Kufuor vs. Nkrumah: How the Tortoise Chastised the Giraffe’s Vision.
You ever hear of a High School Sprinter bleat about how Usain Bolt could have employed a better technique? No.
You ever hear of a tortoise bleat about how the Giraffe could have employed better vision? No.
Yet, in the land of the Mis-Educated Than His Ancestors (the Metha), a former head of state, who had the same opportunity to effect change in Ghana, but could not, coils backwards, not to fetch wisdom, but to drop-off his entire brain.
Fascinating! Indeed, Kufuor is still not aware that he had the same opportunity as Nkrumah, yet, outside of Kufuor’s coterie of fans, few will remember him as a man of consequence, let alone a leader with any vision.
We know Nkrumah. We know what his vision entailed. We even know the man’s philosophy. And what do we know of Kufuor? What will the world remember Kufuor for?
One thing: For being the tortoise who chastised the Giraffe’s superior vision. What is it entirely? The case of a failed leader (Kufuor) calling another leader (Nkrumah) a failure? The case of a tortoise criticizing the height reached by the Giraffe?
We can critique Nkrumah, we can indulge some of his ideas, and so we can’t say he didn’t have vision. What about Kufuor? Is something in there to critique? What is it?
Mawumenyo Kulioh Kulewosi I suggest you follow this page,he is a good writer and well mannered in reasoning….u two will do exploits
I wonder the kind of courage that a former president of Ghana who couldn’t establish just one factory has to criticise Kwame Nkrumah (The God of Ghana’s development). smh
Zeenakwe Awor sometimes you don’t need courage to do that. Hatred helps u along.
Zeenakwe Awor it can only come from a man who has nothing for his in-laws but rather steals from them…
Hey, guys! Kufuor had a catchy slogan “zero tolerance for corruption.” Never mind that it ended as “corruption is from Adam.”
Alexander Quarcoo ? correct for 3 points
Kaish. Tortoise without shell
It was his ‘Property-owning Democracy’, please…
I’m yet to hear what Kufuor said which meant “NKRUMAH lacked vision.”
What I heard talked about some RUSH IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AN OTHERWISE BRILLIANT IDEA. Or does someone has something contrary to this that I’m not preview to?
Sulemana Mohammed What do Mr Kuffour mean about rush? If Mr Kuffour lack some historical facts here’s one, before 6th March, 1957 the British have govern the Gold Coast colony for well over one century, had control over the Ashanti state since after the Yaa Asantewaa war(around 1900), ruled the Northern territories in the latter parts of the nineteenth century. The League of Nations western Togoland was as well given to the British in 1918. What had the British done to develop these component parts of the country Dr Nkrumah help built and stabilized? Nothing. Every efforts was made by the British to milk these areas for their own comfort. Mr Kuffour and his ilks have refused to accept the fact that the cornerstone Dr Nkrumah constructed is what had kept Ghana from all the conflicts afflicting the African continent, be as it may, the question is since Dr Nkrumah’s overthrow what has successive regimes done to better his “bad records”? NIL will always be the response.
Evans Kodjo Ahorsey you’re still missing the drift by PRESIDENT KUFUOR.
The point is, will you “rush” to invest all your CAPITAL (reserves) for a “wholesale” industrialization when you could have invited the private sector to team up with, like what is happening in China today? That’s the point he was driving home. And not to say Nkrumah wasn’t a “visionary,” as it’s being attributed to him, you know. Let’s get that fact clear.
Sulemana Mohammed and who said all of the industries were built with Government funds alone? The CPP government of Nkrumah runned a system of economy which included:
1. public sector initiative 2. Public/private partnerships and 3. Private sector and 4. COOPERATIVES.
AKOSOMBO, Valco , Tema Oil Refinery Ghacem were examples of the Public/Private enterprises
Areas like glass factory, tomato factory etc were purely government.
United African company, BA Mensah were pure private sector. The United Ghana Farmers Council were cooperatives .
At independence, how many Ghanaian had capital to build valco, black star line GIHOC etc, so government fit in. Beside we did not allow that vision to materialise. We over threw him. Do u know what Akosombo alone could have added to those factories? Have u sat to think of cheap power from our atomic reactor at Kwabenya? Please Kuffuor shld shut up if he has nothing sensible to speak. We will not allow any sold man to denigrate the sacred heritage of the osagyefo. We know, we are not to disrespect the old but we equally know that foolish young ones also grow old.
Torgbui Tsali Here you are criticizing Kufuor based on his critique on Nkrumah’s wholesale industrialization. Yet you couldn’t provide a single dose of evidence saying that he indeed said “NKRUMAH lacked vision.”
Anyway, may you grow old with “ALL YOUR WISDOM.”??
Sulemana Mohammed You, as well, did not get my drift. When Dr Nkrumah became Leader of Government Business in 1952,the first thing he did was to start building capital for development. There was no developed state, capital and personnel. While the British still control the acts of governance it was very obvious to the determined nationalists to integrate and stabilize four different states/non states into one you will need an accelerated development agenda. Comparing Chinese model to a non-existing country and economy is like pairing a hare and tortoise to win a race. Dr Nkrumah did not, in 1957, had the luxury of Chinese leader Deng Xiao Peng had in 1978. Another point is much as Dr Nkrumah espoused Socialist philosophy he collaborated with western capital( both government and private sector). Indeed without Kaiser Engineers participation the Akosombo project would have taken a longer period to complete. Almost every state enterprise built in Dr Nkrumah’s era had private sector input. Why did these elaborated projects failed, abandoned or collapsed? When Mr Kuffour and his cohorts took power the first thing they did was canceled state funded and built projects, sold many, very cheaply to themselves, indeed Mr Kuffour, a deputy Foriegn Affairs Minister under Dr Busia, had a government land cheaply “sold” to him. His house at “Boom junction” was built on that land. Had the successive regimes after the CPP built on what Dr Nkrumah left the country, shall we be having this debate? I do not think so
Sulemana Mohammed he has many times even credit Nkrumah for his vision. I dont know why we love these kind of spin. He was just giving an account of events after Independence.
Nana Kwasi Boakye exactly!
Sulemana Mohammed what I don’t even understand is this is not the first time he has made this comment. Also this view and disagreement to Nkrumahs strategy to industrialisation has always been the UPs view. This is not new. They loved the idea of industrialisation. But they argued for more private led industries. The reality is they were right though.
Evans Kodjo Ahorsey please stop distorting HISTORY. How did the P/NDC inherited over 300 State Enterprises (which they divested) if they were already sold under the BUSIA regime?
The point is we overuse our reserve for industrialization and we ended up broke as a nation. That was the price we pay through A NEEDLESS coup that gave birth to series of counter coups which have resulted to our retrogression as a nation. Let’s learn from our mistakes and move on as a nation.
Sulemana Mohammed u have shot urself in the foot,”like wat China is doing today”stress on “today” and y not “yesterday”?check the modern day beginning of China and it’s industrialization program,datz y china had such a good relation with Ghana, fortunately for China, Continuity was key as against the case of Ghana,so if today china decides to open a little bit up wat has dat got to do with Nkrumah rushing with industrial programs wen dats exactly wat China did,the former president just lost it
Victor Tietaa Read about the reforms of Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, they decentralized both their Agricultural and industrial production, promoted an open foreign policy and even created special economic zones which meant these areas or zones were not affected by the communist business and trade laws… That’s how China became what it is now….
Nana Kwasi Boakye Free market always wins… lol
AB AN tank God u used the word Reforms,and before the reforms??
Sulemana Mohammed don’t deviate from the issue the focus is not solely China, remember?it’s in relation to Nkrumah,did Nkrumah have the benefit of time for us to see the end,no!so wats the plenty talk about China.
Sulemana Mohammed u keep using Today,today,is wat u are saying what the former president Kuffour said,pls.
AB AN Mind u we are talking of a statement Sulemanna has interpreted to mean wat the former president meant,not a debate on china,ok?
Victor Tietaa his point is that our modus operandi for industrialization “yesterday” as rolled out by Nkrumah was not practical that’s why our economy encountered a crash. FACT!
Victor Tietaa China is a practical example of what Kufuor is talking about. State OWNED industrialization in the “wholesale” manner as implemented by Nkrumah was not practical. It only hurt our economic fortunes as it depleted our reserves at the bank of Ghana. FACT!
Sulemana Mohammed What is fact more than the stealing and abandonment of state properties that huge financial investment had been made on. Let me take ONLY one industry . Ghana was the world ‘s leading producer of cocoa. The CPP, under Dr Nkrumah, decided to make it more attractive by adding value to the raw beans, create a safe way in storing the beans, especially for a rainy day. At the time of his overthrow a factory to produce chocolate and other cocoa products has been built. An almost complete silos for storing cocoa beans was in place. Cocoa is the backbone of our national economy. Imagine Ghana was a property of an individual family, will they still be complaining almost sixty years after the removal of the patriarch of the family? No they’ll never, if they did then they are foolish and stupid not the patriarch who set the trajectory for his very stupid successors. Another example is the State Hotels and Ghana Airways. Marriott hotels, in the US, was started as a table top lemonade stand in 1940s/50s. Today it’s the world’s leading hotel chain. They’ve hotels all over the world, some being franchised. Where is Ghana’s State Hotels? Do you know why Ghana is civil strife free? The seed of good good neighborliness planted by the CPP has been accepted by the good people of Ghana. If successive leaders have even twick the investment as laid out by Dr Nkrumah I believe we will not be having these discussions. Give me a single African state that took a different path and have succeeded, just a single one. At independence there was no developed single individual Ghanaian with the knowledge and financial capacity to engaged in industrialisation, none. It was therefore the sole responsibility of a determined leader to set the stage for the country to take its place in the world. Most of you mentioned China as a base of argument, that comparison is way off the mark. Ghana never had the advantages of China, a country of more than five thousand years in existence, with a highly developed experience. When the evil forces terminated Dr Nkrumah’s plans in 1966 Ghana was only nine, NINE, years. In any case what stopped successive regimes from correcting the crimes of the CPP, none. We have had the experience of having visionless leaders, including Mr Kuffour and his cohorts, since the demise of Dr Nkrumah. His continued popularity is scaring the hell out of his detractors and that fear solicit such baseless comments of Mr Kuffour. He should come again
AB AN There’s nothing called free market, what’s free about monopoly dominance?
Evans Kodjo Ahorsey the so called state OWNED industrialization caused Ghana’s economy to declined to this day.
The only problem we have today is the witch-hunts that has characterized our view on private owned business. Once the person has just an assumed link with a political party, the other opponent is just looking for an opportunity to collapse it. If not we would have gone far since the return of democracy in 1992.
You talk of Marriott, if it were still a US controlled business, it would have not survive to this day and that is a fact.
What’s is this obsession about NKRUMAH as if he wasn’t that human vulnerable to fallibility? He was VERY GOOD and SELFLESS at his ambitions if you ask me but his industrialization should have inculcated the PRIVATE sector as the majority shareholder at least. That’s what we’re talking about. Nobody including Kufuor is trying to denigrate NKRUMAH on his achievements.
Victor Tietaa In your attempt to extol Nkrumah you are insulting the memories of the over 40 million Chinese who died due to the policies initiated before the reforms…. The very reason why the reforms where made…. SMH
AB AN u have lost it,I rest man
AB AN What’s wrong being a communist? I have asked many questions, no answers, I have pointed out what Dr Nkrumah did for nine years. He’s been out since February 1966, today is 22nd June, 2021. This’s a very long time in the life of human being, of a nation and we are STILL marking time. Please tell me, give me a single country, in Africa, that has been able to develop the private sector without state intervention. Do not abuse mine intellect labeling me, I am a Ghanaian who believes that Dr Nkrumah and the CPP, despite all the bomb attacks and many violence visited on him, layed a very, very solid foundation upon which any well meaning and selfless leader could have built on.
NPP is a full blown white supremacy structure…I have now come to know that this political cohorts are traitors to the nation Ghana and Africa as a whole…reason why Ghana is facing its current situation…as for NDC they lack the ideology, plan and precision…both parties are detractors of our future…
It is interesting you do not find Kufuor worthy of critiquing Nkrumah but you find yourself worthy to criticize Kufuor. What will the world remember Narmer for? See?