A member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Alfred George Kojo Thompson, has described the #OccupyBoGProtest organized by the Minority Caucus, the National Democratic Congress and some Civil Societies Groups on Tuesday, October 5 2023 to call for the resignation of the Governor of Bank of Ghana as exercise in futility.
Mr Alfred Thompson asserted that the Minority in Parliament should have exhausted all other legitimate means before embarking on its #OccupyBoGProtest to request the resignation of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison and his two Deputy Governors.
According to Mr Thompson, who is the former Deputy Managing Director of the National Investment Bank (NIB), there are many other channels the Minority could have used rather than embarking on a protest.
Nothing Wrong With BOG Governor Delegating Someone To Receive Petition
Moreover, Mr. Thompson argued that there was no wrong with the Governor delegating the wing Commander at the Bank of Ghana to receive the petition of the Minority Caucus on his behalf.
According to Mr Thompson, the action of the Governor of the Central Bank is no mark of disrespect as espoused by the Minority Caucus in Parliament.
“Addison is not a small boy to be directed to do what he ought to do and not ought to do. You start a demonstration and the first thing we see are unprintable words against the Governor of the Bank of Ghana.
Have you ever seen the President coming to receive a petition from protesters? The last time it was the Deputy Chief of Staff. If you look at the structure at the Presidency, the Head of Security is even higher than the office of the Deputy Chief of Staff. The Deputy Chief of Staff does not report to the President, he reports to the Chief of Staff. Look at the profile of the man delegated to receive the petition, he qualified to have received the petition from the Minority”.
Alfred George Kojo Thompson
Mr. Alfred Thompson also berated the unprintable words that were made by some Minority Members of Parliaments during the protest on Tuesday, October 3 2023.
Meanwhile, a Professor at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Lord Mensah opined that under the current circumstances, the Minority Caucus #OccupyBoGProtest was necessary.
Professor Mensah argued that given all other options available to call for the resignation of the Central Bank Governor the one that may yield the expected results is pressure from the public in the form of protest or demonstration like the Minority Caucus embarked upon.
“I am looking at all the possible avenues of compelling the Governor to resign. The first one, I’m looking at is political pressure where the appointing authority can decide to disappoint a public officer. The second one is through legal means, using the procedures of the constitution, and then the financial impact.
The fourth is the internal board and the committee that formed the Bank of Ghana’s governing structure. The board of the Bank of Ghana can say that due to some decisions that the Governor has made and their implications, they can ask him to resign. Unfortunately in Ghana, most of the Boards are rubberstamp. The next one is the international pressures, for instance, the IMF can call for the removal of the Governor and finally the pressure from the public. If you lay down all these options, the public pressure is the best available”.
Professor Lord Mensah
He also mentioned that the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison could have asked permission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to meet the Minority Caucus and receive its petition given the current economic situation in the country.
On Tuesday, October 3, the Minority led thousands of civilians to march to the head office of the Bank of Ghana, demanding the resignation of Dr Ernest Yedu Addison and his two deputies, Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari and Elsie Addo Awadzi.
They, however, met the absence of the Governor, who was said to be in a crucial meeting with officials of the International Monetary Fund at that time.
The Minority in Parliament who led the protest on Tuesday, October 3 promised to return to the streets after the Governor failed to show up to receive its petition.
Later in an interview with international business news website, Dr Addison indicated that the Minority knew the right channel to use in making their demands and therefore described the participants of the #OccupyBoGProtest as ‘hooligans’.
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