Ghana’s former ambassador to China in the erstwhile Mahama administration, Horace Ankrah, has described the Akufo-Addo government and its economic management team led by Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as “a bunch of incompetents” who deceived Ghanaians into voting them into power.

Mr Ankrah said after bragging in the lead-up to the 2016 elections that an Akufo-Addo government would transform Ghana’s economy and make it the most robust in Africa, the administration, after winning power, has rather messed up the economy.

His comments come on the back of the Ministry of Finance’s decision to put together an Emergency Forex Development Committee to arrest, to some extent, the perennial fall of the cedi against other major foreign currencies, particularly the US dollar.

The ex-ambassador wondered why the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) which bragged of having “the men” to deliver, is now setting up a 40-member committee to rescue the depreciating cedi.

Speaking with Nana Kwasi Asare on ‘The Big Show’ on Class91.3FM, Mr Ankrah indicated that the Akufo-Addo-led administration should be kicked out of office for mismanaging the economy.

He said Dr Bawumia lied to Ghanaians when he attributed the depreciation of the cedi to Ghana’s involvement in an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme and questioned why the government keeps borrowing.

Mr Ankrah said: “Ghanaians believed what he said, now for his pedigree, where he was coming from, Ghanaians then believed that the economy was bad, the country was moving in a direction where the destination was unknown, but today, the situation in the country where the cedi is currently against the pound, dollar, tells us that Dr Bawumia lied and deceived Ghanaians.

“Recently, he was saying that the cedi is depreciating at this kind of rate because Ghana was then parading the corridors of IMF. Now, when the cedi was performing better, then what it is now; was Ghana parading the corridors of the IMF or not? We were, so, why did he not tell Ghanaians the truth that the cedi is depreciating because Ghana is parading the corridors of IMF? If that is the reason for today, when he is in office, it makes him a liar, and deceitful; it makes the whole administration very deceitful and misleading. This is an individual who asked the then-Vice-President Amissah Arthur (late) so many questions, wanting him to answer when he himself has no answers; his questions were mischievous…”

“We have realised that this is the person who paraded himself as somebody who could manage the economy better. He has failed, shown Ghanaians that he has a lazy approach to saving this country, they have failed … Why have they set up a committee to rescue the cedi? This is unprecedented, and it can only come from a failing outfit … A committee set aside from the Vice- President, the economic management team? It’s an insult, this is clearly a sign of a bunch of incompetent people, and you dare call ex-President Mahama incompetent? Who is more incompetent?” he asked.