Opinions of Wednesday, 14 August 2024

Columnist: Rockson Adofo

NDC must stop doing dirty politics with the consolidated banks

NDC flag NDC flag

Thanks to Professor Isaac Boadi of the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) in Accra, the genesis of the problems when the banks collapsed into consolidation would never have been properly known by the writer.

On Monday, August 12, 2024, and at around 12:50 Ghana Meridian Time and 13:50 British Summer Time, I heard Professor Isaac Boadi grant an interview on Peace FM radio.

The topic was the banks collapsed by the NPP government of President Nana Akufo-Addo into Consolidated Bank Ghana.

The professor revealed to the nation that an assessment was made on Ghana banks in 2015 and concluded that the mentioned banks were not economically viable.

They were performing poorly to the detriment of their customers and the nation, and if left unchecked, they would cause a huge financial loss to their customers and the nation.

Then President John Dramani Mahama and his NDC government should have taken steps to address the situation by consolidating the banks to save their customers' deposits and the nation from the looming catastrophe. However, for reasons only best known to President Mahama and the NDC, they failed to do the needful.

When the NPP government of President Nana Akufo-Addo took over the administration of the nation, they boldly implemented what the NDC failed to do, as told above. They consolidated the listed banks to guarantee their depositors their money.

The professor said all economic indicators or pointers showed how dangerously the banks were performing or had performed to prove themselves not only irrelevant but maliciously pursuing selfish agendas detrimental to the economy of Ghana.

Let me define the word consolidation to prove that the banks were not taken out of operation but made stronger by putting them together under one umbrella.

Consolidate is defined by the dictionary as:

Make something physically stronger or more solid.

combine a number of things into a single, more effective, or coherent whole.

If this were the case, why is Mr. John Dramani Mahama trying to make political gains out of something that was initiated by his government but cowardly put aside at the expense of the nation?

Did some of the owners of the banks not accept their malpractices and guilt during their court trials?

Once again, Mr. Mahama is such a dishonest person, doubling as a liar, so I have lost respect for him.

Why can’t he for once conduct himself honourably by telling the truth and behaving responsibly but has allowed himself to be consumed by the want of political power, fame, and quick buck acquired illegally?

Could Peace FM please playback the recorded interview with the professor to assuage the public thirst for the detailed truth about the consolidated banks?