Don’t Run Away From Your Position On Loans – Mahama Tells NPP

Former President John Dramani Mahama is urging the Akufo-Addo government not to run away from the views it championed on loans during its recent days in opposition.

He said, in opposition, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) made it look like borrowing was evil, and that they could administer the country without borrowing money.

But after coming into office, the former President noted that the NPP is not only running away from all they said about borrowing but they are also denying their own quotations on the issue.

Addressing NDC delegates at Dodowa in the Shai Osu-Doku constituency of the Greater Accra Region on Thursday, Mr Mahama singled out Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia for saying that “borrowing is a lazy man’s way of development”, and that as a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank he knew Ghana is not constrained by money because “the money is here”.

Former President Mahama is therefore asking the Akufo-Addo government to eat a humble pie and apologise to Ghanaians for doing the reverse of what its position was on financing government programmes through loans, especially as it borrowed about 40 billion Ghana Cedis in its first 18 months in government.

Mr Mahama said the NDC borrowed to develop social infrastructure across the country,
including building hospitals, roads, schools, expanding electricity and water, among others, adding that same cannot be said of the NPP.