Time was it when the Energy Minister stood up in Parliament and said that only a government with acumen can add a cedi to the cost of a litre of fuel with no attendant increase in the pump price.
The Finance Minister too in a boastful posturing told Parliament and by extension Ghana that the Cedi has peaked. It was a feat which according to him has never been recorded in the history of this country.
We are tempted to recall Chinua Achebe’s proverb in his classic “Things Fall Apart”..the lizard which jumps from the iroko tree shall praise itself when no one else does so.
The two loud ministers did just that when they thought they have achieved a feat worth blowing their horns about but not receiving same.
They were too much in a hurry to lay claim to something which was unnatural and so not sustainable.
What appeared to be a growing strength of the Cedi against the Dollar was cosmetic and so short-lived as Ghanaians were soon to learn. Prices on the market were not responding to the interference.
Although some Ghanaian experts raised alarm about what they thought was the reason behind the so-called Cedi strength a manouvre by the authorities the interference continued and with it the propaganda.
It was when the IMF shouted out about the anomaly that the attention of most Ghanaians turned to the unsustainable manouvres by the Bank of Ghana.
It took another calling out before the apex bank stopped the act recently and the swift downward trend has earned the Cedi…the worst performing currency in the world.
Today the cost of fuel has appreciated and the Cedi is beginning to adjust to its proper and if you like its natural level against the Dollar.
We are compelled to recall Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s famous remark “when the fundamentals are weak the exchange rate will expose you”.
Eight months into the government of the NDC the gains of the policies of their predecessors, the NPP are beginning to wane. The NDC is fully in charge and the interference with the real strength of the Cedi having been stopped they are being exposed.
The Gold-For-Oil policy which out of envy the NDC government stopped claiming it never even existed should palpably have a hand in the rising cost of fuel and of course the worrying state of the Cedi now.
Propaganda has its limits. When it is stretched into the field of economics the reality will soon dawn on the originators.
We are waiting for the reversal of the remarks of the Finance Minister when he was beating his chest about what in his opinion were the unprecedented performance of the Cedi against the ongoing scenario.
Someone retorted to the copious propaganda by the NDC even as they are behind the throttles of state thus: “they are behaving as if they are on the campaign trail where as their leader once said ‘lies and truth are blended’ for effect.”
Let the NDC government be real and serious with governance. If the Cedi continues on this tangent and the black market remains the main source of the dollar we can only dread what the pre-Xmas situation will be. The Law of Karma does not delay these days. Perhaps the NDC would have steered away from the boastful posturing when their dollar pumping spree into the economy held sway.
