NDC Must Come Again On The Causes of Ghana's Economic Challenges

Having listened to dozen NDC commentators on Ghana's current economic challenges and their feeble attempt to milk the situation and paint a gloomy picture, we're sharply reminded that the NDC seem to be living in some kind of parallel universe, where roses still grow around the porch.

It is a trite knowledge that, a healthy democracy needs opposing views to be represented so that policies can be proposed and debated. We in the New Patriotic Party(NPP) are all for having an adult conversation about the economy but then, these “shrink-the-state” ghouls in the NDC really boil our piss with their dishonesty.

The bloody trouble is that these NDC elements always claim they have all the answers to our economic woes - even though under Mahama, the economy plunged into a period of stagflation and a recession dealing a double-blow to the country, with both consumer price and retail price indexes peaking close to 17.7 percent in the last quarter of 2016. That was the chilling situation we were faced with under the Mahama administration. Yet, today, the NDC town criers are in their elements with the narrative that economic mismanagement is the cause of the current situation.

The question here is, are these NDC elements following the global economic situation?

Never in our lifetime has any major political party had a worse stint in government than the Mahama era. Nobody even comes close. But then, by their assertion and narrative, we take it that the folks in the NDC have their own unique underhand ways of imposing the "will of the people" over the rest of the silent majority.

Truth is, Ghana's economic growth is subject to major fluctuations: Over the past ten years, the figures have been between 3.7 (2016) and 14 percent (2011). In 2017, the Ghanaian economy grew by 8.5 percent under President Akufo-Addo. And for 2018 to 2020 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasted growth of 6.3 percent, but we did over 8%. That is what we call prudent economic management.

To all intent and purposes before the Covid-19 pandemic, Akufo-Addo administration managed to move Ghana’s economic growth from a disappointing 3.4% under Mahama to around 8%. Even with Covid-19 impacts and the Ukraine/Russia shockwaves, there is fiscal policy achievements.

Indeed, in the midst of all the challenges faced by the NPP government, namely, rising price of fuel on the global market and the exchange rate between the dollar and the cedi, as well as the global economic effect of Russia's invasion of Ukraine with their attendant effects on the country and the people, the NPP government has managed to achieve a 5% GDP.

On the otherhand, under the erstwhile Mahama administration, the economy was run aground even though there was no Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine war.

It is true that much of the current happenings in the economy naturally reflect recent world events, the extent to which our economy itself is affected is a direct consequence of the last 8 years of the NDC's misgovernance. If I were a politician, much less one responsible for voting for Mahama in the last election, I would want to hide under a rock right now.

What we have here, with the NDC and the rest, are frogs in a box. Which is the maddest sight you can see with the naked eye.

As a common practice to many NDC folks, the total denial of objective truth serves to take the political intercourse out of any serious consideration. What becomes the substance of discussion becomes the contempt for actual reality and a need to address it. Whether it might be Mahama talking about economic mismanagement or Ato Forson talking of how the post pandemic political-economic realities and the Ukraine/Russia war denial as having no correlation to our economic woes, a leader and his supporters show contempt for addressing the needs of the time.

We haven't forgotten about how the Mahama government willfully misapplied $175 million loan facility secured in 2012 which was to provide seven district hospitals? We also can't forget about the over GH200 million SADA funds invested in trees burnt down while guinea fowls mysteriously flew to nearby Burkina Faso without a trace.

How these NDC fanatics are able to put Akufo-Addo and Mahama in the same basket beats my imagination.

We're talking about the Akufo-Addo administration that has prudently introduced a series of far-reaching political reforms and policies inclusive of Planting for Food and Jobs, One District One Factory, Free SHS, huge investment in infrastructure amongst others.

It is quite clear to even kindergarteners that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are better managers of the economy than the National Democratic Congress(NDC).

The NDC cannot be better managers of the economy. The data from the Bank of Ghana, Ghana Statistical Service, International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the World Bank since 1992 clearly shows that the various NPP administrations has done better in tackling recessions and show a more consistent economic performance. The NDC, by contrast, has always being the party that disproportionately presides over a shrinking economy.

NDC propagandists must hang their heads in shame. Mahama's NDC can't do any better. We know Mahama and what he is made of. We know what he did with the economy between 2012 - 2016.

Enough has been said.

Source: Ernest Kofi Owusu-Bempah Bonsu (Deputy Director of Communications, NPP)