Dirt Under the Welcome Mat

Would His High Dedication, Kwame Nkrumah, toast Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth? This question of protocol stirred official Accra last week on the eve of the Queen's eleven-day visit. Truculently anti-British, Nkrumah's advisers have claimed that if Osagyefo (the Redeemer) were to lift his glass to the Queen, he would compromise his standing as the only ruler of Ghana. Already the word has gone out to the Ghanaian press to stop referring to the British sovereign as "the Queen," which implies her sovereignty over Ghana, but to call her "Queen Elizabeth II," which classifies her as a foreign monarch. And on the royal route down Kwame Nkrumah Avenue to Kwame Nkrumah Circle, past Kwame Nkrumah Cooperative College, scores of signs read "Long Live Osagyefo"; only a few say "God Save the Queen."

But Red-lining, Britain-baiting Kwame Nkrumah is not likely to pull out of the British Commonwealth as long as Ghana is in its present, near-disastrous financial trouble and can still benefit from the Commonwealth's preferential tariffs.

All over the country, Ghanaians were sweeping dirt under the Queen's welcome mat. In Accra, battalions of laborers patched the city's potholed streets and covered over open drainage ditches. Thousands of schoolchildren practiced curtsies before the empty, 15,000-seat grandstand in the huge new Black Star Square. Arches of Ghana's red, yellow and green national colors went up over all the major streets, and telephone poles sprouted five-pointed Ghana stars in colored lights. Orders went out to all cities for Ghanaians to break out paint to make their premises presentable.

Nkrumah's cleanup is only a cover-up for Ghana's woes. Paced by left-wing extremists, Ghana is racing toward dictatorship and bankruptcy. Opposition to the regime has become explosive. Last week bomb blasts shattered Osagyefo's 1 1/2 times life-size statue outside Parliament.

Bounced Check. Despite $40 million in credits from Russia and a $20 million interest-free loan from Red China, Ghana's cash reserves are so low that the government recently bounced a check for some $30,000. Government contractors are paid in "certificates," must wait before cashing them in. Fearful of Ghana's plunge toward radical socialism, many foreign firms are preparing for the inevitable day of nationalization by drawing up plans for the rapid evacuation of stocks and personnel. Foreign investment has dried up.

Ghana's financial plight is the result of Nkrumah's delusions of grandeur. Determined to make Ghana black Africa's most potent nation, Nkrumah set out on a national glorification binge. In a disastrous attempt to establish Ghana Airways as a great international airline, Nkrumah ordered British Viscounts, Russian Ilyushins, U.S. Boeing jets. But Ghana had neither the money to pay for the planes nor the business to warrant them; the Boeing order has been canceled, and Nkrumah is trying to get Russia to take back some of the Ilyushins. Reason: in the last three months, the Ilyushins have carried exactly twelve paying passengers on the Accra-Khartoum run.

For his army, Nkrumah bought arms, Jeeps and heavy equipment from both East and West, though it involved the expensive and inefficient process of duplicate stockpiling of spare parts and duplicate training of troops. As a first step toward his dream of Pan-African leadership, Nkrumah laid out $21 million in loan commitments to Mali and Guinea. Further draining the treasury were such lavish expenditures as $3,000,000 for facelifting the ancient (1661) Danish-built Christiansborg Castle, Nkrumah's new presidential palace; another $3,000,000 for Accra's Black Star Square, where Nkrumah can rant about his brand of socialism to his followers; $500,000 for Nkrumah's luxury palace near Aburi.

Kangaroo Courts. To ward off financial chaos, Nkrumah has decreed a strict austerity program. Stiff currency controls have stifled capital outflow. Subsidies to cocoa farmers were cut by a third, and crippling new purchase taxes of from 10% to 67% were levied on imported goods from clothes to automobiles. But the taxes have only succeeded in cutting off imports; from July to September, customs duties were $3,000,000 less than expected. A new compulsory savings scheme requires wage earners making more than $28 a month to give the government 5% of their pay in exchange for government bonds; corporations and self-employed persons must shell out 10% of their gross earnings in return for the bonds. In a country where the average annual income is only $140, the cost of living has risen an estimated 20%.

To the anguished outcries over his policies, Nkrumah replied with dictatorial harshness. He ended a wave of strikes against spiraling prices and compulsory savings by clapping strike leaders in jail for daring to criticize him. Last week the tame Ghanaian Parliament--which now has only nine opposition Deputies out of 114 members--passed a bill setting up kangaroo courts, where Nkrumah-appointed judges in secret trials can deal out no-appeal death sentences for political offenses. Some 370 Nkrumah opponents are already in jail under another law by which a man can be imprisoned indefinitely without trial. Ghanaians have been urged to spy "with patriotic vigilance" on their neighbors and to report any sign of disloyalty to the government. Brooking no opposition, Nkrumah sacked the moderate members of his Cabinet, replaced them with extremists who are encouraging Ghana's steady drift to the left. Into Ghana have poured scores of Russians and Red Chinese technicians to aid in development projects throughout the country.

Anxious Immortal. Ghana's government radio and the controlled press have tried to whip up support for Nkrumah by chanting that he is "a Moses, our Messiah. Osagyefo is immortal and can never die." About this, Nkrumah is none too sure. Both the 6,000-man army and the 10,000-man national police force are restive; across the border in neighboring Togo, some 6,000 refugees are clamoring for a revolution as they take steps to set up a government in exile. Ghanaians are beginning to grouse openly, hint at outbursts after the Queen's departure. Terrified of assassination, Nkrumah today only leaves his residence under heavy guard in his bulletproof Rolls-Royce. During the Queen's visit, he plans to stick right by her side at all times. The reason is not protocol: Osagyefo figures that no one would take a potshot at him if it involved the risk of hitting the Queen.

For all his worries, Nkrumah may have found some Western-style consolation. In Accra, supposedly on holiday, is Dr. Joseph Brand, a Viennese-born, London-based physician. Rumor is rife that Nkrumah is undergoing treatment from Dr. Brand for an unspecified ailment. But what he really needs, according to Nkrumah's political enemies, is some couch sessions. "Egoistic behavior," say Accra's amateur headshrinkers, "is the usual tip-off of an inferiority complex."

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