Will Osafo-Maafo Resign?

Many Ghanaians are beginning to wonder if Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the Minister of Finance, will do the honourable thing of resigning after committing to many blunders.

In any self-respecting country which places premium on the principle of public accountability, Mr Osafo-Maafo would have been compelled to resign when eh publicly admitted that he signed an agreement on behalf of the Government of Ghana without reading it.

His explanation for not reading a debt forgiving agreement with the German Government was that it was written in German. About a year ago, Mr Osafo-Maafo convinced his Government that he could raise a loan of US$1 billion from a company, which called itself international Finance Consortium (IFC).

In spite of protests from well-meaning individuals and organisations, Mr Osafo Maafo pushed the IFC agreement through Parliament. Various grades of spin doctors and propagandists were employed to party the arguments of those who saw the loan agreement as a scam.

Indeed those opposed to the IFC loan were described variously as ?saboteurs?, ?NDC agents?, ?nation wreckers? and ?mischievous.?

In the final analysis, Mr Osafo-Maafo?s ?spin doctoring? collapsed and the Government retreated from the IFC loan in total embarrassment. This year, Mr Osafo-Maafo has done it again. He has pushed an apparently dubious loan agreement through Parliament and is using all manner of spin doctors and propagandists to whitewash it.

Everybody including Mr Osafo-Maafo?s own spin doctors and propagandists admit that the CNT loan agreement was not handled properly. The bona fides of CNT were not checked and Government has moved from one blunder to another. The question on many Ghanaians? lips is, will Osafo-Maafo resign this time?