..... for Ghana's development quagmire


By: Prof Lungu


"....The theses...circulating in magazines, books, online publications, and presses over the last 30 years that... Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana failed to develop at the same rate as Singapore, that... Kwame Nkrumah is responsible for Ghana's development quagmire, are bunkum theses. They are theses without facts and data... They are the concoctions of mad 60-year old men with little data, but crazy old men nonetheless...", (Prof Lungu, 10 May 16).


Published on Ghanaweb 8 May 16 as, "RE Ghana: lessons from Nkrumah’s fallout with his economic adviser", our critique of Professor Robert Tignor's "foundation essay" that appeared in "The Conversation" in March of this year made the point that Professor Tignor's essay did not quite do justice to the lofty goal of providing a relevant "wider look at a key issue affecting society". As we discussed, this is because Professor Tignor did not provide any data to backup his points. Also, Prof. Tignor's conception of Arthur Lewis as a rationalist technocrat (while Kwame Nkrumah was none other than a mere politician) was as well, not supported by data, the record of history, or the artifacts of philosophy.

Our Ghanaweb paper garnered several comments, including multiple discursive points from Kwabena Yeboah.

According to Kwabena Yeboah:
(1) Kwame Nkrumah is partly responsible for Ghana's development quagmire
(2) Kwame Nkrumah's style of governance (versus that of Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore) guaranteed political and economic failure for Ghana all the way into 2016
(3) Singapore's Yew never had any use for regional associations.

The problem is, Kwabena Yeboah did not offer data to prove any of his points.

Here is our response for the record.

The theses that have been circulating in magazines, books, online publications, and presses over the last 30 years such as those being sold by Kwabena Yeaboah, that during 1957-1966 Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana failed to develop at the same rate as Singapore, that even today, Kwame Nkrumah is responsible for Ghana's development quagmire are bunkum theses.

They are theses without facts and data at bottom, same as those carried by the matemeho confederates who fortunately, failed in their resistance to a Unitary Ghana that Kwame Nkrumah championed to success, and under whose benefits they can now claim their "property-owning" placards, much of which is pilfered state resources.

They are the concoctions of lazy minds whose only beneficial attribute, if we can find one, is their love affair with Cold War-era newspaper headlines.

They are the concoctions of mad 60-year old men with little data, but crazy old men nonetheless, old men full of venom and mischief against Kwame Nkrumah, the singularly most successful African leader who ever lived.

It is all propaganda.

So, tell us, crazy old people and "lost- adolescents"!

What are the responsibilities of those from your/our "native-country" who took up the banners of foreign governments engaged in a "Cold War" by proxy on your own Father's Land. What are the responsibilities of those from your/our "native-country" who collected and concealed fat bank checks from the embassies of those same foreign governments.

What are the responsibilities of the NLC (Nonentities, Liars, and Crooks), among them rascal civilians like Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, who took up arms and overthrew a democratically elected government, who lied to your/our "native-country" and mis-represented the true powers behind the coup d'état that overthrew your father's house, his authority, and his government?

Constitutions and laws, even those adjudicated in the highest courts, including common laws and those employed as precedents, are nothing but rules and sanctions that give people reason to pursue GOV (Objectives, Goals, and Visions), and to hope for their achievement, whatever they are, whether through the courts, politics, business, social living, etc.

This is applied rationalism.

If you are purposely critical, you cannot forget your data and descend into the gutter to blame Nkrumah for your problems now, the 60-year old man you are today.

To blame Kwame Nkrumah for Ghana's problems today is to cruelly abuse your father.

You are abusing your father who sent you to the schools and colleges he caused to the funded, the father who enrolled you to go further in education, even to other civilizations, as you face problems he knows not about because your father, the same man who was chased from office by foreign governments and adolescent country-native-traitors, that same father has been dead going on 2 generations, and you an old man.

Now, as a sad 60-year old man, with children and grand-children, your still have at least nominal control over the many assets your father left you that you have not cheaply auctioned off, and other assets you have discovered on this earth that Providence has allowed your beloved country to discover, to claim, and to sell however you and your contemporaries want.

You fail to properly apply a critical perspective on critical-rationalism and its implication for policy analysis, governance, and the multi-disciplinary foray of planning (economic, physical, political, economic, etc.).

Today's professional Geographers, Architects, Urban and City Planners, and Economic Development gurus. etc., worth their salt understand it perfectly well, exactly 100 years after the birth of Jane Jacobs, and 55 years after publication of her seminal book, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities".

So, you pen abusive commentaries about your father, commentaries sold willy-nilly by politicians with mighty axes to grind.

Today, you tell us you are proud of the "African personality achievements" of Kwame Nkrumah, saying, "...no African, present or past, has been able to match this attribute, not even Mandela....".

Yet, from the other side of your mouth you want us to know about "Nkrumah's propensity to share Ghana's wealth with other ungrateful Africans", forgetting that rationally, you cannot have your egg and eat it, too.

You tell us Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew was a "rationalist" and Nkrumah wasn't, because Mr. Yew:

"...did exactly opposite of Nkrumah...Think of how Lee Kwan Yew treated his political enemies vis-a-vis Nkrumah during the cold war era, and only one conclusion looms out that our own Nkrumah was not astute as compared with his compatriot in Singapore...Lee Kwan Yew was not interested in regional associations, confabulations and continental ambition..."

What a gross mis-representation of the history, and of the economic and political records.

Here are some data and records for you.


To be continued.....




SOURCES:
1. The Conversation. Ghana: lessons from Nkrumah’s fallout with his economic adviser, 1 Mar 16, (https://theconversation.com/ghana-lessons-from-nkrumahs-fallout-with-his-economic-adviser-53233/).

2. Prof Lungu. RE: Lessons from Nkrumah’s fallout with his economic adviser, Ghanaweb, 8 May 16, (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/RE-Lessons-from-Nkrumah-s-fallout-with-his-economic-adviser-436894/).

3. Jane Jacobs. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. 1961. New York: Random House.


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