MAHAMA MISSES THE POINT

Dr Edward Nasigri Mahama (PNC Presidential Candidate)

Dr Edward Nasigre Mahama, Presidential Candidate of the Peoples National Convention (PNC) does not appear to get it.

He believes that there is no link between Ghana’s current state of dependence and her colonial past.

In fact he appears to disagree with Nkrumah’s declaration that “The essence of neo-colonialism is that the state which is subject to it is, in theory independent and has all the trapping of international sovereignty. [that] In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside”.

Speaking on the TV show “My Turn” on GTV, Dr Mahama completely discounted the contribution of colonialism to the multitude of problems confronting the people of Ghana.

He said “Ghanaians should stop blaming colonial masters for the woes of this country and resolve to remove the bottlenecks bedeviling the economy”.

What is not clear to Dr Mahama is that most of these “bottlenecks” are colonial vestiges which act as fetters to the national development effort.

The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) is one such fetters which makes Africa a dumping ground for European goods and services and destroys Ghana’s capacity to compete favourably with European countries.

Another fetter to development which is rooted in colonialism is the quota system of trade which minimizes Africa’s exports to some of the trading blocks and maximizes imports from those blocks.

Dr Mahama said “Ghana is almost 60 years counting from independence, if you are 30 years now, ask yourself what plans have I laid down for my children 20 years down the line. We know how Ghana’s population will definitely grow years to come, but we have no plans in place.”

He praised the self-reliant policies of General Kutu Acheampong and said “this is the direction I am also going to take”.

 Interestingly, Dr Mahama is the presidential candidate of a political party which claims to be Nkrumaist.

Editorial

THE COLONIAL HERITAGE

It is strange that some of Ghana’s most educated believe that the Ghanaian condition of underdevelopment and poverty has nothing to do with colonial exploitation.

Indeed, the poverty and under development in Ghana are all traceable to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Classical Colonialism.

It is to be understood that throughout more than 100 years of colonialism, everything was planned and organised for the sole purpose of exploiting our resources for the benefit of the colonial metropolis.

This arrangement has not change with the attainment of national independence.

As Nkrumah wrote in consciencism Page 102, “Any oblique attempt of a foreign power to thwart, balk, corrupt for otherwise pervert the true independence of a sovereign people is neo-colonialist. It is neo-colonialist because it seeks, notwithstanding the acknowledged sovereignty of a people, to subordinate their interests to those of a foreign power”.

Our view is that unless we wake up to the reality of colonial enslavement in all its forms including its current form, we cannot get out of the quagmire of under development.