Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has warned the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of President Nana Akufo-Addo that Ghanaians have become too enlightened to be deceived.
In an interview, he pointed out attempts by the government to bamboozle Ghanaians with tricky statecraft, saying the moves are rather making the government look bad.
“I don’t want to believe that the government economic management team’s lecture on Wednesday was a talk-show and full of self-commendation,” Mr. Bagbin said
“For example, the NPP government, after promising from opposition that they would transform Ghana in 18 months, has now turned round to invite the NDC whose government they bastardized and called incompetent, to join them to reason together for solutions to the depreciation of the cedi.
“They think they are smart; after failing to deliver, they want to trick the NDC into a supposed collaboration so that at the end of the day, when their failure is complete, they can turn round and say, but we invited the NDC to come on board and help and so the failure is the failure of the NDC too. But this will not wash. Ghanaians know the incompetent people who have been in charge of the economy in the past two years,” Hon. Bagbin said.
The respected Nadowli-Kaleo MP’s take comes in the wake of the NPP, which bastardized the predecessor NDC government, while in opposition, as incompetent, inviting the NDC for a bi-partisan conference on the cedi which has been freefalling in spite of all government efforts.
The sudden invitation to the NDC has shocked many because the NPP is known to ride the common boast that they have the men.
Observers have particularly been shocked because when the NDC was in power and invited the NPP to a national dialogue on the economy at Senchi, the NPP refused to attend.
“The reason why the NPP is now inviting us, who they called incompetent, to help them think up solutions for the depreciation of the cedi is that, they want to cleverly rope us into their failure. But they have failed already,” Hon. Alban Bagbin said.
He said Ghanaians are very much aware that the cedi had been performing far better in 2016 when the NDC left power. Indeed by December 2016, the cedi had been trading at GHc4.20 to the dollar, and was strengthening against the American currency. However, in just two years that the NPP has been in power, the cedi has slipped to almost GHc6 to a dollar, only making marginal gains after the government had announced intent to pump almost a billion dollars into the money market.
Hon. Bagbin also said, the Finance Minister’s recent blame of Ghana’s delayed exit from the International Monetary Fund Program on the NDC’s supposed reckless spending in 2016 is an untruth that will not wash.
“How could we have over-spent in 2016 when we were already under the IMF program?” Hon. Bagbin asked rhetorically.
He said, the NPP had thought they could get away with heaping lies on the NDC government from opposition, but now Ghanaians are seeing who the real incompetent people are and nothing will change the facts.
“Where are the 275 factories they said they will build; the family and friends government they said they will avoid is now the order of the day. The economy they said they will build better is now the worst. Our cedi is the worst performing currency in the whole world, and now you want to cleverly share the shame with NDC so invite it to a bi-partisan conference on the cedi. It will not wash,” the Nadowli Kaleo MP said.
