Akufo-Addo being pragmatic on socialist policies – Lloyd Amoah

The head of the University of Ghana Centre for Asian Studies, Dr. Lloyd Amoah, has said government is being pragmatic with the adoption of social intervention policies in the country.
Dr. Amoah made the remark following observations that President Akufo-Addo seems to be implementing socialist inclined policies contrary to the New Patriotic Party’s capitalist ideologies.
This has been evident in the implementation of policies such as Free SHS, One-district one-factory, One-district one-warehouse, one-village one-dam, one million dollars for every constituency among others.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday, Dr. Amoah opined that, the current social interventions by the President show that “he is being pragmatic.”
“If you take China for example, they took a very statist approach in the beginning, and in many ways that approach was what laid the foundation for their industrialization, and so when they brought in the market, they have created the technological muscle and the know-how for powering the next step,” he said.
He also said there is the need for well-thought through plan to enable the government deliver the needed development for the country, else the country might be going nowhere.
According to him, the current one sided fix all approach to development will not take the country anywhere.
“The challenge for me is for the party, and therefore the government to be able to summon the courage and the intellectual capacity and creativity to say let’s think through this paradigm, and be clear that it is not delivering, and say that we need to find a new approach to where we want to go which is beyond what the World Bank says.”
“In fact, even in the World Bank, it is clear that there are various shades of opinion – we have same people there who do not see the new paradigm in its prestige conceptualization or structure as the way to go. So this is where we are, and this is the challenge, because currently, continuing in this path, we will go in circles. Historical evidence is compelling” he noted.