A former Presidential staffer, Stan Dogbe, has said Ghana’s current economic challenges was “undoubtedly self-engineered” by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia. According to him, the Vice President, also the Head of the Economic Management Team, is not fit for purpose to handle crunch economic matters. He said, in a Facebook post, that Mr. Bawumia “lacks a practical understanding of the nuances of political economy, which undeservedly served him well because most accountability agents refused to ask him the critical questions.” He added: “As a lesson, in managing an economy, consensus is the key and any person who chooses to alienate an entire political group merely to achieve a narrow end, is never fit for purpose. Indeed, running a nation is really a serious business. Dr. Bawumia lacks the credibility, ideas, the wherewithal, the gravitas, and competence to build a consensual broad-based strategy. “His approach to politics is severely divisive, pitching tribes against tribes, religion against religion, and alienating a whole group of professionals (who dared to disagree with him) through name-calling, insults, and ridicule.” Mr. Dogbe stated, “Dr. Bawumia’s inability to understand the complex interplay of variables of political economy (as clearly displayed by his overly simplistic view of things) to move Ghana beyond any crisis is a major intellectual deficiency he must learn to overcome.” He believes Ghana’s current economic abyss may linger for a while despite frantic efforts to get an IMF-supported programme to restore macroeconomic stability. Below is the full statement: