Living on lies and textbook economics

If the NPP really respect Ghanaians, they should postpone their upcoming national delegates’ conference to elect party national officers of their party and stop all the noise about “Breaking the 8”.

It sounds insensitive for the party to be thinking about winning the next election when their government has put Ghana in the worst economic crisis in 50 years through their own extreme politicking and mismanagement of the economy.

The government has been wary of the political cost of going to the IMF for a balance of payment support, among other programs, versus doing the right thing to salvage the economy in the face of glaring evidence that we were heading for doom. That is what has landed us in this situation - the desire to hold onto power. As l’ve always said, Ghana should have gone to the IMF since last year July when the IMF came to Ghana for assessment and reports on our economy under its Article VI policy. That was when we were supposed to sit with them and tell our problems in honesty and sincerity, but because the government of the day had bastardized the IMF in the past, they couldn’t muster the courage to speak with the IMF about the balance of payment support.

The other reason why they couldn’t do that was the cooking of books on the economy that has been going on since this government took over. The other thing is for the NPP government to offer an unqualified apology to the people of Ghana for deceiving all this while that they were not going to IMF only to tell us now that they are going.

The Finance Minister is on record to have said we have pride, we have the resources and so we are not going. Deputy Finance Minister John Kumah said Ghana is not going to the IMF so long as the NPP stays in power. Then all of a sudden a statement came saying that we are going to the IMF for support. In the said statement, it was stated that Ghana already has a homegrown policy put together by the government. When was this policy put together because top officials of this government including the Finance Minister insisted that they were not going to the IMF.

So how did they put the homegrown policy together? It means the government was not honest with the people of Ghana about going to the IMF. It means they have been preparing to go to the IMF but kept on telling us that they were not going. The government under Akufo Addo only feared the political cost of going to the IMF than fixing the economy of Ghana. The NPP must go!

As the IMF come to town today, NPP communicators need to stop changing the narrative from the mess they have created without apologizing to the people of Ghana and stop saying that their reason for going to the IMF is better than the NDC’s. You said you were not going to the IMF in the first place. You see, this is the political propaganda with the economy people are talking about. Even after putting us in the ditch, the government is still bent on making excuses.

This government inherited an economy on its way to recovery as we were in an IMF program. They exited from the program and organized a kenkey party to celebrate it because the IMF program initiated by President Mahama did put Ghana on a strong path to macro stability. Then two years after exiting the IMF program, we are going back and you are blaming John Mahama and the NDC? Come on, you can be better.

Akufo Addo and his charges should respect Ghanaians and the voters that queued to vote for them in two elections. They have failed totally and need to apologize for the mess they have created. Their loud incompetency and cluelessness about economic management have come full circle to confront. Living on economic deception in various can only live that long. Truth survives the times, but lies can live only but a short while.