The structural imperatives that the Mahama administration must ensure are currently being neglected in favor of artificial innuendos. One such cosmetic policies was implemented on February 4 this year when the ill-advised Bank of Ghana policy to deny withdrawal of foreign exchange caused a negative commercial stir. At the time the dollar was trading at GHC2.41. Many credible economists including NPP’s Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Honorable Asafo Marfo warned of dire ramifications but the NDC responded with a raining of insults.

Expectedly, investors and traders kept their foreign currency away from the banks and thus the forex system creating an instant shortage in the supply of foreign currency and consequently much higher demand, a phenomenon that shot the dollar’s strength to GHC3.85 within six months. The good news is that uncharacteristically, the NDC’s Bank of Ghana swallowed their ego and reversed that ill-advised decision. Of course this instantly resulted in a market correction dropping the dollar to GHC3.00.

Surprisingly, rather than firing the Governor of Bank of Ghana for perhaps the single most economically devastating policy, Mahama and his officials are jumping on the roof tops pounding their chests for what they perceive as the gaining of the cedi. Lost in all the noise is the reality that aside from the sharp rise and its corresponding fall of the dollar’s strength, the cedi has still lost 25% of its value since February. And as a sign of a still weakening economy, the dollar began another upward climb last week.

This unstable episode of the cedi’s value is but a tip of the iceberg with regards to how lousily Ghana’s economy is being managed. The NDC expects Ghanaians to clap for them when they marginally fix a problem that they unnecessarily create. The dash the nation’s money to Woyome for no work done, and expects Ghanaians to clap for them when they go through the motions of recovering it. They steal GHC1.4 billion of Ghana’s money through GYEEDA and expects Ghanaians to applaud them for merely setting up a committee to kill the recovery process. Beginning with “Woyomegate” this NDC government has set up dozens of committees to look into corruption scandals and a few lukewarm prosecutions have been initiated. Yet not one pesewa has been recovered.

And now they expect Ghanaians to praise them for reversing a downward spiral of the cedi although it is their own less than wise policy that caused that downward spiral in the first place. The NDC will not be able to fix Ghana’s economy unless it signs onto the concept of private sector development that propelled Ghana’s economy from HIPC to lower middle income status under the eight-year NPP rule. And by the way it will also help if they stop the wanton thievery of the nation’s wealth. To date, the NDC administrations of Mills and Mahama are responsible for an estimated embezzlement and wastage of GHC6.4 billion, an amount that can fund free SHS for eight years.