The Minority caucus in Parliament has delivered its true state of the Nation Address to expose the gaps in what the President, John Dramani Mahama, delivered in parliament last week
Addressing the media at a press conference at the Party’s head office in Accra yesterday, the former Finance Minister, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam criticized the government’s tax revenue target of GH¢200 billion for the year, arguing that it is unrealistic given the current state of the economy.
Dr Amin Adam accused the government of hypocrisy, recalling how it previously criticised the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration for overtaxing Ghanaians.
He also criticized John Mahama’s assessment of the economy, insisting that he under-performed during his first term while former President Akufo-Addo over-performed
Dr Amin Adam argued that Mahama failed to acknowledge key economic indicators that reflect the true state of the nation’s economy. Dr Amin Adam noted that inflation alone does not determine economic performance, pointing out other critical factors such as real GDP growth, trade balance, current account balance, and the financial sector’s health.
“What the President also failed to do was to inform the people of Ghana that there are other significant measures of the performance of the economy that inform the state of the nation other than inflation alone,” he stated.
Highlighting economic growth under both administrations, Dr Amin Adam asserted that Akufo-Addo’s government outperformed Mahama’s in key economic indicators. “The average growth in real GDP for the first three quarters of 2024 was 6.4% and was expected to end the year at a rate above the IMF target of 4%.
This trend outperformed all projections and revised projections by both the IMF and the World Bank,” he explained.
“This is how they intend to tax Ghanaians to collect their target of GH¢200 billion in tax revenues this year. This government accused us of overtaxing the people of Ghana because, by the end of 2024, the NPP administration collected GH¢152.9 billion, which was a 17% tax-to-GDP ratio, up from President Mahama’s 13% in 2016. How do you then turn around to expect to collect GH¢200 billion in a broken economy?” he questioned.
The former Finance Minister further stressed that excessive taxation would stifle economic growth, discourage private sector investment, and worsen the financial struggles of ordinary Ghanaians.
He argued that the government should focus on efficient revenue collection and prudent expenditure management rather than imposing additional tax burdens.
Dr Amin Adam assured that the Minority would stand with the people of Ghana to resist any attempt to impose new taxes or increase existing ones.
“We, the mighty minority, will join the people of Ghana to resist any attempt to smuggle in new taxes or increase existing taxes. We owe it a duty to hold this government accountable and protect the livelihoods of our citizens,” he declared.
Furthermore, Dr. Amin Adam highlighted the negative impact of Mahama’s policies on job creation and economic stability.
He indicated that “The termination of the jobs of young Ghanaians, which has become synonymous with President Mahama as ‘Terminator 1,’ is a sign of what is yet to come. Sacking people from employment and replacing them later with others does not amount to job creation. What the people of Ghana want are new jobs for those yet to be employed,” Dr. Adam stated.
He argued that the policies outlined by Mahama, such as “nkoko nkitinkiti,” cannot create sustainable jobs for the youth. Instead, he accused Mahama of artificially inflating employment figures by terminating existing jobs and later filling those same positions.
“President Mahama knows that the programmes he outlined in his statement – ‘nkoko nkitinkiti’ and the rest – cannot create sustainable jobs for the Ghanaian youth, hence the resort to termination of existing jobs for future replacement to shore up his job numbers,” he added.
Dr. Adam also pointed out Mahama’s double standards, recalling that in 2016, Mahama defended the right of an outgoing administration to recruit and sign deals until midnight on January 7, when its term officially ended.
He warned that these dismissals would only worsen unemployment, contradicting Mahama’s promise to fix the crisis.
