The “Senchi Consensus”: Late P.V. Obeng will be vindicated!

By Cletus D Kuunifaa

That man proposes but God disposes is a proverb relevant in our somber situation currently. As we mourn this illustrious son of Ghana who departed suddenly to the other world, we are equally reminded of being the youngest species on earth and yet the earliest to depart can be very troubling psychologically and philosophically. But that is the nature of human existence.
The French philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre, in his thought on existentialism dealt with core issues related to the human condition including the search for ultimate meaning. In one scenario, he would depict a picture of a group of people chained and condemned to death and waiting to be executed. And at one point that each person is taken to be executed and the one next to be executed observes and imagines what his fellow is going through and thinks about his own situation and condition which is right next to be done same way.
Such is the human condition we deal with in this world so manifested in the existentialist thought. And the famous Shakespeare’s quote that “death is a necessary end and will come when it will come” only reminds us of our life journey on earth.
Mr. P.V. Obeng has paid his dues. He was a political maestro of his time. Ghana will surely miss his valuable contributions to her socio-economic development - spanning way back from PNDC, NDC first, second and third regimes. He is/was among the galaxy of intellectuals Ghana had had.
Surely, it was former President Rawlings who in response to critics indicated that one P.V. Obeng was more than 10 opposition members combined in intellect. Whether former president Rawlings was kidding or serious at that time, P.V‘s. intellect has been manifest in diverse ways.
The featured article on him, on Ghanaweb entitled, “What Mr. P.V. Obeng said, resonates with change” in which he reiterated the challenges Ghana is currently going through and summed that Ghana is experiencing crisis of transition from a lower-income country to a middle-income status and indicated that as a result of this, certain grants and financial privileges accorded the country would not be forthcoming and called for support and patience as government engaged Ghanaians to manage the transition which he said had raised hopes and expectations
Let’s consider the plans the late P.V. Obeng spelt out to monitor the decisions arrived at the National Economic Forum, dubbed the “Senchi Consensus”.
The Daily Graphic interaction with the late Senior Presidential Advisor after the close of the Senchi deliberation had him indicated that (See General News, May 19, 2014):
• There will be a post-forum committee that will convert the decisions of the economic forum into actionable work in progress backed by a monitoring and evaluation framework.
• The late development guru indicated that he was even more excited that he would work with a committee that would develop timelines for each of the decisions taken at the forum, a statement of assurance that the 22-point communiqué adopted at the end of the forum would have measurable timelines.
• The late P.V. Obeng said, ‘I hope to lead a team that will feed the decisions of the forum into the government’s medium-term policy framework.”
• He was very instrumental in all the deliberations and was arguably described as the chairman of the chairmen. He said, “What we require as a country is the political commitment to implement the outcomes, and that commitment we have been assured of and so we need to get to work.”
• He said much had been achieved in a year of the Mahama administration in the critical areas of building a resilient economy, investing in people, developing infrastructure and good governance.
• He then opined, “The focus of the government was building a resilient economy that would remain the trusted source of income-generation for the people, as well as the creation of employment avenues for many of the unemployed youth.” (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=309825)
These were some of the responses from the late development guru when Daily Graphic asked if the just ended Forum would be another one of those several talk forums?
Unfortunately, he will not live to see his post-National Economic Forum plans materialize.
Perhaps the President paid the most valuable tribute when he made P.V. Obeng aware of the nation’s appreciation of his efforts and contributions to mother Ghana when H. E. John Mahama acknowledged him in his closing remarks at the just ended National Economic Forum.
Fellow Ghanaians, the only tribute that we can offer him will be seeing these lofty ideas materialize and propel President J.D. Mahama’s vision for Ghana. By same measure, late P.V. Obeng would have been vindicated!
Fare thee well, Sir!
Cletus D Kuunifaa
Transformation Management Consultancy (TMC) Group.
Can be contacted at dipnibe@yahoo.com or Follow him on twitter @ckuunifaa






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