The bill comes due

Domestic debt exchange programme! It’s really tough to choose one aspect of this subject to discuss because every conceivable dimension of it is a potential topic for discussion. After you’re able to sieve through to get a topic of your interest, you will still need strict discipline to remain faithful to that topic from the beginning to the end of your discussion.

 

Among the several viable topics one that really interests me is the pensioner bondholders participation in the programme. From the start, labour unions fought tooth and nail to ensure their members were excluded from participating in the programme. Some succeeded with relative ease than others. The one group that fought longer and harder was the pensioner bondholders. They too, in fits and starts, have been exempted from the programme. 

 

On the day before their exemption on the 17th of February, the Finance Minister said he did not understand why the pensioners continued to picket at his ministry even after they had been told participation was voluntary. He, conceivably, expected the pensioners to have readily accepted that participation was by choice and no one would be elbowed into taking part against their will. Well, the pensioners did just the opposite. And I don’t understand why the Finance Minister did not understand.

The stiff resistance by the pensioner bondholders mirrors the sheer mistrust between Ghanaians and this government. After all that we have witnessed in this country, few people will take the government’s word for it. We have been fed with half truths and full lies on issues that no one really would expect the government to lie about. If you didn’t know any better you’d think saying one thing and doing another is a core principle of governance. 

Be the judge if you’re familiar with the following; E-levy, National Cathedral expenditure, IMF support deal, No haircuts and the list goes on. Is it an overinflated sense of entitlement or one can be justifiably distrustful towards a government that has blown hot and cold on these and more? 

 

As much as it is delightful to see the collective voice of the civil society triumph, we have to get concerned over the trend of the government saying one thing and doing quite the opposite. We can’t live in a country where the government is run as if we are not rational creatures. It erodes trust and ultimately makes governance difficult. The pensioners were right for seeking outright exemption because even that is still not an ironclad immunity for them. The government can someday change the dynamics when it deems it expedient. But until then they have fought the good fight.

I admire the valor of the pensioners for fighting to keep what is rightfully theirs. And on balance, I am also glad the government has attained the 80% participation that is required to continue with the IMF deal. I hope the Finance Minister later had an epiphany that pointed out to him that the pensioners continued picketing was an expression of a bill that has come due for the government to pay for being disingenuous.