Bawumia spoke to entertain NPP faithful not to address economic issues – Economist

A US-based Ghanaian economist, Dr Sa-ad Iddrisu, has opposed the views espoused by Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia during economic lecture held on Thursday, 7 April 2022 in the Central Region.

He further described it as a propaganda event and nothing more.

According to Dr Iddrisu, “listening to Dr Bawumia makes one believe that he was brought out from his long-silence just to entertain NPP faithful and not to actually address the economic problems facing the country now.”

He said “to justify” the government’s “recklessness and mismanagement of the funds borrowed”, Dr Bawumia “decides to list over 100 projects as an indication of what the funds were used for”.

In Dr Iddrisu’s view, the questions every Ghanaian should ask include: ‘How many of these listed projects are actually projects completed by this government? How many of the listed projects are still nearing completion?’

“As far as you know, not even a brick has been laid on the sites of many of these projects listed by Dr Bawumia”, he noted.

In fact, he added, “the Yendi Water Project is an example of this since not a single brick has been laid on the project site to date.”

“Again, on the projects, if Dr Bawumia was really delivering an economic lecture, he should have told Ghanaians how many jobs have been created from these projects”.

“I was expecting Dr Bawumia to tell us in his lecture, how many direct and indirect jobs have been created from these projects he listed and also how many of those jobs were temporary or continuous jobs. In an economy where unemployment is becoming a national security threat, the emphasis should be on job creation when borrowing funds for projects”, Dr. Iddrisu said.

Read Dr Iddrisu’s full statement below:

The Vice-President, Dr. Bawumia, thrilled his party supporters and sympathizers with his recent propaganda event which he terms an ‘economic lecture’.

Listening to Dr. Bawumia makes one believe that he was brought out from long silence, just to entertain NPP faithful and not to actually address the economic problems currently facing the country.

The whole lecture was to shift the blame for the mismanagement of the economy onto Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war which started on Feb 24, barely two months to date.

Even in doing so, Dr. Bawumia failed to tell Ghanaians what measures the government he serves under, has taken or plans to take, in order to mitigate the rising food prices in our various markets.

On the issue of borrowing, Nana Addo’s government has borrowed more in six years than all Presidents combined since Ghana attained independence. According to the Bank of Ghana's Monetary Policy Report for January 2022 and January 2017, the total stock of Ghana’s public debts stood at GH¢344.6 billion at November 2021 and GH¢127.3 billion as at November 2016, respectively.

That is a dollar equivalent of $58.2 billion as of November 2021 and $30.1 billion as of November 2016, using past and present exchange rates.

This means that the current government under Nana Addo in 6 years has increased our public debt by 93.4%, using the dollar equivalent for comparison.

That is to say, Nana Addo's government in six years has borrowed almost double of what all governments borrowed in dollars since the country’s independence.

To justify this recklessness and mismanagement of the funds borrowed, Dr. Bawumia decides to list over 100 projects as indication of what the funds were used for.

Questions that every Ghanaian should ask include: How many of these listed projects are actual projects completed by this government? How many of the listed projects are still nearing completion?

For as far as you know, not even a brick has been laid in the sites of many of these projects listed by Dr. Bawumia. In fact, the Yendi Water Project is an example of this since not a single brick has been laid on the project site to date.”

Again, on the projects, if Dr. Bawumai was really delivering an economic lecture, he should have told Ghanaians how many jobs have been created from these projects.

I was expecting Dr. Bawumia to tell us in his lecture, how many direct and indirect jobs have been created from these projects he listed and also how many of those jobs were temporary or continuous