It’s an honour to recognize Bawumia as ‘Walewale Adam Smith’ – John Boadu

The ruling New Patriotic Party has welcomed with pride the new nametag given to the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia by the NDC following the EMT town hall meeting speech he delivered last Wednesday, 3rd April, 2019.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Sunday, 7 April 2019, the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, John Boadu noted that, the party is particularly glad that the NDC has finally recognized the economic prowess of the vice president; thus likening him not to a mere economist but the father of economics, Adam Smith.

“It will interest you to know that Adam Smith is the father of modern economics. With all the gurus in economics Adam Smith is credited as the father of modern economics.”

“So for an opposition’s economic management team to recognize the prowess of the chairman of our economic management team, tells a big story,” he added.

During a reprisal lecture to unearth the myths and truths of the Ghanaian economy, Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo bestowed the name, ‘Walewale Adam Smith’ on Vice President Dr Bawumia to expose him over his lecture which the NDC claims “was full of misleading facts and patent misstatements laced with the usual populist rhetoric rather than a fact-based presentation on the economy".

But recounting some economic figures expounded by Ato Forson, a member of the NDC economic management team, Mr Boadu noted that the NDC lied to Ghanaians.

“…particularly with regards to the non-rebase fiscal deficit figure for the year 2016, this is what Ato Forson said: “Official data from the ministry of finance indicate clearly that the overall end of year 2016 was 7.8% of GDP that is 6.1% of new GDP, the rebase GDP”, ladies and gentlemen this was a big lie from honourable Ato Forson.”

Adam Smith was a Scottish philosopher and economist best known as the author of ‘An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’ in 1776. He lived from 1723 to 1790.

In Dr Bawumia’s town hall meeting speech, he revealed amongst other things that the Ghanaian economy was on good grounds and that the fall in the value of the cedi does not necessarily translate that the Ghanaian economic fundamentals are weak.

He said the cedi fall was largely due to external factors rather than weak fundamentals of the economy, unlike, in his opinion, it pertained in 2014 when he (Dr Bawumia), famously said: “If the fundamentals are weak, the exchange rate will expose you”.

According to Dr Bawumia, “Factors such as the inflation rate, the balance of trade, the fiscal balance, money supply, are what we refer to as the fundamentals. But speculation and expectations about these fundamentals; external shocks such as oil price increases, can also have powerful short-term effects on the exchange rate”.

These claims have been vehemently disputed by the opposition National Democratic Congress.