Few hours after President Akufo Addo’s encounter with the media, senior journalists in Ghana, Tink Tank heads and some people in the academia have described the encounter as empty, useless and wasteful. The speech and cooked questions were tailored towards deceiving the populace who are already in the worst form of livelihood brought upon them by the clueless and rudderless government of the NPP. Ghanaians never expected anything fantastic from their President, but the level of emptiness in his speech and responses yesterday were too grave to be ignored.
The attempt to hoodwink Ghanaians again with his sweet promises and conman antics did not succeed this time around. The President, as usual, was fictitious in his assertion that the economy had made progress under his watch and that the economic situation of Ghanaians has improved under him. Perhaps Mr. President needs to be reminded that he recently conceded that the Ghanaians are going through hell under his watch, his right-hand man Gabby also made the same statement on his social media walls. The President needs to be reminded that his Finance Minister alerted that the nation was facing serious revenue challenges and respected financial institutions and experts have expressed fears that our country is sliding further into recession due to his bad economic policies.
In his false economic assertions, President Akufo Addo deliberately failed to mention that banks are collapsing under his watch, that capital expenditure has dropped, that his government is enjoying huge oil revenue, that prices of our exports including gold and cocoa have improved significantly on the world market. Senior journalists in the country, think tanks and some members of his own party faulted the President’s attempts to defend the corruption, including brazen theft of public funds and shady deals going on in his government. Some of the Tink Tank officials and senior journalists said they were worried by the inability of Akufo Addo’s government to keep faith with its electioneering promises. Some supporters of the ruling party said they feel ashamed on behalf of the NPP government and party which promised much, but almost two years into its tenure, has no meaningful development to show to Ghanaians, but more continuous deceit, blame game and display of lack of vision in actualization of its promises for good governance.
Some Tink Tanks, Religious leaders and persons in the academia have started wondering how President Akufo Addo who told Ghanaians inherited an empty treasury will supervise this wanton dissipation of state resources including the $12 million Oslo deal, the drones deal, the Kelni GVG deal, the digital addressing system, the GHc 800,000 website installation deal etc etc.
The President’s false claims were tailored towards deceiving the populace. His infrastructure deficit statement was one of the false and deceitful claims. Under his tenure, the percentage of Capital project to GDP has dropped from 4.5 percent in 2016 under Mahama to less than 2 percent. Oil revenue accrued, revenue from other resources, taxes etc go into consumption. The sharp decline in capital expenditure contributed to the collapse of the banks. President Mahama inaugurated the Kojokrom-Takoradi Railway project.
The President who vehemently condemned borrowing and promised Ghanaians will run the economy using internally generated funds if elected now sees nothing wrong with excessive borrowing and dashing out our natural resources for Chinese loans
The President forgot that his senior minister during his vetting told the world that the economy they inherited was fundamentally strong – that his own finance minister made the same claim and hailed some of the policies his predecessor implemented.
Mr President twisted a statement made by the IMF to cover his shameful performance but deliberately refused to tell the world what the same IMF and World Bank said about the Ghanaian economy in 2015 and 2016. The two respected institutions projected in 2015/16 that the economy of Ghana will growth by 8 to 8.5 percent in 2017/18 because of investments made in the oil and gas industries by the Mahama administration. The President’s claim that price of fuel has gone down is another palpable lie. The gallon of petrol was Ghc 14 when NDC left office and the price of 14.5kg LPG cylinder was Ghc 54 as at December 2016 and now being sold for Ghc 90.
The President’s claim that his government is seriously discussing whether to make Ghana an import duty free country is not only deceitful but wicked and dangerous. His administration has introduced a few new tax policies to increase government revenue generation. His Finance Minister has been lamenting about low revenue generation and the need to widen the tax net to enable a government to generate more revenue for its projects.
The President once again demonstrated his autocratic nature. He made it clear that his administration has no space for tink tanks and critics. The insults he rained on the rink ranks and his critics confirmed what Koomson and others said about him in 2008/2012.
GHANAIANS BLAME AKUFO-ADDO’S POOR PERFORMANCE AT THE MEDIA ENCOUNTER ON MAHAMA’S HIGH GOVERNANCE STANDARD
President Mahama lived and operated by a code of conduct. He held true every commitment to his best effort. Every step he took was about understanding himself and the needs for Ghanaians which enabled him to serve them in a way that deepened the bond between them, which moved Ghana to the standard Akufo Addo inherited.
Mahama, evaluated his actions with an objective to try to do everything a little better tomorrow than he did before. Continuous improvement and constant evaluation was what helped him achieve the standard he set.
Mahama asked for assistance when he found himself challenged. He organised the Senchi Forum and other fora to discuss Ghana and find solutions to our problems. He opened doors to his critics and never attacked them for criticizing his administration.
The projects he implemented across the country within his four years is rated unprecedented by political and economic pundits.
President Akufo Addo’s statement on the $12 million Oslo deal is not only unfortunate but wicked. The President per his statement demonstrated that he lacks the will and capacity to fight corruption and very prepared to lead a team of corrupt officials. Latest GII report on corruption in this administration confirms this assertion.