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“…what he does is a fraudulent manipulation of figures to justify his falsehood…these malicious lies that he tells….simply does not make sense”

Deputy Minister of Communication, Felix Kwakye Fosu has dismissed suggestions that President John Mahama needs briefing on the amount of money the country has borrowed so far.

Vice Presidential Candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, a couple of days ago, stated that President Mahama needed to be briefed on the true state of borrowing especially in the last 7 years.

“Our President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, has recently made statements about Ghana’s public debt stock, the most recent being yesterday [Monday]. Those statements clearly show that the President needs a bit more briefing about Ghana’s public debt stock” he said.

This was after the President queried in an interview on TV3 whether it “makes mathematical sense” for anyone to say that the NDC government borrowed 37 billion dollars in 7 years when the total debt stock since President Nkrumah stands at 24 million dollars?

But according to Dr Bawumia, the President’s claim is wrong because “in the last seven years alone under this NDC government, Ghana’s total debt has ballooned from GH¢9.5billion to a projected GH¢99billion by the end of 2015. What is clear is that, 90% (i.e. GHC89.5 billion) of Ghana’s total debt since independence has been accumulated under this NDC government between 2009-2015 i.e. the last seven years”

But contributing to a panel discussion on Radio Gold's "Alhaji and Alhaji" programme, Felix Kwakye Fosu rather accused the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana of spewing "malicious lies" by fraudulently manipulating figures.

He wondered why "nobody in the media" had thought it prudent to validate Dr Bawumia's claims. 

“…what he (Bawumia) does is a fraudulent manipulation of figures to justify his falsehood…these malicious lies that he tells….simply does not make sense. We are not going to be deceived by these contrived claims by Dr Bawumia; it is malicious falsehood. The New Patriotic Party as a political party need to realise that it is not a sustainable path to thread…you don’t do that you don’t gain anything by lying through your teeth. The facts are available and anybody can access it. Why is it that the media allows such falsehood to be perpetuated? How come there is nobody in the media to dig up this information?”