Dr. Yao Graham, Coordinator of the Third World Network Africa, has attributed Ghana’s current economic meltdown to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s insatiable preoccupation to leave a legacy at all cost.
This, he claims, is evident in the government’s inability to recognize the reality of the crisis caused by its own actions.
“There is a refusal to see the reality which can be described as arrogant and insensitive. The President, I have always felt, is concerned about legacy,” he said.
Speaking on Citi TV‘s The Point View, he pointed to the government’s failure to review some of its signature initiatives and the vehement opposition to the domestic debt swap programme as two stark examples of how the government has failed the people.
“People are talking about inefficiencies in the Free SHS. It is not a bad idea, but the President says we cannot even review it. It’s clear that there is a disconnect between the Presidency and the party.”
He went on to say that these developments indicate that the government has lost touch with reality.
“For the Majority Leader to come out to criticize the DDE, it tells you something. For a former Chief Justice to sit in a picket, it tells you that we are in a crisis of legitimacy that the regime is facing. There are many things that the government has proposed in ideas, but it is when we come to the details that we find the problems”, he added.
Speaking specifically on the debt swap program, Dr. Yao Graham said, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo must be ashamed of promising Ghanaians no haircuts on their investments.
For him, that comment made by the President should have rather been an acknowledgment of the current economic crisis and an appeal for all hands on deck to help Ghana reach public debt levels that are manageable.
“That broadcast that the President made and said there will be no haircut, he must be embarrassed by what is going on. That speech, in my view, should have said that there is a crisis that will require sacrifices from all of us and force us as a government to rethink the way we do business to reduce public expenditure. That is legitimate. With that, everyone is board. It will not be easy but it would have improved the climate”, he stressed.
Dr. Yao Graham thinks the highly fought Domestic Debt Exchange (DDE) initiative is politically destructive in its current form.
He also blames the Finance Minister for the program’s poor handling due to a lack of consultations with key players in the sector, and says the government should be ashamed of the obvious case of ineptitude.
“Really, the Finance Minister has been very arrogant, especially in his relationship with the victims of this exercise. The changing of the dates and terms is also a statement of incompetence. That he didn’t think through and engage properly. This is more embarrassing. The DDE has really hammered the legitimacy of this government. It is also a political disaster.”
