Your government failed in all sectors of the economy - Bawumia hits back at Mahama

The Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has taken former President John Mahama to task, exposing what he calls Mahama's dreadful record in all economic indicators.

In a fiery delivery at Nungua, in the Krowor Constituency of the Greater Accra Region, Dr. Bawumia laughed off claims by former President Mahama on his Facebook page that the current NPP government is a failed government.

Responding, Dr. Bawumia taunted former President Mahama for not understanding economic data because if he did, he wouldn't be comparing his "failed government" with the NPP's when every available economic data shows that the NPP has a superior record.

"He said he has performed better than us, and I said if you believe you performed better, come for a debate. But he has run away," Dr. Bawumia said.

"I hear he has written on his Facebook that the NPP is a failed government. Then I said maybe he doesn't understand the economy. He either does not read the data, or he does not understand the data. He doesn't understand," Dr. Bawumia said as he launched a fiery counter-response on all economic indicators.

"I want him and those around him to listen to me this evening so I can explain the data to them so that they will get an understanding. Let me tell him that when it comes to the economy, overall GDP during your government is lower than ours. We have performed better than you," added the Vice President.

"When it comes to the economy in terms of agriculture growth, we have performed better than you. In terms of industry growth, we have performed better than you. In terms of budget deficit to GDP, we have performed better than you. The primary balance, we have performed better than you. The trade balance, we have performed better than you. The current account balance, we have performed better than you. Gross international reserves, we have performed better than you."

Dr. Bawumia continued, amidst loud cheers from the crowd, shifting his attention to the exchange rate, where he said performance is measured by the rate of depreciation.

In this regard, he said despite the current government being affected by the global economic crisis, as has every country, its exchange rate depreciation record is better than Mahama's government, which did not have to deal with a global economic crisis.

"Let me tell you about the exchange rate. I want them to listen because they don't understand," Dr. Bawumia said.

"When it comes to the exchange rate, we measure performance by the rate of depreciation. So if you look at the NDC period of 8 years, the rate of depreciation was 74% without a global crisis. No COVID crisis. No Russia-Ukraine war. No global economic recession."

"Under the NPP, as of today, after 8 years in office with a global economic crisis and the COVID pandemic, we have depreciated the cedi by 72%, which is lower than their depreciation. So if they say that we have mismanaged the cedi, then they mismanaged it worse than we have, without a crisis."

Other Sectors

In other sectors, Dr. Bawumia also highlighted a long list, which he said data shows how the current NPP government has done better than what Mahama did.

"Jobs, we have created more jobs than him. 2.3 million jobs. He was creating unemployment. He wasn't creating jobs."

"We have built more roads than him. We have built more airports than him. We have built more railways than him. We have built more interchanges than him. We have built more hospitals than him. We have built more schools than him. We have built more astro turfs than him. We have built more sports facilities than him. We have built more sanitation facilities than him. We have built more courts than him. We have built more public libraries than him. We have built more fish landing sites than him. We have brought more drones into the economy. We have done more school feeding than him. We have restored teacher training allowances, restored nursing training allowances. We have brought free TVET, and we have brought Free Senior High School Education."

Dr. Bawumia also moved to digitalization, where he slammed former President Mahama's poor performance and inferior record.

"We have brought the Ghana Card, which he could not issue. We have brought the digital address system to Ghana. We have brought mobile money interoperability, brought e-pharmacy, brought paperless ports, brought e-health into Ghana."

"By all accounts, if you look at the data on the economy, from top to bottom, we have performed better than him."

"He should go and check the data and understand the data before he comes out to speak on the economy. We have performed better than him in all ways."

On the issue of a "failed government," Bawumia turned the heat on Mahama, sarcastically saying the NPP has rather failed to replicate a number of Mahama's failures during his time as President.

"He said we are a failed government. I want to tell him that we have rather failed to do 4 years of dumsor," Bawumia hit at Mahama sarcastically.

"We have failed to cancel the teacher training allowance. We have failed to cancel the nursing training allowance. We have failed in the policy of no chalk in schools. We have failed in the three months pay policy for teachers."

He continued: "We have failed in the SADA guinea fowl project. We have failed in collapsing the NHIS. He collapsed it. He collapsed the ambulance service. We have resuscitated it."

"And he had a green book project for development. We don't have that. So if there is any failure, it is his which was a failed government."

"He should come and debate me, one on one. And we will see who has succeeded and who has failed. He should come and debate me, and we will get into the data."