By Rev. Fr. Dr. Stephen Ntim
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In short, there appeared to have been no room for political tolerance. There was no parliamentary democracy in the strict sense of the word.
Consequently, the freedom and the liberty that Ghanaians fought for from the British in a sense eluded us.
Some of our “liberators” eventually became “oppressors. All this, gradually paved the way, for those who had no constitutional mandate to rule this nation.
The military intervened and overthrew the government on February 24th 1966. This 1966 coup (led by Kotoka and Afrifa, with their National Liberation Council) set the ball rolling for uninterrupted military interventions in the 70’s through to the 90’s.
Kutu Acheampong came in with his National Redemption Council, followed by Jerry Rawlings in the mid 80’s and early 90’s (AFRC and PNDC).
It was North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (NATO) intervention that paved the way for democracy and rule of law in Africa and Ghana for that matter, under the pain of economic sanctions.
This rather chequered political history had a negative impact on our economic development.
For example, national projects, started by one government were stigmatised by the other government, and were left uncompleted (some of them even until now are not completed).
The in-coming ones frowned upon economic plans initiated by the previous governments. All this not only slowed down economic development, but also led to a lack of realistic sense of direction in terms of proper economic planning and vision.
Between 1995 and 1997, under the PNDC/NDC era, instead of a long-term economic plan, we came under a three-year structural adjustment programme, initiated by the World Bank and the IMF: programmes that were largely, not in tune with the Ghanaian situation.
We all remember this programme, with its many conditionalities in which, for example, many employees had to be laid off.
Under the NPP regime, some modest efforts have been made in the economic spheres, Inflation rate has come down to about 11.3% (since Feb, 2004) and interest rate has come down to 26%.
All this notwithstanding, our economy still remains heavily dependent on international financial and technical assistance.
Domestic economy continues to revolve around subsistence agriculture, which accounts for 36% of GDP.
The income per capita (2002) was US$290. Budget deficit in 2004, stood at 3.4% of GDP. IMF projection put our growth rate at 4.5%.
The indicators are that our economy is very fragile and heavily agro-based. We still have to do more to realistically grow the economy.
Poverty is still very high. For example, a World Bank report indicated, that only one out of every six school-going children does go to school in Northern Ghana. (This report was before the capitation and feeding programmes).
In terms of Regional Poverty Profile, the indications are so glaring that as a nation, we still need to do more in certain parts of the country especially the Northern Regions. This is not to assume that there is no poverty in other areas.
With respect to poverty disparity among groups, statistical report of poverty trends in the 1990’s also shows that poverty is by far highest among food crop farmers.
Studies have shown that women predominate in this sector. Poverty disparity by gender show that women experience greater poverty, have heavier time burdens, lower rates of utilization of productive resources and lower literacy rate.
In terms of social dimensions of poverty, social indicators point to mixed progress in the 1990’s. Infants and under five mortality in the three Northern Regions are generally higher than in the South.
In comparison with Greater Accra, they are twice or three times as high respectively. A similar situation is revealed in respect of education.
Urban poverty especially in the slums is higher in the urban areas such as Kumasi and Accra. Since 1992, gross primary one admission and primary school enrolment ratios have not significantly improved.
Again in education, gender and location disparities are evident. This, in brief, is an overview of some aspects of our past and present socio-economic development. Based on this, what are some of the challenges and the prospects that we envisage for the future?
Challenges
The first challenge that faces Ghanaians is that we have to do more to grow our economy, which is heavily dependent on external sources.
The second challenge is that we need to make consistent effort to change some colonial economic structures such as, growing raw materials-cocoa, coffee etc. to Europe, and start to add values to these products.
Third, Ghanaians need to understand that we have to build this country by ourselves through hard work.
We need to change our attitude towards public work. However, all these presuppose a congenial, peaceful and stable environment.
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