Former Adenta Member of Parliament, Kojo Adu Asare on Monday managed a deftly pun on Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s name while on live radio, calling him ‘Dr. Borrowmia’.
Of course Adu Asare offered the catcall as a ‘slip of tongue’ and checked himself with an ‘Ei! Dr. Bawumia’ for correction, but the drop was loud and emphatic enough to escape observation.
His point was that the New Patriotic Party was out to do worse than it criticized its main opponents for, when it comes to government borrowing.
In a rancorous version of the perennial debate between the ruling New Patriotic Party and opposition National Democratic Congress over which side offers a better option for Ghanaians, Adu Asare said after berating the then NDC government for ‘borrowing too much’ and pointing to the availability of resources enough, locally, to build a better Ghana, the NPP is on track to do worse.
The platform was Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme, hosted by Kwadwo Asare Baffour Acheampong, aka KABA, and his opponent from the NPP was MP for Sekondi in the Western Region, Andrew Egyapa Mercer.
According to Adu Asare, the loudest voice in that onslaught against the then NDC government, he jested, was ‘Dr. Borrowmia’, now the leading man in government in canvassing for loans.
He suggested that the NPP was ashamed to call a spade a spade, choosing to now call the $15 billion loan it is contracting from the Chinese government variously as a ‘leverage’ and an ‘investment’, wondering which foreign private investments are subjected to parliamentary approvals.
Adu Asare vowed a showdown in Parliament when Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta presents details of the financial arrangement for scrutiny.
But Andrew Egyapa Mercer countered and said there is nothing scandalous the NDC can unravel when the minister attends Parliament to present the ‘investment’ agreement.