John Dramani Mahama
A few years ago, former president Mahama asserted somewhat impertinently that Ghanaians suffer from incurable memory loss and therefore do not remember and appreciate the past (emphasis mine).
The seemingly unpalatable pronouncement by the former president was somehow necessitated by the suffering Ghanaians’ endless complaints over the massive economic mess (dragged an economic growth of 14% in 2011 to a miserable 3.4% in 2016- and single-digit inflation to double figures).
Therefore, if the good people of Ghana fail to acknowledge the painful fact that Ghana’s economy was in a shambolic state under former President Mahama, then we are sadly reinforcing his incredible assertion that Ghanaians have a short memory.
Back then, the late Mills left a sound economic growth of 14% and Mahama reversed it to an incredible 3.4%, the late Mills left the agricultural growth of 7.4% and Mahama dragged it to a meagre 2.5%, the late Mills single-digit inflation was reversed to 15.4%, GDP of GH47billion was squeamishly shrunk to GH40 billion by Mahama.
As if that was not enough, Ghanaians were made to sleep in darkness for well over four years by the outgone Mahama administration. We should not lose sight of the fight that the former President made catastrophic mistakes during his time in office and therefore could not steer the nation in the right direction.
As a leader, Mahama disappointed the good people of Ghana with his lackadaisical approach and the good people of Ghana rightly voted him out in 2016 and sent him packing in 2020.
But all said and done, we have been witnessing unbridled reactive emotional responses from former President Mahama and the diehard supporters of NDC ever since they lost the 2016 and 2020 general elections to the NPP.
Some of us cannot get our heads around how and why Mahama and his teeming supporters would move heaven and earth to reclaim the presidency after being voted out of office by discerning Ghanaians due to his terrible errors in judgement amid business crippling dumsor.
With all due respect with no attached condescension whatsoever, former President Mahama had had enough opportunity to show discerning Ghanaians his ability to steer the nation in the right direction and woefully failed to do so. So, what else does he want in the presidency?
No one can deny or ignore the fact that Mahama is one of the luckiest politicians in contemporary Ghanaian politics.
Mahama admitted after the sudden and inexplicable death of President Mills that he was extremely lucky and most grateful to the late Mills for allowing him to superintend Ghana’s economy from 2009 to 2012.
This article thus seeks to grub into the state of Ghana’s economy in the 8 years under Mahama.
If we stroll down memory lane, three years after the Kufuor’s NPP government had worked tirelessly and discovered oil in commercial quantities, the NDC government led by the late President Mills only had the easiest job of turning on the valve at an offshore platform in December 2010 to pump the first commercial oil.
Ghana then took its rightful place among the petroleum-exporting countries. And believe it or not, Ghana started to export crude oil which boosted the economic growth.
The economy grew favourably from around 8.4 per cent to around 14 per cent by 2011 and Ghana subsequently reached the Lower middle-income status.
Ghana’s GDP grew exponentially from GH28 billion to a staggering GH47 billion by 2011.
Ghana was then cited as the world’s fastest-growing economy in 2010 (Economy Watch, 2010).
Regrettably, however, following the sudden and mysterious death of President Mills in July 2012, Ghana’s economy took a precipitous nosedive.
Take, for example, during the 2012 electioneering campaign, the late Mills’ successor, Mahama and his NDC apparatchiks went haywire in their desperation to retain power.
Thus, they wilfully broke all conventions. Many government departments spent over and above their allocated budgets.
The previously single-digit inflation and budget deficit doubled astronomically. The GH9.5 billion debt former President Kufuor and his NPP government left in 2009 ballooned miraculously to GH122.4 billion as of December 2016 with nothing or little to show for it.
Ghana’s economic growth slowed for the fourth consecutive year to an estimated 3.4% in 2015 from 4% in 2014 as energy rationing (dumsor), high inflation, and ongoing fiscal consolidation weighed on economic activity (World Bank, 2016).
Moreover, President Mahama’s government nauseatingly dragged the economic growth from around 14%in 2011 to around 3.4% as of December 2016.
In addition, the high inflation rate remains elevated at 18.5% in February 2016 compared to 17.7% in February 2015, even after the Central Bank’s 500 bps policy rate hikes (the inflation stood at 15.4%as of October 2016).
Unsurprisingly, therefore, during the epoch of Mahama’s coarse governance, some concerned patriots like Jake Obetsebi Lamptey of blessed memory lamented: “Ghanaians are worried because the economy is being handled in a manner reminiscent of the NDC’s mishandling of the economy in 2000. We do not need to return to HIPC status.”
Ex-President Mahama did not work his socks off to improve the socio-economic living standards of Ghanaians.
Take, for example, former President Kufuor worked strenuously and quadrupled Ghana’s GDP to a staggering GH28 billion in 2008, and the late Mills inherited oil in commercial quantities and managed to increase the GDP to GH47 billion by 2011.
However, President Mahama disappointingly dragged the GDP to an incredible GH40 billion as of December 2016.
But despite the huge economic mess created by the outgone Mahama administration amid stunted economic growth, the Akufo-Addo administration, before the insidious coronavirus, efficiently raised the economic growth from a disappointing 3.4 % as of December 2016 to a favourable 8.6 %.
Again, the NPP administration, before the pernicious coronavirus, reversed the inflation rate to a single digit-around 7.5% from a little over 15 %as of December 2016. Some of us do not have chronic amnesia and can recollect vividly that despite the absence of the deadly pandemic and the truculent Russia/Ukraine war, Ghana’s economy under Mahama was not so good.
