Former President, John Mahama, has lamented the state of the country, revealing that the unthinkable has happened to the economy.
According to him, the economy is in the worst ever shape with suffering and pain on an unprecedented level. He revealed that “hyperinflation and ever-increasing prices” of basic items including food products, have all combined to inflict unbearable pain on millions of Ghanaian households.
“This government has been clueless and, in many ways, callous. The unthinkable has happened and our country today is broken on all fronts. Ghana is bankrupt, we are saddled with debt we simply cannot pay, and we have suffered the global humiliation of defaulting on our debts and being downgraded by all credit rating agencies to the lowest level ever seen in our history.”
John Dramani Mahama
Speaking at his campaign launch in Ho today, March 2, to enable him vie for the flagbearership position of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) ahead of the 2024 general elections, Mr Mahama indicated that the middle class in the country stands the real risk of being wiped out on the back of an “obnoxious” debt restructuring programme.
He stated that the poor who depends on the middle-class for employment and sustenance are on their own and uncertain of their fate in the future.
“Our aged pensioners and our elderly have not been spared either. In the past few weeks, they have been compelled to stage public [protest] outside the ministry of finance in defense of their livelihoods even in this elderly state…”
John Dramani Mahama
The former President stated that the country is at the most depressing state in its history where the economy has been destroyed because of the “systematic mismanagement, misguided and clueless policy choices and incompetence” of President Nana Akufo-Addo and his Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia.
He highlighted that while Ghanaians struggle to keep their heads above water, government officials continue to exhibit high levels of “greed, corruption arrogance of power, dishonesty, blatant state capture and conflict” of interest.
“Unsurprisingly, no one in this NPP government wants to take responsibility for anything, including their flagbearer hopefuls, most of whom were part of the economic management team – the team that was called the solid team. Today, everybody is running from taking responsibility. They continue to lay blame for their disastrous economic management on external factors whose relationship with our President’s sorry circumstances are at most tenuous.”
John Dramani Mahama
Ghana experiencing economic collapse
The NDC flagbearer hopeful emphasized that the country’s economic collapse has been years in the making, although it was entirely avoidable. Amid all the suffering, he explained that government remains obstinate and refuses to back down from the costly missteps that led the country to its current state.
“They continue to waste the precious little we have on dodgy and misguided projects and programs and a bloated government. As they tighten the noose on the helpless citizens by piling more taxes and expropriating our monies through measures like the domestic debt exchange, government offers no semblance of genuine sacrifices on its part.”
John Dramani Mahama
Mr Mahama underscored that the “national decay” of the last six years has not been limited to the economy but extends to all aspects of the lives of Ghanaians. He noted that hitherto trusted state institutions today stand as pale shadows of themselves, as they have been undermined and politicized to the extent that they consider themselves as an extension of the governing New Patriotic Party.
Similarly, he revealed that due to the economic woes of the country, the youth see no future in the country of their birth. In this regard, he emphasized that the youth in the country cannot be blamed when after years of struggling to earn an education, they are “condemned to unemployment and acute” lack of opportunities in their own country.
“If not remedied, through our agenda to build the Ghana we want from 2025, some of our young graduates and post-graduate degree holders may hit the pension age and never find employment in their entire lives, except for national service.”
John Dramani Mahma
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