In 1968, two years after his overthrow, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah wrote a book titled “Dark days in Ghana”. In this book, he demolishes the “big lie” that Ghana had needed to be rescued from “economic chaos”. He also exposes the systematic sell-out of Ghana’s assets to neo-colonialist interests by the military regime.
President Nkrumah highlights one of the first acts of the traitorous military regime, which was to abandon the Seven-year development plan that had been put in place. A development plan that was, in his words, “going to give the Ghanaian people the only worthwhile independence— real economic independence.”
The military traitors set about dismantling the economic achievements Ghana had attained under President Nkrumah’s rule. The many industries that had been established were left to collapse or sold off. State farms, rubber and cotton plantations, and other rural development projects were intentionally neglected.
The consequences of these acts by the traitors, in Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s own words, “meant the mass of Ghanaian workers, peasants and farmers had been returned to the position of “drawers of water and hewers of wood” to Western capitalism.
The dictionary definition of “drawers of water and hewers of wood” is: those who do menial or servile work at the behest of others; physical labourers.
So in simple terms, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s prophecy was that, the sellout of Ghana’s assets and the surrender of Ghana again to foreign domination meant that Ghanaians had been returned to the position of laborers in their own land as was the case during the colonial era.
Indeed, to buttress his point, Osagyefo repeats again in his book that; “For the ordinary men and women of Ghana, the sellout of Ghana has meant a return to all the exploitation and uncertainties of colonial days.”
These declarations were made by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah 55 years and in these 5 decades, Ghana has been to the IMF for financial bailouts on 17 different occasions.
An important fact to note here is that, all of these 17 IMF bailouts happened after 1966 with Nkrumah out of power. Indeed, President Nkrumah makes clear in his book “Dark Days In Ghana” how he rejected a loan from the IMF due to the political conditions attached to it.
It is well-known how IMF loans always come with conditionalities that are not favorable to the countries that accept them and Ghana along with most African countries are the proof that IMF policies and conditionalities do not bring development. Rather, they have undermined the economic sovereignty of African countries and are a key factor in the perpetual underdevelopment across the continent of Africa.
Not only has Ghana had to go begging the IMF 17 times for financial bailout ever since the 1966 overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana has also been declared a Heavily indebted poor country(HIPC) in the early 2000s and just a few months ago, the Ghanaian Cedi was the worst performing currency in the whole world with inflation rising to its highest in 21 years — at an incredible 50.3%.
All of these facts prove that not only was Ghana in a precarious position in the years after the removal of Nkrumah from power but also that, Ghana is very much an economic mess today with Ghanaians in exactly the position Nkrumah declared in 1968. Desperate, despondent and exploited in their own land.
But do not take my word for it. Let us look at the facts.
The minimum wage in Ghana today is a 14 cedis and 88 pesewas. A meagre $1.26 is how much Ghana’s government deems it fit as the lowest amount Ghanaian workers should be paid for 8 hours of work on any given day.
Not only is it legal for Ghanaians workers to be paid woefully inadequate wages that can only be described as poverty wages , Ghanaians workers are also exploited and abused in all kinds of ways by employers.
Ghana, today is a heaven for foreign investors and a hell for its own people who find themselves in a position of unprotected and exploited cheap labor.
Is the Nkrumah prophecy of Ghanaians being forced into being “hewers of wood and drawers of water” after his overthrow beginning to make sense now?
The brutal exploitation and uncertainty that most Ghanaians face today is so bad that you will find many Ghanaian youth today who are wishing for the slave ships to be brought back just so that they can escape the hardship in Ghana.
They say, this time, they do not have to be forced onboard but they themselves will willingly get on board.
Think about this for a moment. This should make clear how bad things really are for the Ghanaian masses.
All of this has happened exactly because of the reversal of Ghana’s industrialization process.
Under President Nkrumah, over 60 more factories and industrial plants were established to process the abundant raw materials Ghana is blessed with. This was to ensure that Ghana was no longer simply exporting her raw materials on the cheap and importing everything her people needed.
Ghana was producing matches, shoes, nails, sweets, chocolate, soft drinks, whisky, biscuits, paints, canned fruit, insecticides and many more.
But, many young Ghanaians today have no idea all these goods were once upon a time being manufactured locally in Ghana.
Young Ghanaians have grown up being told Ghana produces nothing. Not even matches but under President Nkrumah, there was a factory established specifically for the production of matches at Kade.
But, just like basically of all of the other factories, the Kade Match factory was neglected and left to rot by subsequent governments.
The Prophecy of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah has proven correct for the past 55 years and continues to be validated each day that passes.
Source: Talking Africa
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