General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) John Boadu has questioned the competence of former President John Dramani Mahama in analysing the economy in the face of the global pandemic, coronavirus.
Mr Boadu said any economic analysis done in this period is different from other periods’ economic analyses.
“John Mahama’s lack of understanding of the Covid-19 economy is positively dangerous for Ghana because it badly skews his feeble attempt at analysis of our current economic situation.”
The NPP scribe was speaking in reaction to recent statements made by the three-time presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at a forum in Accra to the effect that Ghana recorded its most prosperous economic gains in the Fourth Republic under late Professor John Evans Atta Mills.
He said the gains made have been squandered by the Akufo-Addo-led administration.
“I am on record to have predicted in November 2016 that due to the work we had done to overcome the economic headwinds and the coming on stream of two additional oil fields, economic growth will go past 7% in 2017 and beyond,” Mr Mahama told an audience during NDC’s Professionals Forum dialogue at the University of Ghana on Monday, September 6.
“This was confirmed by the World Bank and IMF, predicting growth above 8% for the same period. Additional oil revenue, a resolved energy crisis paving way for more and sustainable generation of power and sound implementation of our home-grown policies were going to make life comfortable for the new government after 2017.
“Despite these favourable conditions, most of the gains we made and bequeathed to this government have been eroded and we have been plunged into further economic crisis.”
He also observed how Covid-19 has become the “convenient” excuse in the mouth of the current government as regards the current economic situation the country finds itself in.
“Covid-19 has become the convenient whipping boy and has been cited as the reason for the crisis we face now and the attendant economic hardships. Yes, COVID-19 affected the economy, and no one can dispute that.
“It is however not the main reason why we are in the current hole we find ourselves. Covid-19 only became a pretext for reckless election related spending, which produced the largest ever budget deficit in the recent economic history of Ghana last year.”
But John Boadu said despite the challenges, even the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which he says Mr Mahama ran to in 2015, has rated Ghana as one of the countries with the fastest growing economic rebound.
“And you are all aware that in the year 2020, only 30 countries were able to post positive GDP growth and Ghana is one of those countries.”
He said all current economic modules worldwide is premised on Convid-19 and the former president “does not just get it”.
The NPP General Secretary then wondered: “Mahama put together Covid-19 Advisory Committee. Covid-19 is not over yet, where is the advisory team announced with aplomb. Nowhere to be found!
“For the information of [former] president Mahama, Covid-19 is not only a matter of health, it is fundamentally now an economic imperative.”
Source:3news.com