Atta Mills survived on Kufuor's legacy; Mahama left me nothing – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that unlike former President John Agyekum Kufour who left the country with a lot more resources which empowered his successor John Atta Mills to embark on many developmental projects for the country, same cannot be said of the John Mahama government as his [Akufo-Addo] administration did not inherit a stable economy.

Reiterating his claim that the erstwhile Mahama administration left a weakened economy which poses a lot of challenges to his administration, the President said the Mr. Mahama left behind an almost empty coffers for them to work with but added that his government is working assiduously to get the economy back on track.

“Atta Mills was only lucky because he inherited power from Kufuor who left enough resources unlike my time. In my case, I didn’t meet any money, the government coffers was completely empty, no single dime was left, so I’m picking up, trying to gather resources with which we can little by little, develop the nation and grow the economy,” he said while addressing a gathering at Ablekuma Central as part of his 3-day tour of the capital.



President Akufo-Addo, as far back as his first State of the Nation address, lamented that his administration did not inherit a stable economy from the erstwhile Mahama-led government, which missed all the targets set for the country under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme due to fiscal indiscipline in the management of public funds.

Barely three weeks after assumption of office, he mentioned that the economy was in deeper crises than his party thought.

“We inherited an economy in poor shape. From what I am hearing and the evidence that is coming to me that is in even poorer shape than we anticipated.

“I’m a firm believer and a statesman that when our times are tough, the tough gets going. This is the time that we have to show leadership and commitment to our nation. I continue to be an unrepentant optimist by the opportunities and prospects of Ghana. We are especial people with a special destiny and I am going to do everything within my bones to make sure that, that destiny is realised in the years ahead of us,” he told journalists at the Flagstaff House.

In the midst of all these claims, the minority has said the Akufo-Addo government should not have expected to inherit a surplus budget from the Mahama administration.

“If it was that when you inherit a government, then you are coming to meet a pile of money, then there is no business being in government because you simply are coming to do nothing. No government comes to inherit the coffers with money. Even in the United States of America, you come to meet deficits that are being run by the government.”

“For a President to say he met an empty coffer; since when did a President ever come to meet money and spend that money in the development of a country.”

“What the President is asking for is that he should have come to meet a government that is running a surplus budget and building buffers of money for him to then use and spend and I am saying that would be almost irrational to consider a country such as Ghana… to have surplus money sitting there for Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo to now come and be sleeping at the Flagstaff House and be spending money because the money is available,” Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo said on Citi FM.