Ghana’s politics of insults must stop – Bawumia

by Kwabena Opong

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the vice-presidential candidate for Ghana’s opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) averred that Ghana would be better off without political insults. “Our political discourse is too noisy, laden with insults and too personal,” he said. The famed economist and former deputy governor of Bank of Ghana made this known in an interview with Amandla on Friday, July 13 at a reception held for him by the New Jersey chapter of the NPP at Scotch Plains, NJ.

He added that unrestrained political language, particularly in this election year raises the temperature of an already politically charged and volatile climate that is capable of lowering stability in the West African nation. Differences in political ideologies, after all, should not engender enmity among politicians, he said. He referred to the repeal of the criminal libel laws by the Kufuor administration as a measure that sought to deepen democracy in the country, but the NDC is scaling back those freedoms. On the other hand, Ghana’s democracy still remains the envy of Africa.

On the economy, Dr. Bawumia said that there are worrying signs. All the sectors are slowing down. Fishing is down below zero percent, job creation has been severely affected. “There is a phenomenal growth in cost of living,” he added.

He said his state of the economy lecture that received scathing responses from the NDC delivered a clear message. He said he was vindicated by the decision of the Statistical Services to revise its indicators of the economy that it put out earlier and pointed out to the IMF’s recent evaluation of the economy to buttress his analysis. According to Dr. Bawumia the free fall of the cedi contradicts the government’s constant assertion of attaining a single-digit inflation. Some of the issues affecting the cedi’s continuous downward depreciation and uncontrollable fall include, among others, over-invoicing, that causes excess liquidity, making the cedi one of the worst performing currencies in Africa.

Dr. Bawumia agreed that intra-party disagreements should rather be considered as a positive development in a serious and efficient democratic dispensation. He said there is no reason for politicians to agree with every decision made at party caucuses, adding “politicians must be more nationalistic and less partisan.” He was particularly resentful of government officials defending the payment of judgment debts and said at the end of the day it is Ghana that should be defended.

He emphasized that the Nana Akufo-Addo-Bawumia team has a set vision for Ghana that is capable of, and intends to develop a Ghana of opportunities and fairness and transform the economy for all. “An NPP government”, the Presidential Candidate and a prince in his traditional area affirmed that if given the mandate to govern Ghana, would develop a skilled workforce, utilizing already workable and existing models with similar economic indices and environment as Ghana. As a prerequisite, an NPP government would initiate and implement free education at least up to High School level. The affable running mate and famed economist opined that the unlimited resources and technical knowhow of Ghanaians in the diaspora would be tapped into and coopted into the system as a tool to augment local skills in order to facilitate developments.

The technologically savvy Bawumia remarked that it is imperative to harness technology of the 21st century in various sectors of the economy for accelerated and sustainable economy. He mentioned agro-processing, petroleum, integrated bauxite and aluminum industries, diamond and mining as areas which require modern technology.

The man who in the last couple of years helped to resuscitate Zimbabwe’s economy from several percentage-fold inflation to a single-inflation economy believes that there have (has?) to be incentives for the manufacturing sector as well. Macro-economic stability should be established to ensure business growth and the economy should be formalized. As it is now, he said the economy is too informal.

The renowned economist said that 80 percent of Ghana’s taxes come from Tema and Accra only and emphasized the need to expand the country’s tax base.

The general secretary of the NPP, Mr. K. Owusu Afriyie (aka Sir John) on his part observed that Ghanaian politics under the NDC is too polarized. The police, military and other public service organizations are all polarized. Top officials have all compromised their neutrality after being cowed into submission by the ruling government. Speech is now criminalized, but not for government officials and NDC functionaries.

In related development, the New Jersey chapter of the NPP presented plaques to Dr. Bawumia, Sir John and Mr. Abayifa Karbo, Youth leader of NPP, at a fundraiser held in Yonkers, New York City.

Posted by admin on Jul 16 2012. Filed under top stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry