Ghana’s potential invitation to join the BRICS economic union could be in jeopardy, according to Lawyer Isaac Minta Larbi, who cite the country’s neocolonial ties with the West, particularly under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
BRICS, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, has expanded its membership, admitting six new countries, but concerns arise over Ghana’s suitability.
At the inception of BRICS, Ghana was considered a potential member, with proponents assessing the nation’s development and economic state.
However, Ghana was overlooked due to perceived poor and unstructured development patterns. With recent expansion, including countries like Ethiopia, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, the question arises whether Ghana could be invited in the future.
Lawyer Isaac Minta Larbi highlighted the ideological differences between Ghana’s political parties, specifically the NDC’s socialist orientation and the NPP’s capitalist stance.
According to him, while the ideological diversity is generally acceptable, neocolonialism dynamics, particularly the NPP’s historical alignment with the West, pose challenges.
BRICS members are known for their independence and decision-making in the interest of their countries, resisting external influence.
Ghana, especially under the NPP, has a history of close ties with the West, raising concerns about its ability to safeguard BRICS-related information.
Incidents, such as President Kuffour allowing a U.S. military presence disguised as an embassy and allegedly supporting the Coalition of the Willing in the Iraq war, exemplify Ghana’s pro-Western stance.
Lawyer Isaac Minta Larbi further urged Ghanaians to critically assess the NPP’s foreign policy orientation, emphasizing the need for pragmatism in diversifying alliances for development.
He notes that while severing ties with the West isn’t suggested, overreliance on them should cease.
Below is his full statement:
GHANA RISKS NOT BEING INVITED TO BECOME A MEMBER OF BRICS DUE TO NPP’S NEOCOLONIALIST TIES TO THE WEST.
BRICS is a grouping of 6 countries including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa whose first initials of their respective names combine to become BRICS.
These 6 countries have come together to form an economic union to trade and invest amongst themselves.
Others also claim that it has been formed to counter the West and especially to create an alternative to the Western style capture of international institutions through which Western countries control the rest of the world.
Essentially whilst it is widely opined that BRICS is a challenge to the West, it also offers an opportunity to serious and determined developing countries to exert some form of control on world economic politics.
It is expected that through BRICS the influence of the dollar as an international currency would be diminished giving rise to a multi polar world which would require mutual respect instead of the domineering posture of the West.
At the initial stages of the establishment of BRICS Ghana was penciled as a potential member for which reason the proponents of the idea visited Ghana to obtain a proper view of our state of development and economy but unfortunately due to our very poor and unstructured development pattern we were completely taken out of the picture and the more serious countries were considered so they became the founders of BRICS.
Recently BRICS has expanded by admitting 6 more countries including Ethiopia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina and United Arab Emirates.
These are obviously astute countries when it comes to development as the kind of development they are pursuing are very different and modeled on catching up with the developed countries with the intention of being equal or even surpassing the developed countries unlike Ghana where it is clear our development has no direction.
With the expansion of BRICS by the addition of 6 more countries together with the fact that even at the very early stages Ghana was considered, it becomes plausible to think that Ghana could also be invited one day to join these number of serious countries who want to harness resources for their rapid development.
Unfortunately, one wonders whether the BRICS countries in considering Ghana would ever actually take a decision to invite Ghana.
This is simply because we have two parties that have over the period of the practice of our democracy dominated the political landscape since the past over 30 years.
These two political parties are the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
However, these two parties are ideologically different from each other.
Whilst the NDC is of the socialist origin the NPP is a boastful capitalist party.
On paper this should not have really been a problem but unfortunately neocolonialism still works and still at play in the world creating different dynamics in the geopolitics of the world.
A closer look at the countries who form the membership of BRICS are countries that aside leaning towards a socialist approach to development are also countries that stand on their feet and don’t bootlick the West for favours.
These are countries that mostly take decisions that are in the interest of their country and their people.
They hardly allow any form of interest of the West to influence their decision making regarding their policies and development agenda in their respective countries.
Basically these are countries that are not easily controlled by the West.
This cannot be said of Ghana especially when it comes to the NPP. The NPP as a party and as a tradition has over the years being a pro west party. They have been orienting towards the West and are ready anyday to do the bidding of the West unlike the NDC who hardly do that.
A typical recent example is when President Kuffour was in power he allowed the USA to set up a mini military base in Ghana but camouflaged it as an embassy.
Also it is alleged that during the USA war with Iraq then President Kuffour volunteered to call African Head of States to convince them to support the Coalition of the Willing which was put together for the frivolous and fraudulent war against Saddam Hussein of Iraq.
It is further alleged that it is in reward for the support of President Kuffour for this war that through the USA money was made available for the construction of the George Walker Bush Highway in Ghana.
Unfortunately due to the numerous accidents and deaths that occurred on that highway in the immediate aftermath of its construction some people referred to the money used to construct that road as blood money.
This is never expected to happen in Kwame Nkrumahs Ghana but with the NPP and its love for the West it happened easily.
Again President Akuffo Addo poked his nose into the affairs of Burkina Faso and went to gossip to the USA that Russia was engaging in business in West Africa through the Wagner Forces so the USA should take action.
This was uncalled for but because of the “love is blind” attitude of the NPP when it is in power any decision to be taken to invite Ghana to become a member of BRICS would be tricky.
One would wonder if Ghana could be trusted when it comes to the dealings of BRICS members when Ghana becomes a member especially when the NPP is in power.
It would be suspected that the NPP government would not keep secrets.
Having observed the love the NPP has for Western countries it can easily be imagined that an NPP government would divulge information to the West.
The subterfuge that was undertaken during Kwame Nkrumah era by the predecessors of the NPP comes to mind.
Ghana’s development has to be taken seriously and if we could get the needed help from the East compared to the West we should go for it.
However, with a party like the NPP and its history, we may likely not be invited to join BRICS because with an NPP government Ghana cannot be trusted.
Unfortunately this would be a great loss for Ghana because the prospects of BRICS and its expected benefits are tremendous.
Losing it and relying on the Western style domineering approach means Ghana would forever be neocolonialized.
NPP must therefore stop its unflinching love for the West and think of Ghana first.
Recently it has been reported that Nigeria is willing to loosen its ties with the West in order to make it easier and possible to take advantage of the BRICS opportunity when it presents itself.
The question is whether the NPP will be ready to loosen its ties to the West in the interest of Ghana.
The NPP since inception from days of old always want to continue to link its umbilical cord to the West with no intention of severing it even to the extent that it is prepared to sacrifice the interest of Ghana for its party’s interest.
The countries in the BRICS are countries that stand on their ground and refuse to be intimidated or bullied by the West.
Ghana in contrast under an NPP government opens its arms without their asking and ready to do the bidding of the West.
As to why that is the case I do not know but this attitude and mindset has done so much harm to Ghana and Ghanaians by keeping us very poor with hardly any hope that we can become a developed country one day as long as the NPP is part of our governance structure as a country.
Ghanaians would therefore have to decide and determine how often they vote for the NPP into power because their love for the West will always keep us down.
So far there’s nothing serious to write home about in terms of development with our unflinching association with the West all these years. Ghana is still a very poor country despite so many years of following the West.
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who was very far sighted saw this and started leaning towards the East but unfortunately this same NPP elements connived with the West to get rid of him and even banned his party in Ghana after his overthrow.
This should tell you how willing and easy NPP wants to do business with the West against the interest of Ghana.
For this reason inviting Ghana to become a member of BRICS which would benefit us so much is in jeopardy because of the neocolonialist activities of the NPP in favor of the West.
It needs to be noted that I’m not by this in anyway suggesting that we should server relations with the West but what I’m saying is that our over reliance on the West needs to stop.
We need to be practical and pragmatic to realize that once we are still nowhere despite our over reliance on them it is reasonable and perfectly acceptable that we begin to look elsewhere and in doing so we have to look at the obstacles in the way and in considering BRICS as a major option for our serious development as a country, our major obstacle is the NPP and its love for the West.
Trust would be a major issue which may end up denying us this very huge opportunity to join BRICS.
Lawyer Isaac Minta Larbi
25/11/2023
