WAMPAH EXIT IS FOR RECKLESS SPENDING - SIR JOHN

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Former New Patriotic Party (NPP) General Secretary Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie aka Sir John says the Mahama-led NDC government engineered the exit of Bank of Ghana Governor Dr Henry Kofi Wampah in order to repeat the reckless spending of Ghana’s money just to retain power in the November general election.

The high level of spending in the 2012 general election by President Mahama and his NDC led to near bankruptcy, leading to a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with its attendant hardship to the people.

The Mahama government, despite assurances that it wouldn’t overspend, dipped its hands into the state coffers, leaving behind an unprecedented budget deficit of nearly $5 billion, with donors cutting support to Ghana because of the reckless spending.

Forced Resignation

According to Sir John, the ‘forced’ resignation of Dr Wampah, who should have left office in August, “paves the way for another wholesale pillage of the vaults of the central bank.”

The government has since appointed NDC card-bearing member Dr Abdul Nashiru Issahaku, who at the time of his appointment was the Second Deputy Governor.

Sir John said President Mahama has appointed his crony whom many see as lacking the requisite experience to be Governor, and added that the president had only one thing in mind when he appointed Dr Issahaku, a former CEO of the Export Development and Agric Development Fund.

Election Machinery

“The whole idea is to let President John Mahama and his Vice President, Amissah-Arthur, do what they know best, which is to rob the central bank to fund their greed and the NDC election machinery and leave the impoverished people of Ghana even poorer for the next four years until the next general election.”

He said a similar thing happened in 2012 when the current Vice President resigned as Governor for Dr Wampah to be appointed.

Sir John said the timing and manner of Dr Wampah’s exit as well as his replacement with Dr Nashiru Issahaku confirmed three things:

“First, President John Mahama intends to break the bank again, as he did in 2012, an election year, for electoral purposes; and he will do anything to achieve that, including blackmailing public officials.

“Secondly, the president prefers mediocrity above competence, and cares nothing about the health of the economy and the impact a poorly managed economy has on the ordinary people of Ghana.”

Ethnic Cronyism

He also said Dr Issahaku’s appointment was a reaffirmation of the fact that President Mahama was pushing an agenda of what he called “ethnic cronyism.”

“The agenda to reduce the influence and power of the Fanti, Ewe and Ga-Dangme factions in John Mahama’s NDC is pretty obvious to me. He wants to establish hegemony of a small inner circle of family and friends of John Mahama drawn from people he grew up with, people he played chasskele with and people he plays with.”

He added, “It is not as if he is even doing it to help the people of the North, because he took over $200 million in their name through SADA and that became just another victim of create, loot and share. So he does not even do things to help the people of the North. He only does gimmicks like this for them to think he is doing it for them.”

Fiscal Deficit

“In 2012, an election year, Ghana's fiscal deficit was almost GH¢9 billion, representing about 12% of our GDP. Some $2 billion hole was blown into the budget in the last couple of months to the election. Up to date, no proper explanation has been given to the people of Ghana who have had to tighten their belts and lose their jobs to pay for those financial sins of the president and his cronies,” he said.

He noted that “In fact, it was the largest ever fiscal deficit recorded in the history of our nation. In that year alone, government expenditure increased to about 31% of our GDP, most of these expenditures occurring in the last few months to the election.”

“The Bank of Ghana, under then Acting Governor Dr Wampah, played a central role in this irresponsible act. The domestic debt market largely financed the fiscal deficit, peaking in 2012 when it accounted for 80% of Total Deficit Financing.”

“John Mahama stole from us to win and win at all cost for the people to suffer and suffer. He wants to do it again and we must find a way to stop him,” said Sir John.