An ailing people and a sickly economy: the cost of misleadership | Blunt Thoughts
#BluntThought
#AMShow
#AMNews
#MyJoyOnline
https://www.myjoyonline.com/ghana-news/
Subscribe for more videos just like this:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChd1DEecCRlxaa0-hvPACCw/
Follow us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joy997fm
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Joy997FM
Instagram: https://bit.ly/3J2l57
Click this for more news:
https://www.myjoyonline.com/
#BluntThought
#AMShow
#AMNews
#MyJoyOnline
https://www.myjoyonline.com/ghana-news/
Subscribe for more videos just like this:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChd1DEecCRlxaa0-hvPACCw/
Follow us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joy997fm
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Joy997FM
Instagram: https://bit.ly/3J2l57
Click this for more news:
https://www.myjoyonline.com/
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 My name is Benjamin Akapo.
00:02 I welcome you back on the AM Show as I share with you my blunt thoughts.
00:06 I say them as they are.
00:08 Some people don't like it.
00:10 It is what it is because if you want to face the facts, the reality, you will see that
00:14 what I say is nothing but the truth and we need that truth.
00:19 And today I just got a bit, I wouldn't say sentimental, but it got me reflecting.
00:25 As I share with you the title of my blunt thoughts, you will understand why I'll share
00:29 with you a quote from the Bible.
00:32 The title of my blunt thoughts today, "An ailing people and a sickly economy.
00:39 The cost of misleadership."
00:41 An ailing people and a sickly economy.
00:46 The cost of misleadership.
00:50 When I selected this title, it reminded me of that quote from the Bible, Matthew 7, 9
00:56 to 11.
00:57 I just said that and I'm going to paraphrase this out of my head.
01:01 It says, "Which one of you as parents will give your child a stone when they ask you
01:06 for bread or a snake when they ask you for fish?"
01:09 Which one of you?
01:11 You tell me as a parent, if your child asks you for bread, will you give them a stone
01:16 knowing probably to break their teeth?
01:19 And if they asked you for fish, would you give them a snake?
01:22 So even we as humans, bad as we are, know what is good and we give it to our children.
01:30 But how come when it comes to leadership, or should I say qualifying it properly, misleadership,
01:36 what we have in this country, it is always evil that is visited on the people.
01:42 And I don't mind throughout this fourth Republic, tell me, which administration has really fared
01:48 so well, anything close to even the standard we had set by the Osageful Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
01:54 We have moved from bad to worse consistently.
01:58 And it continues ad infinitum, unabated.
02:02 Which is why this morning I also want to reflect on foolishness.
02:05 Yes, foolishness.
02:07 Albert Einstein says, "A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
02:16 If you have foolish faith in authority, without thinking through what must be thought through,
02:21 that is the worst enemy of truth.
02:24 Again, we have Alice von Hildebrandt who says, "An old fool is the worst of all fools."
02:33 Some of us have grown.
02:35 We have lived through the hard times, but remain fools.
02:39 And I say this respectfully because sometimes, you know, in Ghana we have such thin skin.
02:44 You think when someone says you are being unwise about something, it's an insult.
02:48 But you can be wise and still be unwise in a certain instance.
02:51 It's like Peter.
02:52 "Oh, you are the Messiah.
02:53 Who do you say I am?
02:54 You are the Messiah."
02:55 And then next minute he's saying, "God forbid that that should happen to you."
02:59 God would say to him, Jesus would say to him, "Get behind me, Satan."
03:03 We have been old fools, all of us, because you know why?
03:08 We keep making the same mistakes.
03:10 That is why I talk about an ailing people, a sickly economy, because we choose the very
03:16 worst to provide the very best.
03:19 And you know what happens?
03:21 It's like that computing term, GIGO, garbage in, garbage out.
03:25 What you put in is what you will get out.
03:28 So why do we keep up like this?
03:30 I start like this because election 2024 is just around the corner.
03:35 And I am a bit frustrated because even if you look at the options, it doesn't make for
03:40 very good reading, does it?
03:43 Let us awaken.
03:45 Let us think, people of Ghana.
03:47 Because if you imagine, this first bit I'm starting from today, some politicians, like
03:54 Samuel Mbura, my colleague on the political desk, was actually stating this morning.
03:59 They have the dialysis machines in their house.
04:01 They stashed away enough wealth.
04:03 They can afford to have it no matter the number of times in a week.
04:08 I won't swear.
04:09 How about you?
04:12 You're suffering from diabetes, blood pressure, some heart disease, whatever the case may
04:20 be.
04:21 It's affecting your kidneys and you need it.
04:23 But at what cost?
04:25 And can you afford it?
04:27 Are you thinking about that?
04:29 Are you ruminating?
04:30 Or are you just, "Oh, maybe the MPP can't afford it.
04:33 Yeah, we can't afford it.
04:35 No way."
04:36 Or maybe, "Yeah, our family, we are MBC.
04:39 We vote this way."
04:40 Do you use your conscience when you vote?
04:43 We must contemplate those hard matters because where we are going as a country, like recently
04:48 Professor Stephen Ade, like recently Dr. Ishmael Yamwa have said, if we are not careful, we're
04:55 slowly going down that slope.
04:57 And it may get to the point where your future and my future may not even exist.
05:04 Let's come to the slides.
05:08 This Reno unit thing has become such a problem and some of us are hammering on it because,
05:12 like I said, today it is someone else.
05:15 Tomorrow, it could be you.
05:18 You look at the Ministry of Finance, which has now approved the disbursement of four
05:22 million Ghana CDs to support our patients in Kuala Lumpur.
05:25 After how long?
05:26 Over five months.
05:27 And even when the directive was given, next slide, for it to be opened, it wasn't adhered
05:33 to.
05:34 Diameters have been lost.
05:36 Now according to the health minister, Kwekwa Jumanmenu, dialysis should be included on
05:42 the national health insurance benefit package.
05:45 When did you arrive at this epiphany, Mr. Health Minister?
05:48 At what point?
05:49 I don't want to go back to the vaccine shortages and child vaccine shortages, COVID-19 mess.
05:55 When did you come to this realization?
05:57 Why do we always have to wait till it is at the worst point before we react?
06:01 We are so reactionary instead of proactive in this country.
06:04 The lives that have been lost, our president said it during COVID, we know how to bring
06:09 back the economy, even that we are not able to bring it back.
06:12 But what we don't know how to do is bring back life.
06:14 How do you bring back those lives?
06:17 And it was because you failed on your job.
06:20 Because Kuala Lumpur and other places failed on their job.
06:23 Because people couldn't afford the high cost of staying at private facilities.
06:26 You slept on your job, sir.
06:28 You did.
06:29 And the deaths of those people, it falls on your head.
06:34 Subsidies should be granted to Kuala Lumpur based on proposals made.
06:38 Review tariffs to ensure the sustainability of service to avoid the recurrence of the
06:42 renal units closure.
06:44 We are in this country, Ghana niwayo.
06:46 Mark my words, watch and see whether at some point we don't get back to the same situation.
06:52 This is Ghana for you.
06:53 So funny.
06:55 So funny.
06:56 Next slide.
06:58 Now if you look at the whole closure bit, it's been five months since the closure.
07:03 The hospital authorities blamed the closure on, guess what, the removal of tax and excise
07:07 duty exemptions on medical consumables.
07:10 This resulted in the debts that we've been grappling with.
07:12 Four million Ghana cities.
07:13 And guess what?
07:14 About 19 renal patients have died.
07:18 Died.
07:19 How do we account for them?
07:25 Next slide.
07:29 Now even as we move away from the health bit, you must note that of course the health crisis
07:37 we are facing, whether it is the fleeing of health professionals from Ghana to other places
07:44 to seek, well, greener pastures or the renal department's problems, it all has to do with
07:52 our ailing economy.
07:54 And that's why I'm tying both of them, the strands together today.
07:58 So another worrisome aspect of what is happening today is that we have failed to meet the requirements,
08:04 the deadline, as far as our IMF deal is concerned.
08:08 Getting the second tranche.
08:09 By November the 1st, we should have put in place all mechanisms to meet the deadline.
08:15 We haven't.
08:16 And here is why.
08:17 Here's a breakdown.
08:18 If you look at the board day, board approval of the extended credit facility, the amounts
08:23 are all in millions of dollars.
08:25 So you see that board approval for 600 million, which we've received.
08:28 November the 1st, 2023, we're supposed to have the observance of end June 2023 performance
08:33 criteria completion of the first review to receive the next tranche of 600 million.
08:38 On May the 1st, 2024, then we'll get another 360 million on the back of those same observances.
08:44 November the 1st, 2024, again, based on the June 2024 performance criteria, then we'll
08:50 get 360 million.
08:51 And then in May 2025, again, on the back of same 360 million.
08:57 But there are a few more.
08:58 Let's go to the next slide.
09:02 Let's go to the next slide, please.
09:05 In October 2025, on the back of the same observances, another 360 million.
09:11 And in April, another 360 million, giving you the sum of $3,000 million, which is basically
09:16 $3 billion.
09:19 Next slide.
09:21 But what has been the tale of the take?
09:25 The staff level agreement of the first review, tick, we're good to go.
09:30 But since then, we've had problems.
09:31 And mind you, we've got to the point where we've spoken to the Paris Club, our Chinese
09:37 creditors, hoping to arrive at some agreement, 30% to 40% agreement with them for a haircut.
09:47 And that still remains in limbo.
09:49 So the specific agreements with official creditors, that's a no, red card.
09:55 Approval of the first review by the IMF board, that too is in limbo.
09:58 We've had different dynamics hearing from the information minister and others, but this
10:02 is our reality.
10:03 And this is where we are.
10:04 And if we don't get our act together, we're not getting any money.
10:07 Next slide.
10:10 So does Ghana have the agreement yet?
10:13 Oh, you can read it.
10:15 The answer is a no.
10:18 Absolutely no.
10:20 And especially entering the season, Christmas is approaching, prices will skyrocket.
10:26 The dollar is already going up there.
10:28 The pound is around 15 CDs.
10:30 You know what this means.
10:31 If we don't get those $600 million to shore up our economy, to stabilize the economy,
10:37 if it comes to foreign currency, the inflows and the outflows, we're going to have a headache,
10:42 in fact, a migraine.
10:45 So we need that money because our economy is on life support.
10:49 It's in the emergency ward, and we need it.
10:51 But we've not fulfilled the requirements.
10:54 Like the Bible will say, you must fulfill all righteousness.
10:56 We've not fulfilled all financial righteousness.
10:58 We're in the lurch right now.
11:00 Next slide.
11:03 So in terms of the external debt restructuring, what Ghana wants is this, what you see here.
11:08 30 to 40% of a haircut for commercial creditors.
11:11 Now who would do this anyway?
11:12 It's not the easiest thing to do, and this makes you lose your credibility.
11:17 In fact, it's expected to restructure about $20.5 billion of our debt and grant debt service
11:24 relief of about $10.5 billion.
11:27 Next slide.
11:29 Now, we also need to take stock in this final bit of the recommendations that we've been
11:35 given from institutions like ISSA.
11:41 It has told us that 30 to 40% haircut on Eurobonds will drive down investor confidence, which
11:48 will take a long time to restore.
11:52 So as we do all of this, the consequences wait for us right down the road, right down
11:58 the road.
11:59 We'll pay through the nose for the mistakes we have made.
12:04 Ensure responsible borrowing.
12:06 As for the borrowing, my mom is hassle.
12:09 I give up.
12:11 Until our belts were tightened to the point where everybody said, "You know what?
12:15 We're not giving you any more money."
12:17 We're borrowing as though there were no tomorrow.
12:20 You in your home.
12:21 In fact, let me ask the politicians.
12:24 The wanton borrowing we've engaged in, would we engage in that kind of borrowing for ourselves,
12:30 for our families, to do this or that?
12:32 We would have realized that no, our debt is getting to a point that is unsustainable,
12:37 so we wouldn't do it.
12:38 But because we treat the country like, "Oh, a ya bine seeka, a ya bine dee, yem fah yensam
12:45 bum, yensa ne yena ne yedi, ne yeah fum, mm, e ne yene," this is where we are.
12:52 And that debt will be paid by us, our children, their children, and the children to come.
12:59 That is what these misleaders have done to us.
13:02 And finally, lessons from the painful domestic debt exchange program should inform our spending
13:07 habits going into the 2024 elections.
13:09 That's where I'll cap it off.
13:11 Are we seeing that?
13:13 The four million Ghana cities for the Renault department, it's eight V8 vehicles.
13:17 In some cases, six V8 vehicles.
13:20 Priorities.
13:22 We don't have them right.
13:24 I come and stand here every Friday and do this to set the record straight and to let
13:29 you know, in that order of preference, where we are focusing.
13:34 Our country is in a dire situation.
13:37 And if we don't do something, like I said, an old fool is the worst of fools.
13:42 Let's awaken all of us.
13:43 I'm not excluding myself.
13:44 All of us.
13:45 Let's shine our eyes, like Oyeboman would say.
13:48 Let's wake up because Ghana is going down.
13:52 And if we don't do something, our motherland, the only land we have, will be gone.
13:59 My name is Benjamin Akaku.
14:01 These are my Blunt Thoughts for you, shared raw, hot, and edited, and diluted.
14:07 God richly bless Ghana and make her great and strong.
14:11 [Music]
14:30 you