, Nana Akosua Frimpomaa Sarpong Kumankuma, the party raised red flags about the state of Ghana’s economy, saying that the economy was near collapse.
Concerns
The CPP expressed concern that since the overthrow of Dr Kwame Nkrumah in 1996, successive governments had lost control of the levers of the economy to the extent that “we are now a client nation to the World Bank, IMF and other Western creditor nations.”
It argued that during the reign of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the state was in control of the commanding heights of the economy, during which period the then CPP government launched and implemented a seven-year development plan which set the country on the path of accelerated development.
The seven-year plan, the party further argued, led to the establishment of “almost all the legacy projects in Ghana today” such as the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Ghana State Farms Corporation, Akosombo Dam, GIHOC Industries, Ghana State Housing Corporation, State Construction Corporation, among others.
“This led to the massive expansion of industry and jobs in Ghana that has never been replicated to this day,” the party said.
Stop blame game
The CPP stressed that the “petty debates” and blame game about the supposed shortfalls in the works of Dr Kwame Nkrumah was immaterial to the failures of the current economic system.
“What is of merit, however, is a discussion about the fundamental guiding principles of this country. Our development has been staggered because our economic and social policies are not cohesive,” it said.
“It is time to move our political debates away from partisan and personalistic based discussions to pragmatic evaluations of the vision we hold for Ghana and the best path to achieve that vision is not to blame the CPP and President Kwame Nkrumah for the collapse of the Ghanaian economy,” it stated.
Nkrumah’s approach
The CPP justified Dr Nkrumah’s adoption of the state enterprise system as the first step towards building Ghana’s economy, arguing that apart from the United States, all the countries in Europe and other continents that have seen massive development adopted the same approach.
The CPP blamed the weakness of Ghana’s economy today on what it described as the result of the “debilitating advice of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.”
It also accused successive governments of shutting down and selling off most of the productive State Owned Enterprises in the name of "the private sector is the engine of growth.”
“In the process, the duopoly has not only broken the industrial backbone of Ghana, but indeed they have also broken the spirit of the Ghanaian youth, leaving them in a state of hopelessness and gloom,” it added.