In The History Of The 4Th Republic, The Economy Has Not Been As Bad As It Is Today – Mahama Laments

Listen to this article Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

On Wednesday August 19 2020, the former president of Ghana and NDC presidential candidate John Dramani Mahama called on the Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, Togbe Afede XIV, at his palace in Ho as part of the former’s four-day tour of the Volta Region.

He revealed that the current state of the economy is historic, such that in the history of the fourth (4th) republic, Ghana’s economy has not been as bad as it is today.

He argued that the contrary to the admission that the current state of the economy might be as a result of the adverse coronavirus pandemic rather it’s about poor management.

“Our economy is in the Intensive Care Unit. In the history of the fourth republic, the economy is not as poor as it is today. Tobge, let nobody say it is because of Coronavirus. The economy was already struggling before coronavirus came.”

Moreover, he is optimistic that Ghana will end this year with the worse physical deficit ever.

“For the first time in our history, our finance ministry presents two sets of figures on the economy. One they present to parliament and the other they present to the IMF. In one they say that the financial deficit is below 5% and in the other they say it is above 7%. But Togbe, we will end this year with the worse physical deficit we’ve ever had . It is possible we will end this year with almost 15% of GDP and that is because we have had poor managers of the economy” – Mahama stressed.

He maintained that governance or management of a country is based on planning and common sense.

Former President John Dramani Mahama subsequently addressed a gathering of chiefs and people and touched on a wide range of issues including the poor state of the economy, the deliberate targeting of businesses of people the government consider to be political opponents, huge government borrowings just for consumption, the government’s refusal to pay certain contractors and the untold hardship that has brought to their businesses and families as well as the controversial decision by the government to mortgage the country’s mineral royalties.

Togbe Afede, however, touched on unity, inclusion and “freedom and justice has become imperilled by tribalism”.

By: Nana Gyasi | Radio 1 | Ghana