Almost a year removed from his televised verbal spar with Tsatsu Tsikata at the Supreme Court, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia was at his pugnacious self, yet again. Though less combative this time around, the National Patriotic Party’s resident intellectual spared no effort excoriating the ruling National Democratic Party for the sputtering national economy.
At a hastily convened lecture series organized by the Reverend Otabil at Central University a fortnight ago that was drenched in partisan rhetoric, Bawumia pointedly rejected claims by the government that the fundamentals of the economy are good, “Economic management is about policy choices and the poor choices by the government – judgment debts, accelerated borrowing, etc., are to be blamed for the sorry state of affairs,” Bawumia intoned.
Bawumia refuted the government’s persistent assertions that the Single Spine Salary Structure and the dollarization of the cedi were undermining economy. “Dollarization rational reached by rational businessmen who can’t trust government to keep the cedi stable,” Bawumia said. He then urged the government to cut its coat according to its size.
Great talk and wonderful elucidation if you are on the other side of the political spectrum, but was Bawumia thoroughly candid with his claims about the state of the national economy?
No doubt, his fiery and passionate presentation resurrected the hopes and dreams of his party, the NPP, and thrilled his throng of awestruck supporters who hang on to his every word. So enthralled are these supporters with Bawumia that he can do no wrong. To these folks, Bawumia symbolizes impeccability and honesty. His diagnosis of what ails the economy and the prescriptions he trotted out were music to their ears.
Despite the euphoria that greeted his lecture, Bawumia in his quest to score political points, inexplicably avoided telling his supporters certain hard and bitter truths about our troubled economy. There is one undeniable fact about our economy that Bawumia, like all politicians, shied away from in his lecture. He neglected to mention that the economy is fundamentally weak, is vulnerable and wholly dependent on commodities.
Underlining the feebleness of the economy is a very lousy manufacturing base which sorely lacks in terms of exports and the production of goods for local consumption. Our factories, whatever we have left — after Rawlings in the 1990s succumbed to the charms of the IMF and shuttered dozens of manufacturing plants — are antiquated and inadequately sourced.
The dollarization of the cedi aside, there are several pertinent issues bedeviling the economy that are worthy of discussion and debate. But again, our politicians have this absurd obsession with the strength of our currency vis a vis the dollar to the detriment of other areas of the economy.
Take unemployment for instance; how I wish Bawumia had talked about this all important issue– in fact, should he make this the central theme of his lectures, I can assure you that his political fortunes will take a turn for the better. Though statistics on unemployment in Ghana are not reliable, one can trenchantly assert that one in three Ghanaians is idle. And there is tacit acknowledgment by many in government circles and in the private sector that unemployment has reached unprecedented levels in recent years.
Among the youth, the unemployment numbers are staggering. Swelling the ranks of the unemployed are the large numbers of graduates churned out by the many universities in the country. Without a corresponding expansion in the economy to absorb these young men and women the unemployment picture will only get worse.
It is quite fascinating to watch Bawumia take the cudgel to the head of the NDC administration charging it with increasing the national debt by borrowing from foreign banks and foreign governments. The charge, as frivolous and absurd as it is, just doesn’t conform to realities of governance.
Borrowing is an essential, indeed, a necessary tool that governments around the world use to supplement their budgets, fill in budget shortfalls and more importantly, to provide the wherewithal and financing for infrastructural development.
Borrowing isn’t the exclusive preserve of the NDC. Even wealthy countries borrow money; it is a time-honored traditon practised by all. Closer home, Nigeria our rich neighbor to the west borrows constantly to finance its national budget despite the huge foreign exchange it earns from sales of its light sweet crude oil. Ghana has to borrow from international lenders or else, the government cannot meet its fiduciary obligations.
Bawumia is a good man; it is well within his constitutionally guaranteed rights to take potshots at President John Mahama for the anemic state of our economy. However, in doing so, Bawumia should be cognizant of the fact that the economy has long been mismanaged by past administrations, suffers from the lack of a strong manufacturing sector and remains vulnerable to the vagaries of the global economy.
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