Duffuor Vows to defend his honour

Faulted for leaving behind a messy economy

The ruling National Democratic Congress and the opposition New Patriotic Party are like Siamese twins from the same mother but different fathers insofar as managing a political party or government is concern.

As the NPP put the pedal to the metal in the ongoing needless internecine warfare ahead of electing who leads the party into the 2016 polls; the NDC is just about kick starting its own version any time soon.

With the rapid deteriorations in the macro-economic fundamentals under the Mahama administration and its attendant untold hardships on the people, the NDC government seems not in a hurry to collectively find antidotes to the myriad of problems its policies has imposed on Ghanaians; instead the party is reportedlyengaged in internal fault finding exercise to undo each other.

After nearly a year and a half in office past and present officials of the late Mills government and the Mahama administration are said to be engrossed in dogfight over who is to be held liable for the current economic difficulties facing the country.

While some people both within government and outside are quick to lay the cause of the present economic woes at the doorstep of former Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, sources close to him says he cannot be blamed.

An aide to Dr Duffuor who does not want to be named in a follow-up interview with The aL-hAJJ, warned that attempts to blame the present economic difficulties solely on the former Finance minister in the Mills government could provoke unimagined tragedy for the Mahama government.

Dr Duffuor, who is reported seething with extreme anger over alleged attempts by the current managers of the national economy to push the present poor health of the economy on his laps, according to sources; is sad and irritated by such wicked conspiracy and has admonished his detractors to be mindful of the implications their weird plot could have on the NDC party and government.

“If they think by heaping blames on the challenges in the economy on Dr Duffuor the government would have provided an alibi to Ghanaians, then they should go ahead, ‘when night falls’ we shall all be witnesses to the outcome of our actions and or, inactions”, the source ended with an unexplained adage.

Adding that; “if this is the ‘reward’ for the man who devotedly and fruitfully managed an economy that became the cynosure of all eyes up until the last quarter of 2012 when he briefly went on a vacation; then God should help the NDC”.

According to the source, at the time the former Finance Minister left for his short trip abroad in September 2012, the economy was still robust. The deficit was just 7.1%, “and you would remember inflation then was in single digit, all the fundamentals were somewhat good…, the obvious question is; what triggered the sudden dislocations in the economy, this is something they should be speaking to.”

The source warned officials behind the evil machinations not to take the calmness and disciplined nature of the genteel former Finance minister as weakness.

Cautioning that, Dr Duffuor like all humans has a limit as to what he can absorb, beyond which no one can foretell, “so they should better watch what they say and what they plan doing”, he averred.

Ghana under the Mahama-led administration has seen continuous deterioration in the macro-economic fundamentals with fast-depreciating currency, arising largely from the 2012 election-related twin deficits of fiscal and current account, which repeated in 2013.

This has resulted in the downgrading of the nation’s credit worthiness by all the international rating agencies, namely Standard and Poor (S&P), Fitch and Moody; further reducing international and national confidence in the Ghanaian economy.