The Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, has responded to criticisms from the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Speaking at an event in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday, April 7, the Minister acknowledged the dire consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic on the Ghanaian economy.
“The broader effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war cannot be lost on any country, including Ghana,” said the Tamale Central MP.
According to the NPP, this was a U-turn from the NDC’s stance while in opposition, as the party had refused to accept that the country’s economic challenges were largely the result of global factors.
However, countering such claims in a social media post on Tuesday, April 8, the Minister clarified that the NDC never downplayed the impact of global events on the economy.
He explained that what the NDC rejected was the NPP’s attempt to blame the entirety of Ghana’s economic woes on COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war.
“For the purposes of emphasis, I want to be very clear — we have never said that those two incidents had no effect on the global economy and that of Ghana. What we refused to accept was when they desperately attempted to blame the entirety of the mess they created on COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war.
“And we did so by pointing to other countries, particularly our neighbours, who faced similar challenges yet managed their economies far better than they did,” he stated.
