THE founder of the our nation, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, made a poignant statement that highlights the contradiction in the state of affairs in Africa today.
According to Dr Nkrumah, while Africa is potentially the richest continent in the world, Africans are the poorest people on the face of the earth.
This clearly brings to the fore the issue of the extent of control and management of national assets and resources and the political will or the lack of it among our political leaders to act selflessly in these matters.
The sale of 70 per cent shares of Ghana Telecom (GT) to Vodafone International last year was, without doubt, the most controversial divestiture of a state organisation in the annals of the country.
It was one transaction that attracted a lot of heated arguments, emotions and sentimentalism across the broad political and social strata of our society, including seasoned economists and entrepreneurs, for a sound and more critical look to be taken at the sale and purchase agreement (SPA) between the government and Vodafone before it was okayed.
Indeed, in the heat of the arguments, many allegations of underhand dealings to hand over GT cheaply to Vodafone were traded.
Not surprisingly, the matter became a political issue, with the National Democratic Congress (NDC), then in opposition, pledging to take a second look at the matter if it won power, while the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and its leading members went to court to stop the deal. The case is still pending.
Last Tuesday, the government formally announced its position on the report of the committee it set up to review the SPA.
We are happy that after many twists and turns, the government has indicated its position based on the recommendations of the committee and signalled its desire to re-engage Vodafone on the matter.
It is also worthy of note that in the said announcement certain controversial aspects of the deal, including the national fibre optic facility, the Ghana Telecom University College, landed and other property of the erstwhile GT, will form the basis for the re-engagement.
So is it with the pledge by the government to look more closely at the operations of GT, particularly the huge debt it accumulated before the deal, to help determine its genuineness or otherwise.
We certainly are not oblivious to the sanctity of contracts nor the need to deepen and sustain the confidence of investors, local and foreign, in our economy as the gateway to investment in the sub-region.
However, we believe that the sale or handing over of national assets, especially those that are of strategic importance, to investors must not be vitiated by corruption or shady and murky transactions that evoke tongue-lashing and questions as to whether the national interest has not been compromised on the altar of parochial interests.
Open and transparent deals which secure value for money and offer new leases of life to such divested enterprises and their workers reflect the national interest and signal government’s desire to do clean business.
We wish to applaud the action by the government in fulfilling the electoral promise it made to Ghanaians.
We, as a people, need to monitor and hold politicians to account for the good things they promise when they are seeking the mandate of the people to govern, so that honesty and decency are injected into our politics for politicians to be more responsible and accountable.
This is the way forward towards deepening and entrenching our democracy and protecting and promoting the national interest.
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