Opinions of Thursday, 25 February 2016
Columnist: Lungu, Prof.
OccupyGhana's Casely-Hayford Bashes Kwame Nkrumah So He Can Side With Mr. Mahama? (2.0)
By: Prof Lungu
"..Foolishness...Any Ghanaian leader (or wannabe leader) who uses his liberty to bad-mouth Dr. Kwame Nkrumah...who does not with the same side of their mouth admit that the coup...was orchestrated by foreign governments serving their own permanent interests, who fails to inform Ghanaians...that the Ankrah-Kotoka-Afrifa-Harlley-Busia-NLC bunch lied to Ghanaians, that leader, that wannabe leader, is a dangerous, unbalanced African....(Prof Lungu, 20 Feb 16).
Here is the seminal question for Mr. Sydney "Aha a y? din papa" Casely-Hayford
Question: Exactly how, why, and under what conditions was Kwame Nkrumah "escorted off the scene" that day in 1966.
Maybe, the accountant in Mr. Casely-Hayford will also explain how the colonial powers and their commercial-cum-political interests operated high-value, lively, bullish, primary produce market for cocoa beans all the way through much of the 1950s, to Ghana's independence.
Then, conspiracy for your "Independence, Ghana"!
Fact is, beginning in 1958, as Ghanaians began to assert their independent voices in matters affecting their own interests, that high-value, lively, and bullish produce market for cocoa suddenly disintegrated into bear territory, almost worthless given the investments committed to grow the market.
The Economist magazine reported just 8 months after the NLC coup d'état on the matter of cocoa produce from Ghana, noting that Ghanaians:
“...were encouraged by the manufacturers to expand their production, with
the assurance that they could count on prices between $560 and $700 a ton at
least up to 1970. This July Ghana’s main crop cocoa for shipment between
August and September was being quoted at $245 a ton. But the country has
already ploughed many millions of pounds into improvement schemes and
disease control ... all the effort and investment earned a nil return.” (The
Economist, October 2, 1965).
As summarized by Vallin that same summer of 1966:
"...The real conspiracy was the catastrophic decline in the price of cocoa during
the past seven years to nearly one-fifth of what it was in the late fifties. From a peak of over $1,000 a ton in 1957-58, the price dropped to $504 in 1963-64
and down to as low as $210 last summer (in 1965)..."
So, where does Mr. Sydney "Aha a y? din papa" Casely-Hayford get off his rocking horse with the claim:
"...By the time the Osagyefo was escorted off the scene, Ghana’s reserves were totally decimated and we were yelling for sardines, corned beef and ice cream. Few were those who were rich with huge edifices; cronies and family had much to boast of and the rest who believed in Freedom and Justice, were jailed and harassed out of the country."
Go figure all that coup-plotter regurgitated hogwash!
We've already addressed the part about Nkrumah being "escorted off the scene", and won't belabor the point one more time.
All that coup-plotter regurgitated nonsense - that Ghana was broke, that "...Ghana’s reserves were totally decimated..."!
And to hear that from a "Chartered Accountant" in 2016, a person we thought would be better informed, more balanced, by this date.
After all, compared to the British, what was Ghana's total debt vis a vis Ghana GDP in 1966. And how has that compared since Nkrumah's overthrow, all the way to 2016, as Mr. Casely-Hayford now finds it convenient to "side" with Mr. Mahama?
Still, what does "Ghana’s reserves were totally decimated" mean, in fact.
Is Mr. Casely-Hayford, like Kwadwo of Ghanaweb, saying he has data showing Ghana's total reserves at the beginning of 1966 was just £500,000, or less, when Nkrumah was "escorted" off the scene, according to Mr. Casely-Hayford?
As we informed Kwadwo in several comments under Mr. Casely-Hayford's article, that was another one of those fabrications by the NLC-traitor gang.
But, in 2016, should we still continue to believe coup plotter narratives when there is data all over the place that speak intelligently about the real situation?
Why should we give the NLC the benefit when they conveniently neglected to inform Ghanaians the CIA actually directed and funded the "escort" and overthrow of their President?
Foolishness!
Here is the data and arithmetic for Kwadwo and Mr. Sydney "Aha a y? din papa" Casely-Hayford. Employing a conversion factor of 2.79 for 1966, Kwadwo's "£500,000 in reserves" gave us approximately $1,395,000.00 of total reserves.
But, that is still a lie, heresy!
Here are World Bank figures on Ghana-Total Reserves, 6 (six) years before the overthrow, and 6 (six) years after the overthrow:
Year Value of Reserves(Million$)
1960 $277,926,000
1961 $155,954,000
1962 $181,711,200
1963 $209,312,800
1964 $125,519,200
1965 $115,809,200
1966 $111,130,400
1967 $82,732,000
1968 $97,004,000
1969 $71,832,000
1970 $42,579,200
1971 $43,092,220
1972 $104,041,100
(Source: www.indexmundi.com/facts/ghana/total-reserves).
Realize that in 1966 Ghana's reserves were in the neighborhood of $111,130,400.00.
"Ghana’s reserves were totally decimated" our foot!
All of this is especially galling considering that practically all of the so-called reserves were actually accumulated by the CPP government internally, as definitively argued by Professor Kwame Botwe Asamoah, and many other scholars and researchers.
What, after all, did the British leave Ghana but plundered resources and economic and production networks that did not serve Ghana, but were solely oriented to UK, to serve that colonial power?
Here is some additional information for Mr. Casely-Hayford.
Records show that in 1966 and 1967, Ghana actually received less aid from the US, than Ghana received under Nkrumah the previous years leading up to the overthrow.
In fact, for the first time ever, trade between Ghana and the United States was a negative, in 1966, the year the NLC and the civilian rascals affixed their ugly faces to that coup d'état. In other words, in 1966, even as Ankrah was begging the US for "...sardines, corned beef and ice cream", for his elite friends, the US was in no hurry to assist Ankrah and was in fact importing even less from Ghana.
The US, after all, used the NLC (Nonentities, Liars and Crooks) to achieve its primary objective, that is, the elimination of Kwame Nkrumah immediately after the successful execution of the Akosombo Dam/VRA project. Lest other African leaders took a lesson or two from Pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.
That is official, it is documented fact!
So, go figure, Mr. OccupyGhana Sydney "Aha a y? din papa" Casely-Hayford.
Check you facts, and give us some data, sir!
To cloak all that diatribe and historically inaccurate verbiage against a President more than 50 years removed from the living and political power, to attempt to brand all that under the OccupyGhana banner, is the height of irresponsibility and reckless debasement of true Ghana-Centeredness, and huge disservice to the government in power that can't even bring itself to enact a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) for Ghana's oil. Instead, they sit in Accra as "Hybrids" supervising the plunder of Ghanaian oil that now amounts to more than $6 billion loss in oil revenues to Ghana.
OccupyGhana?
Yes, those are some of the same people who cannot even be bothered to support the Fair-Trade Oil Share/PSA campaign that seeks to save Ghana another $6 billion-plus oil revenue loss.
And yet, Sidney Casely-Hayford now has power and energy to condemn Kwame Nkrumah two generations removed from life and ephemeral power.
To complain in 2016 about lack of Tetteh Quarshie cocoa processing factories, and about lack of water, and about lack of power, and about poor roads to get to anywhere in Ghana, etc., exactly 50 years after Nkrumah was overthrown by people like Sydney Casely-Hayford.
To complain about Kwame Nkrumah and "edifices and factories, which we had to leave to rot."
Doesn't even village idiots know to make lemonade from lemons!
Yes, the "Casely-Hayfords" who always knew back in 1966 that "...the source of raw material input needed to be developed in tandem with infrastructure...that private enterprise in the end trumps central control and resource manipulation...".
We see how nonsensical all of that is!
And by what special insight, logic, and Occupy-Ghana-Centeredness is Sydney, our friend, able to divine, "...saying the CPP is done and will never rise again..."
But that one!
That is not ours to fight or argue.
Even so, every village idiot knows that today's CPP is not Kwame Nkrumah's CPP.
As we've always said, there is always a reckoning behind every record.
But, maybe, just maybe, we could entertain the idea of pardoning Mr. Sydney "Aha a y? din papa" Casely-Hayford. Fact is, he informed us he "...was so traumatized (that) week..".
Well, let thy brush-strokes reflect well for thou self, sir!
Till we meet again!
So it goes!
SOURCE:
1. Sydney Casely-Hayford. Siding with our President. 10th February, 2016 https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Siding-with-our-President-414369.
2. Dr. Kwame Botwe-Asamoah. 3 July, 2015. The Fallacy Of Britain Leaving Huge Sums Of Money For Nkrumah’s Government. (https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/The-Fallacy-Of-Britain-Leaving-Huge-Sums-Of-Money-For-Nkrumah-s-Government-365901).
3. Contact us, if you seriously want to know more about the data and our sources. But, before you do that, please take a moment and sign the FTOS-Gh/PSA petition. From where we sit, that is the more serious business for Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana. We hope you agree!
NOTE:
1. Fair-Trade Oil Share-Ghana (FTOS-GH/PSA Petition/Campaign):
Read about it, join it, sign it: https://www.change.org/p/ghana-fair-trade-oil-share-psa-campaign-ftos-gh-psa).
www.GHanaHero.Com/FTOS_Gh_Campaign, for more information.
(Join the action! Read mo! Listen mo! See mo! Reflect mo!).
©Prof Lungu is Ghana-Centered/Ghana-Proud.
@professorlungu - Twitter
Prof Lungu is based in Washington DC, USA.
Subj: OccupyGhana's Casely-Hayford Bashes Kwame Nkrumah So He Can Side With Mr. Mahama? (2).
Brought to you courtesy www.GhanaHero.com©23 February, 2016.