You bragged about having the men, why is IMF now managing our economy? – Twum-Barimah slams Bawumia

Private legal practitioner and a member of the communication team of the opposition NDC, Alexander twum-Barimah has lashed out at Vice President Dr Mahamadu Bawumia over the country’s return to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.

The debt-ridden West African country successfully completed a $3 billion deal with the IMF despite rejecting calls to seek help from the Bretton Woods Institution.

Candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in 2015 called then-president John Mahama of the NDC incompetent for seeking an International Monetary Fund bailout during an economic downturn.

While assuming power in 2017 while the IMF credit facility was still running, Vice President Bawumia slammed his predecessor and the government over the deal.

“We have the men,” Bawumia said at a public forum while touting the economic management team of the NPP to the chagrin of the opposition NDC.

To many Ghanaians, an Akufo-Addo government seeking a bailout from the IMF was impossible since their promise was to totally transform the country’s economy from “taxation to production.”

But as the country’s debt stock swelled to unsustainable levels, the Akufo-Addo government gleefully went for IMF assistance a few weeks after Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta rejected calls to seek help from the Fund.

But after touting a successful IMF programme, Twum-barimah who was speaking on Dwaboase on TV XYZ harshly criticised the Akufo-Addo government for the implementation of some poor policies that ended the country at the doorstep of IMF.

For instance, he said the pro-poor policy, the Free SHS, was poorly targeted. he said the NDC started a progressively free SHS programme which targeted poor pupils yet to score a political point, the Akufo-Addo government sought to roll out the programme to admit all qualified JHS leavers without securing the necessary infrastructure.

“We advised the NPP government about some of the policies and they rejected it. Today, the IMF is teaching them sense, telling them that the programmes were poorly targeted and they are forced to oblige,” the lawyer said.

To him, the leadership of the NPP “lack a common sense for governance and that is why the IMF is now managing the finances of the country.”

“Where are the so-called men they touted?” he quizzed while mocking Dr Bawumia in Akan.