No one wants to take responsibility for state of economy - Mahama

Former President John Dramani Mahama has said no one in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government wants to take responsibility for the current economic mess.

He said all appointee are shying away including their flagbearer hopefuls who were part of the Economic Management Team.

The government insist it is not to be blamed for the present economic crisis.

In July 2022, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia described the reason Ghana was seeking IMF support as “quadruple whammy.”

In his view, Ghana returned to the Bretton Woods institution because of the impact of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war, the banking sector clean up and the excess energy capacity payments.

The President himself, Nana Akufo-Addo, as well as government communicators have all blamed the economic crisis on covid and the Russia-Ukraine war.

But Mr Mahama speaking at the launch of his campaign to be elected NDC flagbearer on Thursday, 2 March 2023, at the Volta Region said Ghana’s problems which was avoidable begun six years ago.

He told his audience, “no one in this NPP government wants to take responsibility for anything, including their flagbearer hopefuls, most of whom were part of their Economic Management Team.

“They continue to lay blame for their economic disaster on external factors whose relationship with our present sorry circumstances are at most tenuous.”

Mr Mahama said this economic collapse has been years in the making “just as we know it was entirely avoidable.”

He lamented that amid all the suffering, the government remains obstinate and refuses to back down from the “costly missteps that led us here in the first place.”

He claims the government continues “to waste the precious little we have on dodgy and misguided projects, programmes and on a bloated government.”

“As they tighten the noose on the helpless citizenry by piling on more taxes and expropriating our money through measures like the domestic debt exchange, government offers no semblance of genuine sacrifice on its part.

“The national decay of the last six years has not been limited to the economy. It extends to all aspects of our lives,” he added.