A Pressure Group, Fixing the Country Movement has demanded that John Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) should desist from unjustly criticising the Akufo-Addo government which according to them, is doing a lot to rally Ghanaians around to help build a better society through workable economic policies and social programs.
According to the group, current situations across the globe have called for smart governments to find solace in homegrown tax places in order to avert economic disasters and the Akufo-Addo government is “no exception.”
“The reality is that we have been going through a big change for the past five and half years, and with each year, it only seems to grow exponentially. Denial of this does not negate that it has been occurring and will continue to occur,” the Group said.
Comparing the Mahama’s regime between 2012 to 2016 and the Akufo-Addo regime and the experiences of Ghanaians during these two regimes, the Group pointed out that Ghanaians would have been worse off under the NDC and Mahama, should the party be in power when disasters such as COVID-19 and wars in parts of the world strike.
Addressing the media, the Convener of Fixing the Country Movement, Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah Bonsu pointed out that, Ghanaians are fully aware of the over four years “dumsor” experience under John Mahama when the country has undergone a “self-defeating program of austerity” with the embargo on employment, mismanagement of the economy, stagnation in the agricultural sector, the decline in manufacturing, maintaining an unstable exchange rate, cancelling teacher and nursing trainee allowances and unprecedented energy crisis.
He averred that, “Mahama overrun, overspent and run a budget deficit in the year 2012 alone to the tune if Ghc8.7billion while within just 4 years, with sharp economic decline, fall in commodity prices and fiscal crisis that forced Ghana to enter into a 3-year aid program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).”
Ernest Owusu Bempah also indicated that John Mahama during his time failed to remedy situations when his government was faced with the economic mismanagement which his own government inflicted, but he remained at the edges until his program cost him the 2016 elections.
He said, Mahama’s defeat in 2016 was as result of the enormous change that the people of Ghana wanted which President Akufo-Addo has been steering the nation towards.
However, Owusu Bempah also stated that in 2021, Ghana came second in attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in Africa. As a nation, we bagged $2.7billion worth of investment out of which $2.6billion was from GDI. The FDIs were realised from 271 registered projects in Ghana and it is envisaged that 27,000 direct jobs were created.
According to him, President Akufo-Addo is earnestly supporting Ghanaian workers by throwing a lifeline to them to survive amid massive recruitment of nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers, teachers, police officers and many others in the public sector after many years of employment freeze under the previous government.
He also touched on the biometric ID card scheme in which 15.5 million people have been registered, the implementation of a groundbreaking Mobile Money Interoperability project and the largest investments in infrastructure in roads, railway, school sector.
Ernest Owusu Bempah strongly stressed that the significant expansion of infrastructure requires capital investment and that was where government revenue drive through tax policies come in.
He also stressed the importance of tax and mentioned that the NPP refuses to allow the NDC stand in the way of their economic recovery, adding that “President Akufo-Addo’s focus is on keeping g our economy strong and durable, notwithstanding NDC’s obstruction,” he said.
He indicated however that, Mahama and the NDC have shown beyond all reasonable doubts that they cannot manage the economy; whether under particular democracy or no pandemic, whilst Akufo-Addo has proven that he is competent to move things up for better despite the economic recession and the pandemic.
