The Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) commenced operations in 1995 as an economic policy think-tank in Ghana. With a one-time funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and a recurring funding from the World Bank through the Africa Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), CEPA burst on the Ghanaian policy analysis space with a bang! Although there were a couple of other think-tanks in operation at that time, one thing gave CEPA an edge over them.
CEPA had Joe Abbey! An astute economist and statistician, who was not only a former Government Statistician and an economic ambassador to the “big three”―Canada, UK, and USA―, but was also a tried and tested policy-maker with an enviable track record during the “thorny” years of Ghana’s implementation of the IMF-supported Structural Adjustment Programmes.
Dr. Abbey carefully assembled a team of young economists either as research fellows or research assistants, backed by a skeletal support staff, to prosecute his agenda ― relevant policy analysis. His four poineering Research Fellows included Dr. Nii Kwaku Sowa, Dr. Charles Jebuni, Dr. Nii-Noi Ashong, and Dr. Akoto Osei of blessed memory.
Right from the beginning it was clear that we all had lessons to learn. Joe Abbey, who we affectionately called Chief, was not only meticulous, he was equally fastidious! Chief was never satisfied with any wishy-washy analysis.
Joe did not only demand rigour in analysis, but also introduced the team to real, practical, and relevant policy analysis. About 75 percent of CEPA-time was spent on checking the accuracy and consistency of the data we were working with―nothing else happened unless the data passed this critical litmus test. Joe never allowed any data, from any quarter, to be taken on its face-value. He could “smell” from far-off if data has been forged, cooked, or manipulated.
Using known theoretical economic relationships and his immense knowledge as a Statistician, Joe would insist the data gets cleaned up before any analysis began. Some of his distractors often queried whether CEPA gathered its own data on the economy of Ghana from a secret source to dare to challenge official data. This was also not helped by the fact that most people perceived Joe Abbey to be sympathetic to the then National Democratic Congress Government in power. But Joe’s loyalty was to Ghana! One easily recollects instances when he was privy to sensitive information by virtue of he being on the Bank of Ghana governing board, and yet refused to divulge such information even if it would help CEPA’s course.
Another advantage in having a veteran economic chef like Joe at CEPA had to do with the policy analysis itself. Almost all the CEPA researchers had come from academia: they were used to running econometric models and doing sophisticated economic analysis; but, Joe was not satisfied with that! He loved the rigour brought to the analysis; yet, to him the theoretical analysis was far from reality. One could easily recall an instance during the discussion of an annual report on the economy, the researchers complained of an over-bloated fiscal stance and the need to recommend a cutback on expenditures. Joe just whimsically retorted: “Shall we start with the salaries of the military?”
Chief made us realise that while theoretical rigour must support the analysis, it was even more important to take into consideration other non-economic factors, such as socio-politico-cultural considerations. The policy prescriptions distilled from the analysis must necessarily be located within the socio-political realm of Ghana to pass the relevancy test. No wonder, the CEPA flagship, The Macroeconomic Review and Outlook, issued each year starting from 1996, was sought after like hot cake.
Chief built CEPA not only as a research think-tank but also as a unit for capacity building in economic policy analysis. This started with internally instituting a “brain-storming” session with the technical staff, held daily for two hours, beginning at 9am and ending at 11am.
These sessions afforded staff the opportunity to freely debate various economic issues around the globe and those likely to impact Ghana in particular.
Joe Abbey also led CEPA to advance economic advocacy through capacity building seminars and workshops for economic and financial journalists, parliamentarians, non-government organizations, and civil society organizations. Clerks and secretaries of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and The Christian Council of Ghana were also some of the beneficiaries of such outreach programmes. Of course, CEPA’s research dissemination workshops and radio and TV discussions further imparted practical knowledge about the economy widely to the general public.
Joe Abbey also run CEPA as a family. It was not unusual to find Joe and research fellows chatting freely about any and everything. Joe was free with all staff, ran an open-door policy, and he played the role of father-figure and an elder brother rolled in one. Very few people can be associated with the acolade “master-economist”. The requiremts are very strigent.
And as the famous economist Lord Keynes (1924) put it:
“The master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts …. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher—in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular, in terms of the general, and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. He must study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future. No part of man’s nature or his institutions must be entirely outside his regard. He must be purposeful and disinterested in a simultaneous mood, as aloof and incorruptible as an artist, yet sometimes as near to earth as a politician.”
Joe Abbey was, without any doubt, an embodiment of all these noble traits!
Above all, Joe Abbey was gifted with speech! He was very articulate and persuasive in his presentations. On a few occasions Chief made public presentations from a blank page―a habit later adopted by other research fellows. The only problem was when a journalist asked for a copy of the presentation.
So, Dr. Joseph Leo Sekoh Abbey, Chief, we the ex-CEPA staff, have no cause to mourn you. We can only celebrate your illustrous life. You did your part for mother Ghana. You took policy analysis to a level that has been difficult to replicate. With your passing, Ghana has indeed lost one of her most successful and influential policy economists and statisticians.
As a father, a big-brother, a colleague, and a friend, we will miss you. But the skills and knowledge you imparted to us will continue to live on. We shall forever remain thankful for that!
“Now the laborer’s task is o’er;
Now the battle-day is past;
Now upon the farther shore
Lands the voyager at last.
Father, in Thy gracious keeping,
Leave we now Thy servant [Joe] sleeping.”
(MHB 976, vs 1)
Sleep peacefully, Chief. A-men!
