NDC coup comments aimed at hurting govt’s effort to revive economy – Otchere-Darko

Founder of the Danquah Institute(DI) and leading member of the New Patriotic Party, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has described the coup comments made by some members of the opposition National Democratic Congress as attempts to thwart the government’s efforts to revive the economy.

This follows assertions by the Dean of the Law Faculty at the University of Ghana Professor Raymond Atuguba that the country had become a fertile ground for a coup.

According to the DI founder, the comments by some of the NDC’s members are geared towards scaring away potential investors to the country in order to defeat the government’s efforts at reviving the economy.

In a tweet on Thursday, 3 March 2022, the DI founder said: “Members of the Opposition fanning the ashes on the dead logs of instability may have at least one sinister aim in mind: to scare away investors and hurt efforts to revive the economy. And, yes, investors have started asking questions should they be worried.”

Members of the Opposition fanning the ashes on the dead logs of instability may have at least one sinister aim in mind: to scare away investors and hurt efforts to revive the economy. And, yes, investors have started asking questions should they be worried.

The Dean of the University of Ghana, School of Law, had said Ghana may be ripe for a coup unless the government acts quickly.

His assessment, he noted, partly stems from doctoral research conducted on why some coups succeed and others do not, using Ghana as a case study.

The government has acknowledged there is no money, thus, an urgent need to pass the e-levy to expand the tax base for sustained development and reduce the debt burden.

At a forum organized by Solidare Ghana, Prof Atuguba said: “My current assessment that Ghana may be ripe for a coup partly springs from the knowledge I gained from accompanying my friend through part of his doctoral research on this topic”.

“It does not help matters if we consider Samuel Huntington’s thesis on the snowballing effect of coups in the sub-region and the closeness of recent coups to home.”

He, thus, urged the Minister of National Security, Mr. Albert Kan-Dapaah, to have a conversation with his friend at the War College, who conducted the study to avert same.

Prof Atuguba explained further that a big part of why certain coups succeed and others fail is the economy.

“What is the state of Ghana’s economy today? At the level of the most irreducible idiomaticity, Ghana is broke; your nation is radically broke – so broke the Speaker of Parliament has publicly warned that we may not be able to pay the salaries of public sector workers in some three months unless a miracle happens,” he stated.