Native of Ghana, Economics Professor, Author and President, Free Africa Foundation, in Washington, DC
Jan 30, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Barrow is a despicable disappointment. Was chosen as a coalition candidate in Dec 2016, defeating military coconut, who insisted on being addressed as His Excellency President Professor Dr. Al-Haji Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh. He refused to accept electoral defeaT 1/6
So ECOWAS chased Jammeh out of Gambia. He fled to Equatorial Guinea with 13 luxury cars, paving the way for Barrow to assume the presidency in Jan 2017. But after tasting power Barrow said “Power Sweet Bad! Haba!” Now he wants to set up his own party! Where is my Cutlass? 2/6
Sep 28, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
The real intentions of China in Africa are four-fold. The first is to elbow out Western companies and gain access to Africa’s resources at rock-bottom prices. How the people of these governments fare or benefit is of no significance 1/5
2. The second is to canvass for African votes at the United Nations in its quest for global hegemony. E.g., if Rwanda were to cast its ballot alongside China its aid from China could jump by 289%.."(The Economist,. April 16, 2016' p.40). 2/5
Sep 24, 2020 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
Trump won’t commit to peaceful transfer of power. Knows he will lose election; claims will be rigged. Tsk Amusing. He, Republican Party and their allies are trying to demolish democracy in America. They're ad at it. AMATEURS. Some tips from real PROS on sh*t-hole continent 1/13
In 1985 GEN. Samuel Doe of Liberia held presidential elections. When it appeared he was losing he halted the vote count moved the ballots to the Army barracks where they were counted in secret and Doe declared the winner! The outrage plunged Liberia into a 5-year civil war 2/13
Sep 23, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
It takes only a small band of thugs and gov’ts to terrorize entire populations and destroy livelihoods. They've made several countries ungovernable and their crises insoluble – Cameroon, CAR, Congo DR, Nigeria, Somalia, Uganda, etc. 1/4
Often gov’t soldiers too weak, disorganized and corrupt to defeat rebels, jihadists. Unpaid gov’t soldiers become part of problem selling weapons to rebels. Crisis lingers for decades uprooting people destroying economies -- Congo DR is going nowhere; neither is Zimbabwe 2/4
Sep 18, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
All those problems intertwined with one or two root causes: a defective political system and absence of freedom of expression. Any political system that concentrates much power in hands of one buffoon will degenerate into dictatorship with corruption, crime and bad leadership 1/4
too often we try to solve these problems piecemeal which is futile. People must raise a stink over them. But to do that they need to have freedom of expression. Without this freedom you won’t solve Africa’s problems. First step in solving problem of corruption is expose it. 2/4
Sep 14, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Ever since September 11, 2001, all sorts of scrofulous coconuts have claimed that they too were fighting against terrorists in order to win US/Western support and sympathy when they themselves were sponsors of state terrorism against their own people 1/4
Charles Taylor, the brutal warlord who later became president of Liberia, set up Anti-Terrorism Unit led by his own brother. It became fashionable for despicable African tyrants in Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and even Zimbabwe to label anyone opposed to them as terrorists 2/4
Sep 12, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Watching that video again was very depressing. i3 things to note. 1. My message has been the SAME for past 30 years-- i.e., same stupid mistakes being repeated over and over again. In 1990 only 4 countries were democratic; 17 today.
At that rate will take Africa 85.38 years to be fully democratic 2. I said Americans should distinguish between African leaders and African people. The two are not the same. Leaders have been the problem, not the people. America should also apply one standard to all
Sep 6, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
It can’t b/s it is in the business of subsidizing price of petrol. FG insists on selling it at control price of say $1/gallon. But Nigeria’s 4 refineries have broken down; can’t supply nation’s needs. So hires contractors to buy it in neighboring countries at say $4/gallon
It is brought to Nigeria and subsidized at $1/gallon. Since price is lower than in neighboring countries petrol is SMUGGLED OUT of Nigeria, exacerbating shortage. FG re-hires same contractors who go to neighboring countries to buyat $4/gallon SAME petrol smuggled out of Nigeria.
Aug 26, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Have lost faith in American democracy. What is going on in US politics has all the hallmarks of strong arm tactics by African dictators. The Atty. Gen. is in the pocket of the BIG man. For 20 years (1991 to 2011) Amos Wako was Kenya’s Atty. Gen. Never caught one official bandit
In Zimbabwe PROFESSOR Jonathan Moyo once declared that “freedom of expression is an outmoded concept” when he was the Minister of Information. And in US Trump characterizes the free media as fake news and “the enemy of the people.”
Aug 26, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Rah-rah Street protests not enough to remove an entrenched dictator from power. In addition protesters must have control or sympathy of at least one key state institution – the police, military, civil service, judiciary, the media, etc. See Chap 7 amzn.to/IpeZvY
Georgia’s Rose revolution of Nov 2003, in which Mikhail Saakashvili and his allies shoved aside Eduard Shevardnadze succeeded because women protesters charmed the security forces with roses so they did Not fire on them; hence the name
Aug 25, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Remember: BAD driver BAD vehicle . . .
In country after country – from Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Sudan to Zimbabwe – we changed the driver but did NOT fix the vehicle. It is like getting rid of the dictator WITHOUT dismantling the dictatorship itself
The dictatorship constitutes whole gamut of Constitutional measures, laws and the political infrastructure the dictator erected to keep himself in power. For example, he packed the judiciary and all important state institutions with his cronies.
Aug 25, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
In 1968 Capt. Moussa Traore seized power and ruled recklessly like any other military coconut winning every election. After the collapse of the former Soviet Union angry Malians poured into the streets on March 18, 1991 to demand democratic freedom.
Traore unleashed his security forces on them, killing scores, including women and children. But pro-democracy forces were not deterred and kept up the pressure. Asked to resign on March 25, he retorted: "I will not resign, my gov’t will not resign . . .
Aug 23, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Economic success stories FEW – Botswana, Mauritius, possibly Ghana and Rwanda. But they are all “small countries” w/o the locomotive heft to pull rest of Africa out of its economic miasma. Need large countries – like Congo DR, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan, – to be doing well
Used to think South Africa would show the way. But it seems to have contracted dreaded African disease: elephantiasis coconutiasis – rule of law a farce; looting with impunity; leaders are lost. Whites MUZZLED out of fear. My remaining shred of hope resides with the youth.
Aug 23, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
You only need one Ministry of Transportation! But there is more to this story. In Africa when an agency/institution does not work we do not disband it. Instead we create a new parallel institution on top of it
in 1985 Rawlings discovered that the ordinary court system was stale in Ghana. The corrupt were galivanting. So he created “Special Tribunals” to dispense justice swiftly. When donors complained he set up Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in 1994.
Aug 23, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
They have other ways too. 1. Employment of ghost workers. 6000 in Ghana bit.ly/32hmP8x In Nigeria, 62,893 ghost workers were nabbed. Of the 1.2 million civil servant in Congo DR, an astonishing 500,000 were found to be ghost workers goo.gl/CYX9H2)
2. Another trick is to pad official salary with as smorgasbord of perks and allowances – car allowance, entertainment, furniture, education, refrigerator, etc. In Uganda MPs want free cars, iPads and even funerals bit.ly/3gkDBJ2
Aug 22, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Tunisia gave birth to the Arab Spring in 2011. 10 years later it is moribund – kaput. What happened? Problem in 2011: BAD driver (Ben Ali) BAD vehicle, etc. Revolution started by youth but hijacked by Ennahda. Its leader is 79-year-old Ghannouchi, Speaker of parliament 1/4
He was not part of the revolution but suddenly emerged from exile in 2011. Ben Ali fled the country (bad driver changed) but bad vehicle NOT fixed. In Egypt the revolution was REVERSED. Driver (Mubarak changed) bad vehicle NOT fixed econ.st/2CTRzny 2/4
Aug 21, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
In 1990 the main opposition parties warned donor countries and agencies that aid given during the rule of President Hussain Mohammad Ershad would not be paid back. Two weeks later, the military gov’t of President Ershad collapsed when aid donors withheld funds.
In Nov 1991, I conveyed same message in my testimony before U.S. Congressional Committee:
“Internat'l loan or credit to a military dictator or a one-party state in Africa, without authorization of the ppl is illegitimate debt. After 1992, any such l loan will not be paid back.
Aug 20, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
The West did not achieve its objectives. US cannot make African countries dependent on American farmers without the acquiescence and active collaboration of African leaders. In the 1950s, Africa fed itself. Was not dependent upon American or European farmers. So what happened?
Why can’t Nigeria feed itself? Blame US? African leaders pursued inane socialist agric policies that imposed controls on food prices, discriminated against peasant farmers – mostly women -- forcibly seized harvest, then senseless civil wars that uprooted and produced refugees
Aug 18, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Have spent over two decades trying to persuade Western governments that they are being DUPED in Africa! But to no avail. They have pumped more than $800 billion in aid to Africa since 1960 with nothing to show for it. African despots took the money and did the “Babangida Boogie”
Have given lectures at the World Bank, the IMF, the State Department, etc. I have testified before Congressional Committees, the Senate of Canada, UNDP. Have written for all major Western publications – the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc.
Aug 5, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The African Union = most useless organization on the African continent. CUI an’t even define democracy. There is no election the AU dos not like. It certifies all as free and fair. It is yet to resolve a single crisis in Africa. Struggling in Somalia after a decade
On Dec 30, 2018, Congo DR held the Mother of all Coconut elections which had been twice postponed. Vote in 3 opposition areas were postponed to March 2019. Rest of country voted on Dec 30. Elect’l Commissioner declared Felix Tshisekedi, winner on Jan 15.
Aug 3, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Ancient Ghana experienced the reign of a corrupt dynasty b//n 6th & 8th centuries. The masses revolted violently against it. Members of that dynasty were systematically massacred. The rebels even went so far as to extract fetuses from wombs of family
Among the Akans of Ghana, the administration of state funds and property was put in the hands of the Sanaahene (treasurer). The king was debarred from any close contact with the state finances. He was not permitted to open the leather bag in which gold was kept
