Business News of Tuesday, 14 February 2023

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Akufo-Addo's government luckiest yet most useless since 1992 – Ato Forson

Cassiel Ato Forson, Minority Leader and former deputy Minister of Finance Cassiel Ato Forson, Minority Leader and former deputy Minister of Finance

Minority Leader Cassiel Ato Forson has labelled the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government as the luckiest yet most useless government since 1992, the start of the Forth Republic.

In explaining his view on Power FM’s morning show programme (February 13, 2023) the Ajumako Enyan Essiam Member of Parliament (MP) cited as his reference point oil fields that the government inherited as at 2017 when it came into office.

According to him, it was only a sign of uselessness and incompetence that a government inherits three oil fields as against one by its two predecessors and yet plunges Ghana into an economic crisis as is being experienced today.

In his capacity as leader of the opposition in Parliament, he promised: “We’ll expose all the ills going on in this country for Ghanaians to see that their government has not only deceived them but injured them criminally. We will expose Ghanaians to all of that so that there will be a change for a proper and responsible government to take over soon.

“NPP is the most callous government, it has no good plans for the nation, a government that came to pillage and to put Ghana in reverse gear and to destroy the future of the nation, that is what we are seeing,” he stressed.

He said the NPP government inherited strong tax policies, before adding: “since the time of Prof Mills, every government managed with an oil field, they came to meet three oil fields, we didn’t have gas until it became big under their tenure.

“I have insisted that the NPP is the luckiest in the history of Ghana, unfortunately; it is the most useless government we have ever seen. Luckiest but useless,” he emphasized.

A similar statement had been issued by former president John Dramani Mahama when he critiqued government for adding nothing by way of oil fields that it inherited yet led Ghana into an economic crisis.

"Wasted years! We bequeathed to President Akufo-Addo and his government two new oil fields, TEN and Sankofa.

"Greed and ineptitude as against national interest means a sad reality of no additional production activity in our upstream oil sector in the last 7 years," Mahama's views of Fevruary 7 read.

Ghana is currently hoping to secure an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to help save the economy from collapse amid rising inflation, rapid depreciation of the cedi against the US dollar and credit downgrades by international rating agencies.

SARA