Nana Akufo-Addo is the king of rhetoric. In December 2017, the African youth outside Ghana discovers in a virulent speech in response, apparently, to the French President, Emmanuel Macron: “We can not continue to make policies for us, in our countries, in our regions, on our continent on the basis of support that the Western world, France or the EU would like to give us. It will not work, it did not work yesterday and it will not work tomorrow, “the Ghanaian launches in Accra. This particularly virulent tone against France earned him a reputation as “standing president” among African youth in search of great leaders.
The one who has not yet decided whether he will seek a second term at the end of 2020 (but unofficially, it is recorded) will soon complete his mandate playing with words and symbols. Upon his accession to power, the Ghanaian president says he rejects the tutelage of the IMF. African intellectual and student masses applaud with both hands. The promise is still not kept. And yet, the country comes back since it had to appeal to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2015 for a billion-dollar loan. “Westerners, of the IMF, sixty years after independence, that is not an acceptable situation”, he continues to declare to length of speeches.
In fact, Ghana, which had appealed to the IMF in 2015, the time of the predecessor of the current president, for a billion-dollar loan, is still under supervision but without disbursement. The human rights lawyer is an exemplary president in terms of democracy but a little adventurer in economics. As evidenced by its bauxite agreement against infrastructure concluded with China through an escrow account that is the subject of many questions. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt: “We signed a $ 2 billion contract, but to sell processed bauxite, it’s not about taking our raw materials as is”.
The man who promised to transform the economy of Ghana is forced to admit it: At his mid-term, the rate of cocoa processing has not changed. A slogan “A district, a factory” that brought him to power is reminiscent of the white elephants of Mobutu Sese Seko.
On this point he says in an interview broadcast on TV5: “44 companies have already opened out of the sphere of the state. In Ghana, the state does not build, but encourages the private sector to invest. If we look more specifically at my campaign program, 84 factories are scheduled. I do not know if we will reach 260, as many as districts, but we need to produce added value and manufacture what we consume”.
In May 2018, he launched a program to give jobs to 100,000 unemployed graduates, hoping that they would become entrepreneurs. A year later, it is necessary to pass on the balance sheet, a simple thing for the greatest speaker of Africa.
In his defense, let’s say that President Nana Akufo-Addo inherited a structure of administration too heavy. “It’s my heaviest legacy, it’s not as effective as I’d like, we started the reforms, changing people, organizations, structures, but it will take time … three or four years” .
How does the one who is still asking for time to bring about his reforms manage to keep the suspense on his desire to post to a second term? His answer is worthy of Soviet propaganda: “We’ll see if my party will be happy with my work, and I have not decided whether I want it because it’s not easy.” Early next year it will have to be clear in my mind and also for the party “.
And the president of the twin-country of Côte d’Ivoire points to democracy: “I do not know if what I’m doing is unique, but it’s rare in history to use democratic means, values of democratic institutions to evolve and progress a poor country. An analysis shared by many economists, admiring of a certain Paul Kagame.
And from this philosophical consideration of democracy, we come across the currency, a favorite subject in French-speaking Africa. There, the Ghanaian president comes out the big game, about the eternal currency carried over from ECOWAS: “This has already been postponed, but we must get rid of the structural conditions and relations between the franc zone and the Banque de France. A way to make the Cedi forget, abused by the unfulfilled promises of the president.
