Bawumia Lecture: Foreign Ministry & Conference Centre officials contradict themselves

The Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) and its supervisory Ministry, Foreign Affairs, appears to be strongly contradicting themselves over the availability of the centre to hold the public lecture by the largest opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on Thursday, September 8.

The renowned Economist was scheduled to deliver a paper on the State of the Ghanaian Economy at the Conference Centre themed:“The State of the Ghanaian Economy : A foundation of Concrete or of Straw”.

But the office Dr Bawumiah has issued a statement indicating the venue has been changed to the National Theatre 24 hours to the event.

There have been allegations that the government which controls the Accra International Conference Centre, (AICC) through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had blocked organizers of the event from using the Centre which until Wednesday evening was the advertised venue.

Though the Chief Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Leslie Kojo Christian who dismissed the rumour in an interview with Kasapa FM’s Editor, Emmanuel Ohemeng stating that the organizers and Dr Bawumia have been cleared to use the facility, that is not the case.

Investigations carried out by Mr Ohemeng at the AICC revealed that authorities of the Centre have declined hosting the event due to faulty chillers at the venue which can’t power the air conditioners for the huge crowd that is expected to attend the lecture.

Authorities were looking at the possibility of using fans but they reckon that will also blow heat in the process and as a result decided not to host the programme.

The event which starts at 4.00 pm will be chaired by Former President John Agyekum Kufuor.

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia who is a former deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana has in recent times argued that the key sectors of the economy are contracting and stagnating which explains for the reason why the economy is not growing.

The Ghanaian economy, according to him, is the one that critically requires a re-engineering to boost drivers of the economy.