A Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Kweku Kwarteng, has hit hard at President John Dramani Mahama for what he describes as his misrepresentation on how the economy is performing.
President Mahama during the second leg of his “Accounting to the People” tour, said his administration’s prudent management of the economy is sustaining the country in the face of collapsing commodity prices.
According to him, his government had managed the effects of the falling commodity prices.
“Today, the world economy is in crisis. Some countries like Saudi Arabia that have huge reserves for oil today are implementing austerity measures, increasing the price of petroleum products, increasing the price of utility and it is not only Saudi Arabia. Many of the countries with huge foreign reserves or billions of dollars today are facing financial challenges…
“…Because of prudent economic management, even though Ghana is experiencing a drop in the price of the oil that we export, we have sustained a drop in the price of our gold exports for almost four to five years now. You will notice that our economy still remains resilient and is not facing the kind of crisis that we are seeing in other parts of the world and that means that economic management of the economy has been good,” said the President.
But the Obuasi West MP in a sharp rebuttal dismissed the President’s claims, saying he [Mahama] is just on a mission to mislead Ghanaians.
“The President did not just get it wrong,I think the President is on a mission to mislead Ghanaians. To start with, this is clearly a President and a government sort of thing.. he is looking for excuses that cannot come.”
He was also angered by President Mahama’s decision to trumpet his achievements especially during a period when Ghana’s economic crisis had intensified.
“Instead of assessing the circumstances that took us to the IMF, the president is beating his chest. We have more economic activities now so we should be reaping benefits but we aren’t.”
The NPP MP, on Eyewitness News argued that the Mahama-led administration had woefully failed on its mandate and is only looking for reasons to justify its poor performance.
“The President said that government has managed the economy prudently but for their performance, Ghana will be in difficulty because oil prices are dropping and prices of other goods on the international market are dropping. What President Mahama forgot is that his predecessors did not have oil, he is lucky to have oil and he is complaining about the price he is getting for the oil he has-this is not good enough.”
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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