Don't Preach Catechism To A Pope - John Boadu Slams John Mahama
General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party(NPP), John Boadu, has asked Ex-president John Dramani Mahama to keep quiet and enjoy his life as a former president.
To him, Mr Mahama does not have the magic wand to turn the economic situation around, and should therefore not portray himself as such.
Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he further asked the former president not to preach Catechism to a Pope as Ghanaians have not forgotten the incompetence, corruption, and greed, associated with his tenure.
"The Ghanaian economy during John Mahama’s time as President under Seth Terkper who was Finance Minister never recovered, leading to unheard of taxation......
"Former President John Mahama and Seth Terkper are on public record as being the worst duo to have ever been in charge of the Ghanaian economy at the same time. Yet in their public forum on the 6th of September, 2021, the duo sought to create the impression they had the best of times running the Ghanaian economy. Unfortunately for them, the facts show otherwise," he said.
"More so during his time as president so many companies collapsed due to his mismanagement of the power sector causing economic activity to plummet.
"His solution however to ‘dumsor’ was to saddle the nation with expensive unaffordable generation capacity. Capacity excesses that the Akufo-Addo administration has had to shoulder in the energy sector in order to bring the sector back to life," he added.
"How then do you profess answers to questions you couldn't answer and they are already being answered by a listening government?" he asked rhetorically.
"Ghanaians have not forgotten the hardship and the poor economic policies Ghanaians endured under your leadership as president."
Watch Video Below
Background
Former president Mahama in a statement has said that "there is no dispute that the Ghanaian economy is in deep crisis, a crisis marked by huge budget deficits, an unsustainable public debt, rising inflation, a rapidly depreciating currency, ever rising cost of living and a loss of confidence by both domestic and international investor communities.
"The effects of these have been severe hardships and suffering for the people of Ghana, especially those within vulnerable groups. As a result of the horrendous low point we have now reached, it is very clear that urgent intervention is required to avert a total collapse of the economy," the statement added
Read Full Statement Below
There is no dispute that the Ghanaian economy is in deep crisis, a crisis marked by huge budget deficits, an unsustainable public debt, rising inflation, a rapidly depreciating currency, ever rising cost of living and a loss of confidence by both domestic and international investor communities.
The effects of these have been severe hardships and suffering for the people of Ghana, especially those within vulnerable groups. As a result of the horrendous low point we have now reached, it is very clear that urgent intervention is required to avert a total collapse of the economy.
Yet, President Nana Akufo-Addo and his Head of the Economic Management Team, rather appallingly, remain nonchalant in the face of this serious crisis and have limited their response to the imposition of very harsh and regressive tax measures, one of which is the E-Levy, which has been roundly rejected by the people of Ghana.
Like one drowning and yet clutching at mere straw to stay afloat, this government has banked all its hopes on the E-Levy, which, given the gravity and depth of the problems that have beset our economy, is neither adequate nor viable as a sustainable response to the crisis.
In the face of this serious crisis, government has also resorted to unhelpful political posturing over suggestions on how to stem the downward spiral, ensure discipline and help the economy to recover.
It is painfully obvious that beyond the ill-conceived E- Levy, the Akufo-Addo administration has no viable or credible plan of action to get us out of the current economic doldrums into which they have plunged us; meanwhile, there can be collective buy-ins from the Ghanaian people, development partners and the investor community that are being ignored.
How come we do not have a much needed Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan that would lay down a firm blueprint for fiscal consolidation in the face of a worsening economic situation?
As I have indicated previously, the government must as a matter of urgency, borrow a leaf from our sound approach toward the challenges we faced in 2015. We immediately convened the Senchi Economic Forum at which we tapped the brains and expertise of a wide variety of knowledgeable people and stakeholders and built a consensus on our economic plan going forward.
The knowledge shared at Senchi crystallized into our Homegrown Fiscal Consolidation Programme, which we eventually presented to the IMF for support. The IMF agreed entirely with our homegrown strategy whose implementation restored stability to the economy and laid the strong foundations that this government, just as the World Bank in 2016 forecasted, profited from between 2017 and 2020.
But for the profligacy and also the reckless election related expenditure in 2020, which undermined all the progress that had been made, our economy would not have taken the catastrophic nose-dive it has taken and left us all reeling under hardship.
The Akufo-Addo administration in 2020/21 received and misapplied the largest windfall or bailout in Ghana’s history: a $1 billion concessional facility from the IMF, another $1 billion in SDR allocation, $430 million from the World Bank, $250 million from the Stabilization Fund, Gh¢10 billion from the Central Bank. This amounted to a total of about Gh¢33 billion.
It is a pity that today, the NPP’s entire economic plan hinges on the passage of an E-levy expected to raise a little over Gh¢6 billion. How did we arrive here?
The government must swallow what is left of its pride and create a platform for urgent and constructive dialogue among stakeholders with the view to fashioning out a robust set of policy responses to the economic challenges before we get to the point of no return.
We in the NDC stand prepared to aid in the salvage effort because inaction is not an option in the face of disaster. The clock is ticking very fast and the time to act is now.
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