‘Anka yewu’ meaning ‘we would have been dead’ in Twi, this was the reaction of Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West Constituency when asked how the opposition National Democratic Congress would have handled Ghana’s economy amid a war and pandemic.

The government has serially blamed the twin global events of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war for a stuttering economy.

An excuse that the Minority in Parliament have also strongly rejected insisting that the current economic woes are a consequence of economic mismanagement and fiscal recklessness.

Whiles contributing to the debate on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s March 8 State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on the floor of Parliament (March 9) Abuakwa South MP, Samuel Atta Akyea stressed that the two factors had affected global economies and Ghana was not an exception.

“One of the things that saddens me is when we say that COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukraine war did not have a debilitating effect on the economy. It baffles me like thunder. When people say these world events didn’t affect the economies of the world.

“I wonder how NDC would have fared if they had the trouble of the COVID together with the Russia-Ukraine war…” he submitted.

Ursula, who was sitting next to Atta Akyea retorted with her hands on her head, “anka yewu, we would have been dead, we would have been dead,” she stressed whiles taunting colleagues in the Minority.

Atta Akyea, meanwhile continued his submission: “you couldn’t handle as small a matter as dumsor, I am telling you… I am sure the nation would have comatosed if NDC were in power and then we experienced COVID-19.

“You couldn’t even put on the lights when you were enjoying the largess of president Kufuor…” he added.

Ghana is currently seeking a US$3 billion facility with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), despite securing a Staff-Level Agreement last year, government is undertaking external restructuring of its debts in order to get a Board Level approval later this month.

The first two months of 2023 saw a heated domestic debt restructuring programme adopted under the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).

SONA Debate: If covid-19 happened under NDC, Ghana would have collapsed. - Atta Akyea #JoyNews pic.twitter.com/w3hu3Qx1mq

— JoyNews (@JoyNewsOnTV) March 9, 2023