Dr. Nash’s appointment as Governor of the Bank of Ghana a bold, shrewd and unprecedented move by President Mahama.
It is not often that one gets the chance to sing the praises of one’s friends who have made remarkable strides in their professional careers. Such chances are few and far in between for a whole host of reasons.
So, it is only appropriate that when the opportunity comes along to do just that, one should seize it and let the praises flow. The appointment of Dr. Nashiru Issahaku as the new governor of the Bank of Ghana presents such an opportunity. Allow me, if you will, to indulge just a tad bit.
I have known Nash for well over thirty years. We are bosom pals and our friendship goes as far back as the early 1980s when we were young men with wild dreams of traveling abroad to pursue further education. Our meeting place was the veritable but now defunct Pizzaro barbering shop in Tamale. We congregated there at least twice a week to exchange information and ideas on our ambitions. The rest, they say, is history.
Dr. Nash’s elevation, his appointment to head the country’s premier financial institution by President John Mahama was shrewd, bold, unprecedented and dynamic…..it symbolized the president’s determination to give Ghanaians of all backgrounds and ethnicity the opportunity to excel.
However, the more poignant point about the appointment is that never in the annals of the bank’s history has a northerner headed the organization. That enviable position was deliberately made the exclusive preserve of southerners. No more.
Of course, the President’s decision to install Nash as governor apparently did not go down well with some segments of the Ghanaian population whose main argument is that Dr. Nash is not a trained economist.
Hogwash is how I will characterize this reaction which it must be pointed out, is tinged with partisan overtones. Nash has an MBA in agriculture economics and a doctorate in political science. He is thus eminently qualified to head the BOG, in my view.
The Bank is now in good hands and will doubtlessly benefit from Nash’s expertise and dynamism. He is by all accounts a dedicated and committed civil servant and a consummate technocrat who will bring cutting edge innovations, dynamism and renewed energy to the institution.
A lot is riding on the shoulders of Dr. Nash. He should therefore be above reproach and work for the welfare of all Ghanaians. The first challenge is to bring stability to the national economy which has struggled through spurts of difficulties in the past eight years. Now more than ever before, a steady hand is needed to nurse the ailing economy back to health, and I am of the strong opinion that Nash is that hand.
The entire country now looks up to him to formulate prudent fiscal and monetary policies that will insulate ordinary Ghanaians from inflation and its attendant high cost of living, unemployment and other economic ills.
Surely, the task ahead is monumental: Dr. Nash can only succeed if he exercise fierce independence from political interference. He has to construct a firewall, a formidable one, which in the long term will hold off the expected pressure from politicians to enact fiscal policies that will make them look good in the public eye while dealing a death blow to Ghanaians.
Dr. Nash should not allow himself to be a pawn in the hands of the politicians who anointed him nor should he bow to pressure from opposition parties who will invariably accuse him of doing the bid of the government.
Those who anointed him governor may be his paymasters, but he is not by any stretch of the imagination beholden to them; instead, he is obligated to the 27 million Ghanaians who will keenly be watching his every move to see if he can deliver the goods.