Ernest Owusu Bempah, the convener of Fixing The Country Movement and Political Strategist has stated unequivocally that the National Democratic Congress(NDC) cannot distract the ruling government from restoring the economy.
This he said, NDC’s recent criticism of the Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia’s public lecture is needless.
According to him, the current administration led by President Akufo Addo is focused on keeping the economy strong and durable, notwithstanding NDC’s obstructionism.
Adding that, due to the current happenings across the globe, smart governments the world over are finding solace in homegrown tax policies in order to avert economic disaster. Ghana is no exception and the Akufo-Addo administration has been doing a lot to rally Ghanaians around the Flag irrespective of our political differences and help build a better society.
“The emphatic nature of that defeat in 2016 underlines the enormous change that Ghana wanted and President Akufo-Addo has been steering this nation towards the right path to become acceptable to the larger Ghanaian public.
As a matter of fact, the extraordinary spending and fiscal expansion that has accompanied the pandemic has been phenomenal.
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”, he said.
Below Is The Full Press Release*
Statement By Fixing The Country Movement At A Press Conference Held On Sunday 10/04/2022 In Accra On The Politics Of Deception by the NDC.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, on behalf of the entire Fixing The Country Movement, I welcome all our reliable friends of the media to this event. It is a great honour to host you once again.
It was Alan Greenspan, the former Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States remarked that; “a resilient economy is the one that withstands external shocks”, and rightly so, Ghana’s economy can easily be placed in the perimeter of the words of the renowned American economist.
On that Alan Greenspan note, let’s bring some perspective to the substantive issues on the economy making the headlines.
In a public lecture on Thursday afternoon, at the Pentecost Conference Centre, Millennium City, Kasoa Yesukrom in the Central Region, Dr Bawumia engaged in a serious economic analysis of Ghana’s current situation with data and figures.
We have all been struck by the far-reaching policies of government and Dr Bawumia on the day displayed remarkable technical know-how with analysis. It is rare to see optimism, worry, joy and reflection all during one lecture.
There were a lot of clear and outlandish, policy ideas on display but surprisingly, the NDC is yet to formulate a convincing response.
It has been over 72 hours since the lecture and the NDC has not been able to provide data to counter Dr Bawumia, instead, in speeches and media appearances, leading NDC activists, politicians, and hangers-on are savaging Vice President Bawumia for stating the obvious with regards to our economic indicators.
These NDC elements have sharpened their attacks against Dr Bawumia. And in doing so, they are “talking down” our economic recovery even as the entire world crumbles under the post-pandemic political-economic realities.
Ladies and gentlemen, the question we should all be posing to the NDC are, where are their economic gurus? Is the NDC bereft of economic ideas such that they have to deploy inexperienced propagandists to respond to otherwise serious economic indices?
Now, let’s delve into the substantive issues as eloquently espoused by Dr Bawumia. Why is the NDC characterizing our current economic recovery in negative terms?
Is it not the case that the pandemic-related economic recession is slowly ravaging the world economy? From Asia to the Far East, all the way to Europe and the Americas, there’s a frightening economic downturn with consumers feeling the effects as inflation reaches a 30-year high and a record price for gas, groceries, utilities, etc, in the US for instance.
In the UK, there’s rising inflation, energy bills going up by 50%, mortgages going up with today’s Bank of England rate hike, Council Tax going up, and national health levy going up as a result of the pandemic. The European Union just last month proposed three new EU-wide taxes to help to repay the joint government borrowing in the 27-nation bloc for their 800 billion euro ($904 billion) COVID-19 recovery fund.
According to the October 2021 World Economic Outlook prepared by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), global economic growth fell to an annualized rate of around -3.2% in 2020, with a recovery of 5.9% projected for 2021 and 4.9% for 2022.
As it is, smart governments the world over are finding solace in homegrown tax policies to avert economic disaster. Ghana is no exception and the Akufo-Addo administration has been doing a lot to rally Ghanaians around the Flag irrespective of our political differences and help build a better society.
At this juncture, ladies and gentlemen, let’s juxtapose Mahama’s ‘Dumsor economy’ between 2012 to 2016 against the experiences of Akufo-Addo’s Guggisberg economy.
Under Mahama’s government, Ghana has undergone a self-defeating program of austerity, with the embargo on employment, mismanagement of the economy; stagnation in the agricultural sector, decline in manufacturing, maintaining an unstable exchange rate, cancelling teacher and nursing trainee allowances and unprecedented energy crisis that lasted for 4years.
Mahama overruns overspent, and run a budget deficit in the year 2012 alone, to the tune of Ghc8.7billion, while within just 4 years, with sharp economic decline, a fall in commodity prices, and a fiscal crisis that forced Ghana to enter into a 3-year aid program with the International Monetary Fund(IMF).
According to Dr. Harrison Mensah, a political scientist at the University of Ghana, it was at some point between 2012 and 2016 that Ghana experienced the worst economic crisis in our recent history.
There was a terminal feeling of malaise. The then-president, John Mahama roundly became a shirker. Almost sixty per cent of voters called for his removal from office.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the situation was akin to filling a bath with cold water, then opening the plug and turning the hot tap on at the same time. Mahama was unable to undo the damage.
In the heady days of his administration, he metaphorically informed Ghanaians of the total depletion of the nation’s coffers by saying, ‘all the meat has been eaten to the bone’.
The question is how was all the meat eaten to the bone? When was the meat eaten to the bone? Why was all the meat eaten to the bone? And who were those that ate all the meat to the bone?
Mahama again in 2014 averred that as president, he was having sleepless nights because of the “dumsor crisis,” and out of frustration even told those whom he says can’t wait to see him out of office, to be patient, since 2016 was just around the corner.
He said: “For those who disagree with me and are anxious to see my back, not to worry, 2016 is not too far away. I will urge you to be patient because in this difficult job; the least one expects is loyalty and patience.”
Ladies and gentlemen, that was Mahama when he was faced with economic challenges. He remained peripheral in the face of economic crisis until his program of national disarray cost him the 2016 elections.
The emphatic nature of that defeat in 2016 underlines the enormous change that Ghana wanted and President Akufo-Addo has been steering this nation on the right path to become acceptable to the larger Ghanaian public.
As a matter of fact, the extraordinary spending and fiscal expansion that has accompanied the pandemic has been phenomenal.
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.
Indeed, in the year 2021, Ghana came second in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa. As a nation, we bagged $2.7billion worth of investment out of which $2.6billion was from FDI.
The FDIs were realized from 271 registered projects in Ghana and it is envisaged that 27,000 direct jobs were created, according to statistics from the Ghana Investment Promotion Center.
President Akufo-Addo is supporting Ghanaian workers by throwing a lifeline to them. There has been massive recruitment of nurses, doctors, other healthcare workers, teachers, police officers, and many others in the public sector after many years of employment freeze under the previous Government. At least 550,000 public sector workers were recruited.
The country’s wage bill has more than doubled in the last five (5) years.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Akufo-Addo administration has enrolled 15.5 million people on the biometric National ID card (Ghanacard) scheme. The government has also implemented a digital address system capturing every square inch of land or water in Ghana.
Again, we have implemented the groundbreaking Mobile Money interoperability (MMI) project. Ghana is the only country in the world that has thus far implemented our version of MMI.
Ghana is currently the fastest growing mobile money market in Africa and has 36.9 million registered mobile money accounts.
We have also seen the largest investment in infrastructure (roads, railways, schools, etc.) for any government in the fourth republic.
Ladies and Gentlemen, these significant expansions of infrastructure requires capital investment and that’s where government revenue drive through tax policies comes into play.
Indeed the tax economy actually has a biblical injunction in Matthew 22:21 when the Pharisees set a trap for Jesus with a query about paying tax to Caesar. One of them showed him a Roman coin, and he asked them whose head and inscription were on it. They answered, “Caesar’s,” and he responded: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s”
By this biblical injunction, we refuse to let the NDC stand in the way of our economic recovery. President Akufo-Addo’s focus is on keeping our economy strong and durable, notwithstanding NDC’s obstructionism.
The NDC elements like Ofosu-Kwakye, Sammy Gyamfi, Isaac Adongo and the likes, who are fraudulently hoodwinking the gullible and degrading political discourse are arsonists posing as firefighters. They are obviously expecting to take credit for having extinguished the fire that they set.
Let me end here with this admonition to the NDC, a tale was told of an emperor who wore no clothes. Only the innocent knew he was naked. If the vociferous NDC elements drop their sanctimonious and all-knowing attitude and pay attention to basic detail, they will certainly see the truth.
Ghana will succeed with or without the NDC.
Long live Ghana!!
(Signed)
Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah
Political Strategist, Convener- Fixing The Country Movement)
