Opinions of Sunday, 12 February 2023

Columnist: Emmanuel Antwi

Ghana must rethink and stop the IMF loan altogether!

The president of Ghana The president of Ghana

The Ghana's Domestic Debt Exchange Program and government insensitivity to the life of aged pensioners and the welfare of individual households!!!

Ghanaians must speak, Ghana must seek answers as a sovereign country in the 21st century!!!

We are not under military dictatorship, please?

Are we still Ghanaians under the banner of freedom and justice?

Does Ghana truly need the IMF loan for anything better from our experience?

Is it ethical to sacrifice the lives and the welfare of our Aged pensioners and hardworking individuals to secure another IMF loan to be likely dissipated just to overburden our children and grand children?

Why is the government not focusing on retrieving the billions of cedis embezzled /stolen by politicians and their appointees as reviewed by the various auditor general's annual reports instead of coercing feeble citizens to sacrifice their livelihoods to gain another IMF funds to be possibly mismanaged/misappropriated through over-priced products, Shoddy infrastructures, unnecessary political expenses without any serious supervision, Sanctions to retrieve discovered embezzlement state funds as has been happening in this country over the years?

So, how much does the government of Ghana need from the IMF to make things better for this country, $3bn?

How much monies are locked up with politicians and their appointed State directors and public and corporate officers?

What has been done or said about those billions of cedis which the various Auditor General's Reports have categorically detected and published that they must be retrieved for the nation to deter further corruption and build this country for better?

Why is President Akufo Addo's government so desperate to deprive aged pensioners and hardworking innocent Ghanaian nationals and institutions of their hard earned incomes/investments to secure another IMF loan, when the government doesn't have any social benefits for the citizens to cushion their suffering as done in other modern nations?

What is the IMF loan going to do different for Ghanaians, which the trillions of our national assets and incomes from exports and internally generated revenues could not do because of institutionalized high level corruption which has infested almost every office holder and people entrusted with national projects and resources?

Why is the government mad about the Domestic Debt Exchange Program punishing bondholders who have legitimately worked for and invested their incomes, when government seems less unconcerned about the large and highly complained government appointed officials and their huge budgetary quotas, with the unjustified monies squandered in government appointment positions?

If the citizens actually need to contribute to this economic situation, as the bondholders are being compelled to swallow, why is government not trying to relieve the country of it's overburdened huge budgetary expenses on government appointees by reducing the size of the government?

What has the lips-service corruption fighting government of Ghana done or doing to stop the long standing corrupt leakages which have brought the national economy on it's knees?

How are Ghanaians going to be assured that the IMF funds which the government does not care to sacrifice the blood and/or livelihood of our weak innocent aged pensioners and hard-earned investment of our nationals/institutions to secure, will also not be similarly dissipated, or wantonly be embezzled or misapplied or mismanaged or stolen by the national parasites of our resources who are immune from or are never prosecuted nor sanctioned?

Since there has not been any serious and conscious efforts made known, on the part of the government, to fight the widespread corruption, or to sanction or block the avenues of financial leakages in this country, why should we still go for the IMF loan to saddle ourselves again?

Nana Akufo Addo's statement is still valid, that we are sitting on money, except that we have allowed a few people to milk our nation try and turn to force us to surrender our future, our investment, to enable those with the power to manage or mismanage our resources get more money for their agenda.

Instead, for the sake of fairness and social justice, there must be conscious, deliberate and serious efforts to retrieve all state lost funds with individuals/organizations, and properly sanction all identified state enemies of our national development with immediate effect, using an effective judicial systems.

It's also highly recommended that the current NPP Government, through the Ministry of Finance, the parliament of Ghana, and the various security and judicial apparatus, must be loyal to this country, and stand up against all forms of injustices, and try to suspend the Domestic Debt Exchange Program against the good people of Ghana.

In my personal perspective, Ghana should stop pursuing the whole IMF bailout loan altogether.

We should rather as a serious nation, focus on and seriously chase all the stolen and embezzled national monies revealed in the Auditor General's Reports since the year 2000 or beyond, and retrieve those monies as a matter of urgency, instead of the inhuman, insensitive and unreasonable Domestic Debt Exchange Program?

We must immediately reduce the size of the government and it's expenditures, suspend the very non essential development projects which can still wait, reduce the unjustifiable remunerations and benefits of public officials, some of which are only continuing the status of our former colonial masters earnings.

I hope these can contribute to win the heart's, the confidence and the support of the majority of Ghanaians to wholeheartedly come together to help build our mother Ghana for ourselves and posterity!

May God intervene in these unfortunate developments which have the tendency to kill investment spirit and patriotism among several Ghanaians.

May God save our beloved Ghanaian nationals who are now living under VOLUNTARY COMPULSORY participatory democracy.