Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, has taken shots at his fellow lawmaker, Kennedy Agyapong, the MP for Assin Central.

Kennedy Agyapong, a candidate for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearership, is accused by the Minister of acting avariciously and unfairly of criticizing the administration and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, another NPP candidate.

The Minister defended Bawumia from Ken Agyapong, who recently accused Bawumia of being at fault for Ghana’s economic troubles.

Darko-Mensah stated that COVID was to blame for the economic downturn and that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is presently providing Ghana with a bailout, had confirmed this.

“We were all in the country when COVID broke. Were you the one who manufactured COVID? Even the IMF who are giving us a bailout said we (NPP) did not create the problem, as our economic challenges are as a result of COVID.”
Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah

One of the main causes of the economic downturn, according to him, was the take-or-pay energy sector contracts that the previous administration had signed. He questioned, “What has that got to do with either Dr. Bawumia, myself, or Ken Ofori-Atta taking us to the IMF?”

With regards to Kennedy Agyapong, he said that the MP had been one of the major recipients of government contracts over the years and that, given the financial crunch, he might as well return old contracts and reject any new ones.

“Ghana is a member of the IMF and they have given us some assistance during COVID. Since Ghana went to the IMF the cedi is stabilising. What intrigues me however is, between you and I, we all know one of the biggest government contractors is the man you are talking about (Kennedy Agyapong). When things were bad and he was benefitting, that was right, but now that he wants to be a Presidential candidate, he has forgotten about all those benefits he derived and wants us to forget about all that?
“Then he should reverse (sic) all those contracts he earned and hand it to others and say because Ghana is now back to the IMF, I will not take any government contract again. If he continues like that then technically you want to act like a greedy person, who wants to benefit both ways. If he wants to find someone to blame for Ghana going to IMF, why won’t he also along the lines of equity say that he will not take any of the contracts he is taking during this IMF period? He is just misleading people and it needs to be straightened.”
Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah

Bawumia Performed Poorly As ENT Chairman

Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, a private attorney and member of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC’s) legal team, criticized Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for his subpar leadership of the Economic Management Team (ENT).

According to the NDC legal team member, the economic management team’s duty is to control food costs, inflation, and the currency exchange rate. All three indicators, in his opinion, were under Vice President Bawumia’s management and were not doing well.

“In this conversation is the issue of forex differential losses which is what Ken Agyapong alluded to. And that is, you are the chair of the economic management team. Your primary responsibility is to stabilize three things: food prices, inflation and more importantly the exchange rate. All these three indicators are on the low.
“So, if the records today as shown by Ken Agyapong himself is that you are dealing with inflation at 42%, $1 dollar is Ghc12. You took it from $1 to Ghc4, that is, your records speak to that. Let the people of Ghana appreciate that by reason of our incompetence, we have destroyed the Ghanaian economy, what is wrong with this admission?”
Edudzi Tamakloe

Edudzi Tamakloe made the observation that the economy and people’s capacity to make purchases are being adversely impacted by the current high exchange rate. He believed the Vice President had failed to address the worries of common people and offer any ray of hope.

“Today, our mothers are preparing for December purchases, and they are doing their purchases at $1 to GHC12, they want to hear a message of hope, they don’t want to hear a message of ranting. But if you come in the midst of all these and you want to dawg the conversation, we will hold you to the fire of accountability and we are not here to please anybody.”
Edudzi Tamakloe