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Quantum
Leap in Economy Under Kwame Nkrumah,
1951-1966
In Celebration of Kwame Nkrumah's
Exemplary Performance on Behalf of Unitary
Ghana During 1951 - 1966
By: Prof Lungu
March 05, 2016
This paper is a continuation of
"Quantum Leap in Education Under Kwame
Nkrumah and the CPP (1951 - 1966)".
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For generations and hundreds of years before
independence in 1957, the Gold
Coast/Ghana, contributed in no small measure
to the development or Europe and that same
Great Britain, from London all the way to
Singapore. Yes, Singapore, where former
President Kufour stood the other day and
proudly christened a drilling ship in his
own name while parroting that 60-year sorry
sad and sorry song.
Ghana, let all of
the jokes be on them!
Let all of the
jokes be on the tradition that stood against
the Unitary Ghana concept and in dark
corners of foreign embassies and capitals
from Lome, to Lagos, to Monrovia, to London,
aided and abetted the maiden overthrow of
that duly elected government of Ghana
through the barrel of the gun and hollow
cups of coup plotter narratives most of
whose truth and fidelity have since 1966
fallen apart as more reliable data
information have become available for even
the lazy to know.
The Akufo Addos,
the Bawumias, the Rawlings, the Kufours,
and the Amoako-Baahs love to parade around
town with coup-plotter narratives and sundry
data hollering that Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana
had a super high, unsustainable national
debt, that Ghana was "broke", in 1966.
When you invest in infrastructure, human
capital, and a multitude of social systems
to uplift all your people into citizens of
the modern world regardless of which corner
they come from, or reside, when you still
have between $11M and $111 million in your
bank accounts (according to whatever source
you prefer), and your national investments
are just beginning to bear fruits for your
new nation, when you've not even drawn $11.2
million in approved credit for a power dam,
what kind of person says their country was
broke, particularly in 2000, and beyond?
Sure, in the early- to mid-1960s, Ghana
had economic problems just as any other
country. The price of cocoa had been
"engineered" downward as punishment for
Ghana's strife for economic development,
respect, and independence.
And much
promised economic development aid had been
withheld.
As we observed in the
"60-Year Old Mad Men" series, when Kwame
Nkrumah's government was overthrown, Ghana
owned an amount from all sources that was
less than 30% of Ghana's annual GDP at that
time. In comparison, the British national
debt-to-GDP ratio was a high 75%.
However, by one account, Ankrah told the
world Ghana was indebted to foreign
creditors to the tune of £400,000,000, and
thus justification for the coup. If that was
true, Ankrah might just have said Ghana
owned over $1 billion (actually,
$1,121,203,066), to foreign creditors.
That was a fat lie!
The loud
talk about a huge Ghana national debt under
Kwame Nkrumah had all turned into cow dung
by the time the rest of the NLC found out
Ankrah was a bigger crook than themselves.
In fact, months after the overthrow,
the aid promised Ankrah had not arrived,
except for some cartons of milk. And 1966
would turn out to be the year the US did not
import anything from the NLC's Ghana.
Even so, without borrowing, the NLC
still found money in Ghana's accounts to pay
every soldier on every payroll, no
deductions for a shared national burden,
thank you, for another 9 months.
In
fact, for all that talk in the ears of the
Johnson-Nixon government about expelling
every single Chinese and Russia technician
many of whom were actually assisting Ghana's
industrialization effort by training
Ghanaians, constructing factories, silos,
bridges, roads, etc., and adding value to
primary goods to boost Ghana' GDP, the NLC
themselves, soon after those expulsions, had
many an about face. They requested many of
the same people they'd just expelled to
return to Ghana.
So much for faux
coup plotter economics!
SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (SELECTED
HIGHLIGHT)
In a previous essay, we argued
that during the period 1957 through 1966,
from independence day to the year Kwame
Nkrumah was overthrown, the number of
hospital beds in Ghana increased
dramatically. From a low 0.50 per 1,000 of
the population for the entire country, it
more than tripled to nearly 1.8 beds per
1,000 of the population.
In 2013,
forty-seven years after the overthrow of
Kwame Nkrumah, there were just about 0.85
hospital beds per 1,000 of the population,
indicating a gross failure to add to
hospital bed capacity anywhere commensurate
with the rate of growth in the population.
Further, while the number of doctors per
1,000 of the population in Ghana did not see
a negative dive, it was still not inspiring
given the promise to Ghana by Kwame Nkrumah.
You see, by 1959, there were 0.5 doctors
per 1,000 of the population. Six (6) short
years later, in 1966, there were 0.8 doctors
per 1,000 of the population, an increase of
approximately 0.3 doctors per 1,000 of the
population. During 2013, there were an
estimated 0.1 doctors per 1,000 of the
population, representing a failure to
meaningfully add to the number of doctors in
Ghana anywhere commensurate with the rate of
growth in the population. In short, whereas
during 1960-1966 the increase in doctors per
1,000 of the population was 0.3 those 6
years, the increase in the number of doctors
per 1,000 of the population the entire 47
years after the overthrow of Nkrumah was
0.2.
Take all of that to the bank,
partner!
CONCLUSION:
And
so"...'(w)hile the detractors of African
independence (were) predicting that the
continent will revert to the jungles once it
(was) left on its own people’s rule, Ghana
(was) wasting no time refuting that
“prophecy”...(mid-1960s).... Instead, with
its own financial and manpower resources and
technical and financial aid from the U.S.
and other nations around the world,
(Ghana...was...) toiling around the clock,
building an industrial economy the likes of
which colonial Africa had never seen....'.
Dear Reader, that was precisely the
planned industrial, economic developmental,
and social take-off for Ghana as reported by
Ebony Magazine in 1964. By 1966, Kwame
Nkrumah's development plans and investments
in the People of Ghana and facilities, had
begun to bear fruits for Ghana on more
fronts than they could count.
In our
"Only mad 60-year olds fault Kwame Nkrumah"
series of essays, we argued that in
actuality, the objective data shows that
under Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana actually
witnessed sharper increases in GDP per
capita during 1963-1965, compared to
Singapore during the same period; that there
was sudden loss of economic performance
beginning with the overthrow of Kwame
Nkrumah in February of 1966.
For
Ghana, the period 1962-1965 can actually be
represented as the beginning of the lift-off
of Ghana's economic and industrial
revolution, until the Johnson CIA-sponsored
coup d'état in 1966. Between 1960 and 1966,
when Nkrumah was overthrown, Ghana's Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) increased 47%, from
$181.00 to $266.00. By 1964, Nkrumah's
development plans had begun to bear fruits
for Ghana as the GDP figures confirm.
Seven (7) years after the overthrow in
1973, GDP per capita was still $5 less,
compared to 1966. Thirty (30) years after
the overthrow, Ghana's GDP per capita had
increased just 80%, from $214.00 to $386.00
(compared to 47% just six years before the
overthrow, from 1960-1966), as you can see.
Sadly, all of that success and
promise, the "Take-Off" of Ghana's economic
revolution, was stolen from Ghanaians
through that Johnson-CIA-induced coup
d'état. That overthrow was fronted by a
soldier-police "Benedict-Arnold"-elite NLC
group (Ankrah-Afrifa-Kotoka-Nunoo-Ocran-Deku-Harlley,
and rascal Busia), a traitor bunch who lied
to Ghana and the entire world.
Yes,
there are facts (data); and there are coup
plotter narratives.
Ghana, which one
do you want to believe?
So it goes!
SOURCES/NOTES
1. Prof Lung,
Quantum leap in education under Kwame
Nkrumah and the CPP (1951 - 1966), http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Quantum-Leap-in-Education-Under-Kwame-Nkrumah-and-the-CPP-1951-1966-514207.
1. Prof Lungu. 2015. GhanaHero.com
(http://www.ghanahero.com/Visions/Nkrumah_Legacy_Project/
Prof_Lungu/There_Was_No_Dum-Sor_Under_Kwame_Nkrumah-v2.pdf/).
2. KATH/Gee Hospital Still Is Another
Kwame Nkrumah Sika Duro (Final)
http://www.ghanahero.com/Visions/Nkrumah_Legacy_
Project/Prof_Lungu/KATH_Gee_Hospital_Still_Another_Nkrumah
_Sika_Duro_Final.pdf
3. Ebony
Magazine. Ghana's Industrial Revolution:
Nation Toils to Close the Technology Gap,
May 1964.
Visit for more information:
www.GhanaHero.com.
Read Mo'! Listen Mo'!
See Mo'! Reflect Mo'!
Prof Lungu - Real
Data, Real Current!
Subj: Quantum Leap in
Economy Under Kwame Nkrumah (1951 -
1966)-ds.
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