The Akufo-Addo’s government and its economic management team headed by Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia do not have the capacity to rescue Ghana’s ailing economy, that is the view of the Executive Director of the Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NOPRA), Bismarck Adongo Ayorogo.
Mr. Bismarck Ayorogo said the government, since it assumed office in 2017, has demonstrated that it does not have what it takes to prudently manage the country’s economy and make life better for the Ghanaian people.
The NOPRA’S Executive Director’s assertion follows the president’s assurance on BBC’s Focus on Africa that the recovery programme introduced by his government will resolve the country’s economic crisis. According to the president, the prevailing economic woes are as a result of the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and not peculiar to Ghana.
He was, however, confident that the recovery measures introduced by his government will take the country out of the economic downturn.
But speaking on Dreamz FM’s State of Our Nation, Mr. Adongo Ayorogo said although he believes the president and members of his government mean well for the country and want to make life better for the people, they are too corrupt and lack the capacity to resolve the current economic crisis.
“I feel that the president really wants to make life better for the Ghanaian people. I don’t think he is wicked. But the gospel truth is that he doesn’t have the capacity and unfortunately, with all the professors and doctors that have constituted the economic management team, they don’t have the capacity to solve our problems. That is why even in 2017, if you look at the GDP of our economy, it was far better than when the professors and doctors became the managers of the economy headed by Dr. Bawumia.
So it is like they really mean well but because corruption is in the DNA of some of them and coupled with the lack of capacity or knowledge to be able to turn things around, they don’t know what to do. I would have wished the situation changed but if you look at the past, the sequence of events, there is no hope. Because if you could not do things the way we expected to make life better for the people even without Covid, now that there is covid, how can you do it? I will be positively surprised, if things really turn for the better or if they are able to change things,” he stated.
He also dismissed the president’s claim that the economic crisis is as a result of the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. He argued that the country benefitted a lot in terms of resources during the pandemic and should not have been in its current state if the government had not mismanaged the resources.
“In terms of monetary gains, this government benefitted from the unfortunate situation of Covid more than they lost except some of our brothers and sisters who lost their lives. So they should at times give us a break when we are talking about issues that are confronting or bedeviling the Ghanaian economy and making each and every one of us suffer”.
