NDC has done nothing to deserve the goodwill it is enjoying from Ghanaians – Walewale MP

A member of the Finance Committee of the Parliament of Ghana, Abdul Kabiru Tiah Mahama, has attributed Ghana’s current economic successes to the foundation built by the NPP.

Speaking in a yet-to-be-aired episode of GhanaWeb TV’s The Lowdown, hosted by George Ayisi, the Member of Parliament for Walewale noted that while the Ghanaian public tends to praise the ruling government based on current economic indicators, a more cursory analysis shows that the NDC has little to account for.

“It is quite difficult to explain the goodwill of the National Democratic Congress. It is difficult in the sense that what the Ghanaian people want to see is that things are good; as to how those things became good, they rarely focus on that. If, by providence or sheer luck, someone is doing well, what they focus on is that it is well. If I started a journey and did not reach the finish line, and someone took over the baton from where I left, irrespective of the number of miles or kilometers to the finish line, it doesn’t matter the journey I traveled; the one who reaches the finish line gets the credit. To that extent, I understand why the Ghanaian people, or some people, believe that the NDC got everything right or is getting things right where we got it wrong,” he stated.

However, he stressed the need to analyse the factors behind the economic performance to give fair and balanced credit to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for laying a strong foundation for Ghana’s economic recovery.

“Any sober, critical, and analytical mind will examine the numbers to determine what has caused those results. Through that, we can begin to know whether it was something done that the NDC is now riding on, or something they conceived, initiated, and implemented. Without that, it is difficult for an ordinary Ghanaian to appreciate the story of the New Patriotic Party,” he said.

He noted that similar to the current government, the NPP, in 2017, inherited an IMF program that guaranteed some level of economic stability, leading to the party enjoying goodwill in the early days of their tenure.

“Through the IMF program, we had certain stability, certain goodwill, and certain macroeconomic indicators performing well. It is the same thing this government is experiencing; they inherited an IMF program. So, if all the indicators are pointing in the right direction, people will be happy. They don’t care whether the decisions we took brought us this far. From where I sit, looking at the numbers, having been in a position where the economy is managed and decisions are made, the NDC has done virtually nothing to earn the goodwill they are receiving in terms of economic management. They have not done anything extraordinarily different that would suggest the gains we are seeing are solely their handiwork,” he said.

He pointed out that the NPP took difficult decisions, such as the gold purchase program and the Domestic Debt Exchange Program, for which economic indicators were showing positive signs long before their exit from power.

“I understand the goodwill they are receiving, and I can appreciate that, but from where I sit, being critical and knowing that you can’t implement measures today and see results tomorrow — especially in economic management — it takes time for measures to yield results. You couldn’t expect the NDC, which has been in office for barely six months, to have done the things they claim to have done,” he asserted.

GA/AE