 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. Today we're going to be talking about the elections in Ghana that are scheduled for December 7th. Now the elections are largely between two major parties, the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress. New Patriotic Party is the ruling party, President Nana Kufuado and he won the election in 2016 and his party won the majority in the 275 seat parliament as well. The candidate of the National Democratic Congress is John Mahama and these candidates have contested against each other since 2012. So to talk more about these elections, what are the key issues and what does it take not only for the country but for the entire region, we have with us Crazy Pradjunior of Pan-African Television and the Socialist Forum of Ghana. Thank you so much for joining us. So to begin with, I wanted to ask about the two candidates and basically what they're offering to the people of Ghana. So they've been contesting against each other. Both of them are current president and one of former president of course. So the people are familiar with both these candidates and their policy prescriptions. So could you tell us about what are the main issues that are currently being raised? Unfortunately, there are not many differences in the kinds of platforms that these political parties present. We have to understand very clearly that we've been having these kinds of reactions, multi-party elections since 1992. And what has happened in practice is that no matter who has won elections since 1992, they've all surrendered the money going to the national economy to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. So as some say, the World Bank's personal monetary fund has been in power in Ghana since 1992 and we do not expect that to change. So there are not substantial differences between the two. In fact, I've been following all the pools that have been organized over the last six months or more and all the pools indicate that the major issues in this election are infrastructure development, the creation of jobs, and education. Indeed, there's no emphasis on the framework within which infrastructure face. There's no emphasis on the framework within which educational policies developed and implemented. Infrastructure is set apart as if it's something on its own without any reference to an ideological frame within which infrastructure development occurs. The central question of who benefits from infrastructure development is not discussed. What kind of infrastructure development we embark upon is not discussed and so on. So these are just gimmicks that the political parties have used since 1992. And no matter who wins this election, we are going to continue the pursuit of the new Libra economic agenda. And I have no doubt at all about it. Absolutely. And in this context, we see a lot of talk about corruption yet again like you pointed out without talking about what is the root of corruption or the structural aspects of corruption. It's just seen as an individual weakness. Well, as a matter of fact, there's been a lot of emphasis on corruption in this campaign. It started with the ruling government, the Akupualu government, accusing the Mahamad administration of being the most corrupt regime and so on. But that has rapidly changed because the special prosecutor whose office is set up by the Akupualu government and who's also an appointee of the Akupualu government has just recently fallen out of the government and has actually described the current president as the mother serpent of corruption and has said that this is the most corrupt administration since independence and so on. So the focus has shifted. A lot more people are beginning to look at the MPP and the kinds of deals it has made over the years. They're beginning to look at the allegations of corruption and how they've been dealt with and so on. Now in this situation, the MPP has quickly been treated and is focusing attention on this educational policy and claiming falsely that it is the first political party to introduce free free education at the secondary school level. When in reality, free free secondary school education was a policy of the incremental government, we understand. And since then many left have advocated in a free free education as a way of improving access to education and so on. So here you have the new patriotic party led by Nenakupualu trying so hard to claim credit for an educational policy which is which is a dictation from the constitution and the National Democratic Congress doing everything possible to pay the new patriotic party led by Nenakupualu as a corrupt administration. Of course, these two positions in no way settled the question between those who are at the end who are the receiving end of capitalist exploitation. It doesn't in any way solve the question of who owns and controls the natural resources. It doesn't discuss the role of multinational corporations in the underdevelopment of Ghana and so on. These issues are not being discussed at all. Absolutely. Right, so in this context could you actually just elaborate a bit on the aspect you were talking about since about say 30 to 40 years of neoliberal policies and especially since 1992 since the two-party system came into power. What has been the impact of surrendering of economic policy to the IMF and the World Bank like you pointed out? Well, interestingly, the Romani's regime, perhaps far worse than any other government in our history when it comes to following the prescriptions of the pertinent institutions. In 1983, it adopted the economic recovery program and became the star people of the World Bank and the IMF. Indeed, all other African people at all to follow the example of the role of the institution. Now, what did they do? They retrenched labor in the civil and public service. In a matter of one year, 300,000 people lost their jobs. They embarked upon a policy of privatization of state enterprises. And over the period, the Romani state in power, close to 300 state-run factories, were simply sold. That policy has continued since 1982 to date. We are still engaged in a serious privatization of state enterprises and so on. Now, between 1983 and when Raleigh is about to form the economic recovery program till now, the national currency has been devalued by about 38,000 percent. I want to talk about 30,000 percent devaluation. If you look at the heads around it, that is a reality. We devalued the national currency by about 38,000 percent and the currency continues to fall. You understand? Now, under Incrumah, Ghanians had 100 percent control of the good resources in Ghana. As a result of the reckless policy of privatization, today, we only have three percent interest in the exploitation of our good resources. We have signed the foreign exchange retention agreement with the multinational corporation doing gold mining in Ghana under an agreement called the foreign exchange retention agreement. And under this arrangement, they retain up to 98 percent of the value of gold exported from Ghana. The economy is bleeding as a result of all this reckless policies and the implementation. And to give you an idea, right now, as we speak, the government of Ghana owes independent users 1.7 billion dollars. The independent power producers are threatening to shut up their plants, which would mean that we're going to go into electricity rationing once again, you understand? As we speak now, the electricity company of Ghana is indebted having the Volta River Authority, which is the generation of hydro power, owes up to about $300 million. That doesn't quite give you the picture, you understand? Ghana currently is spending three quarters of its national revenue plus grants on debt servicing and debt repayments. The finance minister tells us that we are spending up to about three quarters of total national revenue on the payment of a monument in the public sector and all. Now, this suggests that there's a huge hole in national accounts, very, very huge hole in national accounts, you understand? And yet, the politicians are mounting platforms, giving us all kinds of promises and so on, and how are you going to finance it? We have, we have borrowed and borrowed to the extent that by the end of December, our debt to GDP ratio is projected at 74%. So even the option of borrowing is going to be close to us very soon. So we can't borrow, we are not generating enough revenue and we are still heavily indebted and so on. How are you going to fulfill all these promises that you're making? I am not speaking to that and because they do not have answers to the real problems that confront our people. The social, political and economic problems that confront our people, they've resorted to some very base campaigning which is frightening, you know, campaigns bordering on ethnicity and the rise. All kinds of profits and bishops are polluting the minds of our people with nonsensical predictions about who God is going to choose to lead the country and so on. It's just a bloody mess, complete mess, you understand? If we fail to go back to the objectives of the independence movement, which were one, the capacity to develop the capacity to use our own leaders and two, to own our own resources and exploit them in the interest of our people. If we fail to achieve these two objectives, not of the revolutionary socialist movement, but of the independence movement, the broad independence movement, we are not going nowhere. We are not going to be able to cater for the health needs of our people. We are not going to be able to cater for the educational needs of our people and so on. Everything is going to reduce to a battle of the torrents and backwardness and that is what we are in today. Absolutely. And in this context, you mentioned the health needs of the people. So of course, COVID-19, a global issue in many elections that are taking place across the world. So how is the perception of how COVID-19 was handled by the government and the situation with the health system right now, especially in the context of the issues you mentioned regarding funding and infrastructure? Well, I was speaking to a lot of people, you know, and most people you speak to do not think that we don't have the correct data on COVID-19. Most people think that we are not being told the whole story. Of course, the government side is that they manage everything very well, everything is clean. I mean, we have one of the best results in Africa and South. We have never done mass random testing. And mass random testing is the only way of finding out the extent of the spread of COVID. We haven't done it. So how can we be credible? We do not know the figures. You understand, when the figures are based on practices, we do not determine the extent of the disease and so on. But government claims that it is doing very well. Every now and then we hear stories of whole families being affected by COVID and so on. I think that we have even stopped doing contact tracing. So we do not have the full picture. And because of the government's attitude, we are noticing increasingly that people are also beginning to stop observing the protocols. I mean, there are many parts in Ghana where people no longer wear masks. You understand? I've been to many parts of Ghana where if you wear masks, you are seen as a stranger, some aberration and so on. Now we're going to have elections on 7th of December, six days from now. Nobody knows what the impact is going to be on COVID. You are going to have people massing up in queues and so on to go and cast their votes. That could be a danger sign for the escalation of the spread of COVID. Absolutely. And in this context, I just wanted to quickly ask you about the Socialist Forum of Ghana's perspectives on some of these issues as well. So what do you think would be the immediate steps especially needed in terms of at least salvaging the economy, considering the debt issue you mentioned, considering the surrendering of economic sovereignty that you mentioned? What would be the steps necessary to retake control of the economy? Well, the Socialist Forum of Ghana now essentially is engaging advocacy, you know, workers' rights, romance rights and so on. We are engaged in mobilizing the people to congregate around their own interests and to fight for their own interests, to fight for a place in the scheme of things as is where. And that's what we've been doing over the last couple of years. Over the last one year, our membership has increased tremendously, membership has increased by something like 200 percent, and we are still working at it and so on. We are not an electoral machine yet. We may become an electoral machine in the future, but for now we are not an electoral machine. We are a movement that is mobilizing people, that is deepening the consciousness of people and so on, organizing educational programs, etc., in order to question-tize people and to build a strong movement to be able to resist the implementation of these neoliberal policies and so on. And that's what we are still doing. We are not focusing on the elections. We've not declared support for any of the candidates. We are not associated with any of the parties. Even though some of our members belong to some of these parties, as a forum, we are not involved in these elections at all. We continue to do educational programs and so on. That's what we're doing. And finally, I just wanted to ask a question about the regional relevance of this election. So there's been a lot of churning in the region as well in recent times. So is the result of this election whichever way it goes? And it seems like a close one. Likely to majorly change Ghanah's foreign policies with regard to not only its immediate neighbors, but also to say the European Union or the United States for that matter. I think it's significant to note that Ghanah is the second country in terms of population size in the West African region. Nigeria has a population of about 2 million, something million. And that is followed by Ghanah with a population of about 30 million. Ghanah is seen as a hub of trading and other activities in the West Africa sub-region. Again, Ghanah is relatively more peaceful than most of the countries in the sub-region. I mean, if you take La Côte d'Ivoire, La Côte d'Ivoire is in turmoil as a result of the recent presidential elections and the disputes around that. If you take a place like Bukina, Faso, Mali, Guinea and others, there's a spray of Islamic insurgency from the north and they've been affected very badly by, you know, you take Togo and Togo is in turmoil and so on. So Ghanah is beginning to look like, for want of a better expression, the oasis of peace in the region. And if that is disturbed, it could have very huge consequences across the region. Of course, you do know that Nigeria has been hit by the insurgency led by Boko Haraw. And you know that there is a low intensity civil war in the Niger Delta area. We also do know about the Islamic conflict that are beginning to flare in the north-eastern part of Nigeria, linked with the arrest and detention of the Shia Muslim leader Sheikh Zakzaki and so on. So all these tensions are building up in the sub-region. And if Ghanah went up in flames, it would add to the general confusion in the sub-region, which would affect interactions amongst us and so on. Now it's also important for us to realize that West Africa as a whole has committed to the economic partnership agreement with Europe. Of course, it was only Nigeria who stood up against this agreement. All the rest of West Africa went along, including Ghanah. I do not think that this election will change, that Ghanah will continue to abide by the agreement with the European Union, in spite of the fact that Britain is middle-trading partners, exited the European Union. Of course, I think that that agreement is one of the worst agreements that could ever be signed by any government, given the fact that it discriminates against West Africa businesses and so on. So that's a mission. Of course, a lot of people would also like to find out what it would affect the establishment of a U.S. military base in Accra. You do know that the Ghanah government has entered into an agreement to the United States of America to establish a military base in Accra. I do not think that it would affect this agreement. Of course, when the National Democratic Congress was in a position, it vigorously opposed the establishment of a military base in Accra. But I think that that was just to stir up, you know, to agitate and give the new link and so on. I do not think that if they came into power, it would affect the establishment of a U.S. military base in Accra. But generally, it would affect the situation in West Africa because the confusion and desperation and so on would get exacerbated in Ghanah's elections. Absolutely. Thank you so much for talking to us. We'll get back to you once the results are out also to analyze what the implications of the new government will be. That's all your time for today. Keep watching People's Dispatch.