November 18, 2015


NPP-Canada has learnt with disapppointment (but no surprise) the rather un-presidential remarks of President Mahama at an NDC Party rally at the Trade Fair Site in Accra on Monday, November 17, 2015.

The President’s remarks included the following:
“…All of you guys have never ever come near the Presidency before. You know what it means to be President? And you stand and say ‘incompetent Mahama administration’, 'Incompetent Mahama administration'. What do you know about competence..?"

The above remarks were obviously aimed at the respected Economist, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, former Consultant to the Economic Commission of Africa, former Visiting Scholar at the University of British Columbia Center for Global Studies, Fellow at the International Growth Center (London), Former Advisor to the Central Bank of Sierra Leone, former Resident Representative of the African Development Bank in Zimbabwe: Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

Ghana is no stranger to bad economic management. But the economic mismanagement under the Mahama Administration is the worst ever. Dr. Bawumia has been one of the leading critics of the government on its handling, better still mishandling of the economy. Dr. Bawumia has consequently become a source of irritation and embarrassment to the ruling government. Indeed, so damning has been the economic mismanagement of the Mahama Administration that Dr. Bawumia has attributed it to nothing short of sheer incompetence. It is this description that has so riled President Mahama (a Historian and Communicator by training) that he wasted no time in venting his anger and frustration on Dr. Bawumia.

According to President Mahama, only the two living former Presidents, Mr. J.A. Kufuor and Mr. J.J. Rawlings, have earned the right to comment on his competence or incompetence. Paradoxically, the Communications Expert turned-President added that all Ghanaians who can vote will be the ultimate judges of his incompetence! Go figure.

Time and again, the people of Ghana have heard Dr. Bawumia offer advice to the government. Such pieces of advice are first ridiculed, and then Dr. Bawumia called names, all at the hands of Mahama Administration officials and hordes of NDC Party communicators all of whom benefit from one kind of government largesse or the other. On the rare occasion, the government, on the quiet, will adopt the advice without a whisper of credit to Dr. Bawumia.

A case in point was in 2014. Within the first 6 months of that year, the cedi had lost 20% of its value against major international currencies. This caused the Ghanaian cedi to earn the unenviable tag of “the world’s worst performing currency”, having edged out currencies of Afghanistan, Syria and South Sudan. The panicking Government and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) announced immediate measures to stem the worsening tide. These measures included restrictions on withdrawals of more than $10,000 at the counter. Dr. Bawumia was one of those who advised that not only was the measure counter-productive but that the significant cause of the problem had more to do with bad economic policies and practices that had led to loss of investor confidence in the Ghanaian economy, not to mention run-away corruption. When the depreciation of the cedi started worsening at an even more alarming rate following the implementation of the directive, the BoG with the blessing of the Mahama Administration quietly backed down on its earlier directive.

Ghanaians have seen too many of Dr. Bawumia’s economic advice to government go unheeded to their collective regret as a People. Ghanaians have also seen every single one of Dr. Bawumia’s predictions about the Ghanaian economy come true to their amazement.

Ghanaians have seen and known what competence is. And under the Mahama Administration, Ghanaians have tasted what competence is not.

At the appropriate time, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, running mate on the presidential ticket of the New Patriotic Party shall have the last laugh, courtesy of long-suffering Ghanaians.


----signed---

Gilbert Adu Gyimah
Director of Communications, NPP/Canada
NPPCanada@outlook.com
www.nppcanada.org
Tel: 587-708-9915 / 647-800-3585