Mahama is a lazy reader, incompetent – Kweku Kwarteng

Member of Parliament for Obuasi West, Kweku Kwarteng has described President John Dramani as a ''lazy reader'' who has embarrassed himself over his call on Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the vice presidential candidate of the NPP, to disclose the cost of re-denomination of the Ghana cedi carried out in 2007. According to him, the call by President Mahama exposes his incompetence, ignorance and failure to detailed information.

He said, if the state is wasting money on a president who feels lazy to read, then what i can say is that, President Mahama is incompetent. It could also mean that, the president is aware that the cost of the exercise was released in 2007 but wants to use it for propaganda.

However, you cannot govern this country with propaganda. Addressing a rally in the Ablekuma North constituency, President Mahama said since Dr. Bawumia was a Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana at the time the cedi re-denomination was carried out, he should be able to tell Ghanaians how much it cost government to undertake the exercise.

“Do we remember the cedi re-denomination under President Kufuor. During that time, someone [Bawumia] was the Deputy Bank of Ghana and uptill now, even me as a President do not know the cost of the re-denomination exercise. “Uptill today, no Ghanaian knows the cost of the re-denomination exercise and the same people come and say someone is incompetent.

When you re-denominated the cedi how much did it cost us? Simple things like these you cannot tell us and you have the nerve to come and talk about corruption. Look in the mirror and look at yourselves. “Take the log out of your eye before you point at the mote in somebody’s eye. Only God doesn’t make mistakes.

I am human, I am not God. I am not saying I have done so much but I have done what I can and if others say they have not noticed what I have done, God who is in heaven is my witness and he sees the good works NDC has done.” But responding to the claims by President John Dramani Mahama, Kweku Kwarteng indicated that, the president should have been briefed to save him from the embarrassment.

He noted, the president cannot jump into the bandwagon like ordinary political communicators. ''You cannot rule this country with propaganda, falsehood, deceit or do anything to malign people all because of politics. I will want the president to learn from this.

President Mahama thought he was embarrassing Dr. Bawumia but he has rather embarrassed himself. President Mahama should have sought information from the Central Bank on the data before coming out to call on Bawumia to disclose the amount spent on the re-denomination.

President Mahama is incompetent. I am not saying this to spite the president but to state the fact as it is.'' Meanwhile, his colleague NDC MP for Bia East constituency, Richard Acheampong has disagreed with the comments.

According to him, the president's call does not necessarily mean he did not have the information.

He also chided him for describing the president as a lazy reader. He said, the president was only calling on Dr. Bawumia to provide the information so, he could establish the true figure available or released by the Bank of Ghana in 2007.

He noted that, the re-denomination exercise was used to deceive Ghanaianas to create challenges for the currency. According to him, the re-denomination exercise did worse than good.

The Bank of Ghana spent a total of $66.2 million - about GH¢62.188 million (¢621.88 billion using current exchange rates) - on the redenomination exercise, a former Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Paul Acquah, disclosed in 2007 at a press briefing.

The figure he noted at the time, represented a saving of $28 million, if compared with the $94.8 million spent in 2003 and 2006 to replace worn out notes and coins and top up the existing currency in circulation.

The Bank of Ghana in 2007 re-denominated the cedi by setting 10,000 cedis to one the new Ghana Cedi (GH¢), a move that was aimed at strengthening the local currency.