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DR. MAHAMUDU Bawumia, a consummate economist who has become the latest political star in the country, has hit back at the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), saying he will not be intimidated by the vindictive personal attacks coming from government propagandists. Last week�s lecture on the country�s state of the economy by the vice-presidential candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) unsettled the Mills administration as government, through the Ministry of Finance, issued scathing attacks on the one time deputy governor of Bank of Ghana (BoG). However, speaking yesterday in an exclusive interview with Paul Adom-Otchere on Metro TV�s Good Evening Ghana Programme, Dr. Bawumia condemned the tendency of politicians to attack personalities, leaving the substantive issues which should be discussed. �The type of politics we ought to be doing should be politics of ideas and solutions. You can sit on radio all you want and insult, it doesn�t solve somebody�s basic problems of getting water. So why don�t we focus a little more on ideas and cooperation on how to solve the basic problems of water, electricity and sanitation,� Dr. Bawumia suggested. Indicating he was not bothered by the needless attacks on his personality, the former deputy Governor of BoG said he clearly understood why the attacks were coming from government officials because his lecture had put NDC�s much propagated economic achievements in tatters. �The lecture seems to have touched the nerves of members of government and the lecture put the economic record of the government in tatters and people are upset and they attacking me instead of the substance of the lecture,� Dr. Bawumia bemoaned. �It is the way politics is done in this country, they target people, personalities and do not deal with issues and ideas,� he added. According to NPP vice-presidential candidate, he had been advised by respected people not to pay attention to the attacks on his personality because the NDC had not even respected its own founder as he had similarly been attacked by some members of the ruling party. Asked what he would like to change as politics was seen as a dirty game, Dr. Bawumia indicated he was going to focus on ideas and issues in his campaign. �Essentially, we should think about one Ghana concept. We are competing in the political space as part of our democratic process but our competition is really with other countries outside Ghana as I stated in my speech. Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, China, these are our competitors,� he noted. Touching on the issue of rebasing and the NDC�s accusation that he was dishonest with the figures, Dr. Bawumia quoted sections of his speech that dealt with the figures on rebasing, proving that he did nothing to warrant the attacks on his personality. �With regard to government finances, we recall that at the end of 2008, as a result of the global financial crisis, the government budget deficit to GDP ratio stood at 6.5% (after the rebasing of GDP) or 11.2% (before the rebasing of GDP). This outcome was described by the NDC as bad fiscal management. By 2010, with improved external economic conditions, after claiming that the economic fundamentals had been restored, the government budget deficit to GDP ratio stood at 6.5% (after the rebasing of GDP) or 11.7% (before the rebasing of GDP), slightly higher than it was in 2008). So where was the improved fiscal performance? Or as we say in Ghana, did we come or did we go?� he quoted from page 20 of his speech. Dr. Bawumia said he was highly surprised at the attacks because the NDC was doing the exact thing they were accusing him of doing as they had, in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 budgets statements, misled Ghanaians into believing that the deficit of 2008 was 14.5% when they knew that it was 11.2% (before rebasing) or 6.5% (after rebasing). Speaking on contentious issue of inflation and the claims by the governing NDC that he had questioned the credibility of the Ghana Statistical Service, Dr. Bawumia indicated he only raised issues with the figures being churned out by the service since the inflation figures were not consistent with other developments such as the cost of living, interest rates and exchange rate trends. He wondered where the real significance of single digit inflation was when it had no effect on the interest rates, depreciation of the currency and the cost of living. Quizzed on why he thought the cedi was depreciating so badly against the major foreign currencies such as the US dollar, Dr. Bawumia pointed out that the �rebasing of the GDP made our figures look good and makes it look like we have so much room to borrow even though the rebasing didn�t increase our liquidity as it was an increase in only the statistics�. He maintained that the rebasing and the new figures had the tendency of making managers of the economy think that there was more room for borrowing, noting this put pressures on the economy when the creditors chased the country. This, Dr. Bawumia said, would obviously have an effect on the exchange rate, further reiterating his concerns about the fact that the Mills administration had borrowed more in just three years than all governments in the history of Ghana. He warned that if checks were not put on the current spate of borrowing, Ghana would soon hit the pre-HIPC state.