Having listened to President John Dramani Mahama present his first State of the Nation address in his first term and the facts he laid bare, the only logical conclusion one could draw is that, this country was on the verge of collapse under the previous Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration. No wonder Ghanaians reposed their confidence in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its leader to fix the mess.
It is said that, to whom much is given, much is expected. This is exactly the current situation between President John Dramani Mahama and Ghanaians. The expectations are high, it is important for Ghanaians to realistically understand the economic mess and minimise the level of expectations.
There is no doubt that, President Mahama and his team have the expertise and experience to reset the country to the Ghana we all want, and most importantly, the President has the country at heart. Nonetheless, the new government has unfortunately inherited the worse economy ever bequeathed to a new government since independence. According to President Mahama, the economy was “criminally handled” by the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government. The president couldn’t have said it any better, he was not lamenting or giving excuses, he only said it just as it is, the past eight years were the darkest moments in Ghana’s history. Under President Akufo-Addo, the country lacked direction and the citizens lacked hope.
When Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was sworn into office at the forecourt of the Black Star Square as the president of the republic on 7th January 2017, 1 United States Dollar (USD) was equal to GHC 4.1 and 1 Great Britain Pound Sterling (GBP) was equal GHC 5.90. The country’s Debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 54 %, the national debt stock had reached GHC 122.6 billion.
The year-on-year inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 15.4% in December 2016, down by 0.1 percentage point from the 15.5% recorded in November 2016.
The NPP whiles in opposition, condemned this and branded these indicators as cyphers of incompetence and ineptitude by the government of former president John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC). They denigrated, vilified, maligned and eviscerated former President John Mahama with all sorts of disparaging adjectives. They promised to better manage the economy with lower exchange rate, lower debt to GDP, lower inflation and lower cost of living.
Eight years after the administration of President Akufo-Addo and his Vice, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, USD1 is equal to GHC16 whiles 1GBP is equal to GHC20.55 (this is in spite of the fact that, the government has suspended servicing its foreign debt, the situation would have been worse than it is now) inflation is 24%, and debt to GDP is 86% . The country’s debt stock is currently GHC 742 billion as of June 2024.
Under President Akufo-Addo, corruption was normalised with impunity. In 2016, according to the Transparency International’s released corruption perception index (CPI). The NDC’s worse performance was 43 which is better than the NPP’s best performance of 41.
In view of the above, it is evident that the NPP have “criminally handled the economy” from 2017 to date, this is the perfect description of incompetence, ordinarily, one would have expected the NPP to bow their heads down in shame and shut up after their embarrassing and deserving defeat at the polls, yet they had the temerity to start accusing the new government of petty issues. Despite the obvious failure and the country’s lack of direction, these same people were shamelessly and disrespectfully shouting “breaking the eight” instead of “fixing the mess”. After exiting power, they are bent on making the new president unpopular and make the country ungovernable in order to enhance their chances in the 2028 general elections. Ghanaians are more discerning and shrewd, they now know how the NPP almost collapsed the country due to corruption, greed and selfishness.
Sadly, after losing power, the members of the NPP and their communicators have shown clear disrespect to Ghanaians by continuously attacking the new government, they do not think we are intelligent, they think Ghanaians are gullible and naïve. To the NPP, I tell you in all sincerity and honesty that, President John Mahama is fixing your mess and Ghanaians will never believe in your malicious and fabricated lies again.
The least Ghanaians deserved from the NPP is honest admission of failure and a candid apology but they are too arrogant to admit, they are living in denial. Even in opposition, they continue to shamelessly justify their “criminally handling of the economy” with the flimsiest excuse of COVID-19, this irritating and annoying.
I crave the indulgence of Ghanaians to limit our expectations and continue to support President John Dramani Mahama and his team as they works assiduously hard to fix the economy and reset the country to the Ghana we all want. .
