The Executive Director of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe has described the government’s response to concerns raised by the #OccupyFlagstaffHouse protestors as a replica of the President’s state of the nation address.
“Listening to the whole statement, there wasn’t much difference between the President’s state of the nation address and then the budget which has been obviously uninspiring,” he said.
Mr. Cudjoe remarked that the response was an “exercise in futility and it shouldn’t have been done in the first place and it will never really address anything.”
The government on Tuesday organized a press conference to respond to the concerns listed in the petition submitted to the Presidency by the #OccupyFlagstaffHouse protestors.
The group staged a demonstration on Ghana’s Republic Day, July 1, to protest against the economic hardships which have burdened Ghanaians and adversely affecting businesses.
The group also demanded that the government should take urgent steps to prosecute persons indicted in the various corruption scandals which have rocked the country.
A deputy Information Minister, Felix Kwakye-Ofosu promised that the ‘Better Ghana Agenda’ of the government will surely be delivered despite the challenges.
But Mr. Cudjoe who was among the protestors discounted assertions that they are preaching gloom and doom because Ghanaians are not responsible for the “bad Forex rules, the escalating prices of everything, GYEEDA, SUBAH, SADA and all the corruption that are flying all over.”
He indicated that a summation of all the corrupt dealings which have rocked the nation will come to a total of about GHC 3 billion “and that money could have done a lot more for the people of this country.”
The IMANI boss insisted that the government response “was not well thought through…it was like a propaganda piece of material without any proper business accounting.”
He urged the government to discuss and address the challenges facing the country critically devoid of “all the insults.”
“I felt really insulted to be told that all these bad things that have happened to the economy is because some of us preach doom,” he complained.
Mr. Cudjoe pointed out that the response failed to include some vital issues such as the Forex rules, taxes, corruption, labour agitations and a host of others.
“The major issues; the elephant in the room were not addressed…this is not what I want the central bank to be focusing on now,” he added.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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