Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, has intimated that the new measures by government on how to resolve the current economic situation, especially with the cut in expenditure, is a “fantastic way of trying to deceive the people”.
According to the Tamale Central MP, he sees the measures disclosed by the Finance Minister as a joke. He cited an example that the 15 pesewas reduction in fuel prices by government as part of the measures, is nowhere near what government earns in the sector and can do better. He stated that the other measures introduced is not helping cut expenditure as indicated by government.
“It’s a fantastic way of trying to deceive the people. The same government saying that because of these challenges let’s do A,B,C,D, is asking us to give him GHS2 billion addition for government machinery. The same government is doing nothing about the fraud at the airport with regards to Frontier Health.”
Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed
Ibrahim Mohammed noted that there is no denial the nation is in crisis. He posited that it took government several months to admit that they have mismanaged the economy and several months to admit that Ghana is in crisis. He added that it also took several people including the World Bank for government to admit now that the nation is in crisis.
“This admission came some few weeks ago. They were not admitting, they were still living in that world that everything was rosy. The reason why they consistently deceived the people of the country was [because of] the criticisms they made against President Mahama’s administration. The yard stick they set and the standard they set to demonstrate how they were coming to govern this country was completely thrown to the dogs.”
Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed
In the Tamale Central MP’s view, the current government has failed in ensuring the nation has a stable economy. He averred that this administration has not gotten anywhere closer to President Mahama’s administration.
Government started second term in a difficult situation
Also speaking on the issue, Dr. Kabiru Mahama, Technical Advisor at the Office of the Vice President averred that the President started off his second term in a very difficult situation. He noted that before 2020, between 2017 and 2019, Ghana had experienced monumental significant and quite impressive economic growth. “We came into office with a very high interest rate of 35 percent. This government brought the interest rate down.”
According Dr. Mahama, government inherited some problems from the previous government when it assumed power and had to fix it. He stated that there was a huge legacy debt in the energy sector over $900 million which the current government had to clear amongst other numerous debts which was cleaned up.
Amidst all the issues, he averred that government ran the economy and ensured that the nation had a positive primary balance for three years and the trade position of the nation was very solid. “These were the records prior to 2020 when COVID-19 hit.”
The Technical advisor posited that the challenges in various economies came about due to the emergence of COVID-19 which some countries are still grappling with. He stated that when COVID-19 emerged, some economic moves had to be put aside and measures had to be put in place to save lives.
“The President made sure that he gave free water and electricity and that cost the nation more than 6.8 percent deficit. Our revenue was falling within the period and also we had a lot of over expenditure because we needed to save lives.”
Dr. Kabiru Mahama
According to him, government is trying to run the economy and tackle the issues related to it devoid of politics. He therefore urged that when political representatives gather, they should speak to the national issues and not talk from a political perspective.
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