Former Deputy Minister of Information under the erstwhile Mahama administration, Felix Ofosu Kwakye has concluded that, Ghana’s current economic challenges is Government’s way of punishing Ghanaians for some unknown reasons.

In Ofosu Kwakye’s opinion, the economic unrest in the Country could have been avoided if Government did some basic things and hence his conclusion that, President Akufo-Addo and his team intentionally plunged the Country into the state it is in today.

“I’m coming to the conclusion that there is a deliberate effort by this government to punish Ghanaians for some reason. You waste money that comes into the [purse] and you come and tell us about a hole”
Felix Ofosu Kwakye

Ofosu Kwakye speaking on ‘Good Morning Ghana’ opined that, President Akufo-Addo impoverished Ghana by spending unnecessarily. According to him, there are a number of Presidential staffers who get paid for no work done at all.

He claimed that there are about 337 NPP supporters at the Flagstaff house who do virtually nothing. “There is somebody in charge of building the National Cathedral, there is somebody called a Policy Associate,” he said.

He alluded to a Facebook post by Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP for North Tongu Constituency, in which the MP claimed Government has been paying huge sums of money to a certain COVID-19 Secretariat at the Presidency even though there is a Ministry of Health.

“Page 200 of 2021 Auditor General’s Report on General Govt reveals that a newly established COVID Secretariat at the Presidency cost taxpayers a colossal GHS12.6million just for salaries & goods & services in 2021 alone.”
Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP

The Former Deputy Information Minister claimed that Ghana is in deep unprecedented crisis and that if not for the good nature of Ghanaians, there would have been upheavals and turmoil across the Country.

Ofosu Kwakye seem to suggest that President Akufo-Addo and his economic management team do not appreciate the state Ghana is in. He lamented, “the President, Alhaji Bawumia and everybody that is responsible for managing this economy must appreciate that we are in deep unprecedented crisis.”

He insinuated that, if the President had the interest of the Country at heart, he would have put all differences aside and gleaned from some of the nuggets President Mahama shared on Thursday, October 27, 2022 on how to revamp Ghana’s economy.

Ghana is in Economic Crisis

On Sunday, October 30, 2022, when the President addressed the nation, he described Ghana’s current economic challenges as a crisis.
“We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time.”
President Akufo-Addo

The prices of petroleum products have leaped massively within a short while. At the moment, diesel is selling for ¢105 per gallon, an increase of about 600% in the last six years.

With the increase in the cost of petroleum, comes the increase of all other things on the market. In fact, many traders are also taking advantage of the situation to inflate prices more than usual.

As at June 2022, Ghana’s total pubic debts was ¢393.4 billion. And in the latest World Bank Africa Pulse Report, Ghana was classified as a high debt distress country. The World Bank projected that by the end of 2022, the nation’s debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be around 104.6%.

Indeed, Ghana is in crisis.

Meanwhile, President Akufo-Akufo in his address last Sunday, claimed that he was not jesting when he said during the wake of COVID-19 that, Government knew how to bring the economy back to life.

“When I said, at the height of the COVID pandemic, that we knew what to do to bring the economy back to life, but not how to bring people back to life, it was not said in jest. We had done it before, and we were on course to do it again.”
President Akufo-Addo

Ghanaians can only hope President Akufo-Addo and his team are on course to bringing the economy back to life as he claims.