The world is in ICU not only Ghana, this's a needles 'political ridicule' - Baako tells Mahama

Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has censured former President John Dramani Mahama for claiming Ghana's economy is in tatters under the leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Having a digital dialogue with Ghanaians, the former President lamented about the performance of the Akufo-Addo administration with particular emphasis on how he is handling the pandemic crisis of COVID-19.

Mr. Mahama stated emphatically that "just one month of this Government funding just some sections of the economy and vulnerable persons at home due to the coronavirus, our economy has gone to the ICU and is in tatters now and needs critical health examination''.

The former President further asserted that the current administration has put the economy on ventilators in need of a breakthrough which he can offer when re-elected into office.

Reacting to the former President's remarks, Kweku Baako posited that he (Mahama) seeks to only politically ridicule the present administration despite efforts by the President to drive Ghanaians to safety, taking into focus the current pandemic confronting them.

"To be honest, I didn't expect that from former President Mahama. All the big economies in the world are on their knees. All are on their knees. All are in ICU. All of them are on ventilators. It's not an exclusive matter peculiar to Ghana.''

"I got a feeling that it all amounted to political ridicule. That's the impression I got because it's a serious matter . . . We all know the Ghanaian economy and not just Ghanaian, the African or if you like the third world, the developing countries have in-depth structural deficiencies and inadequacies. That's why we keep talking about the structural transformation of our economy and this begun from Nkrumah time. He had a more focused agenda but even for him, long before he was overthrown, we were still grappling with the structural deficiencies because it's a process. It's not an event,'' he said on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo/ on Wednesday.



He questioned Mahama's logic for embarking on such a political journey saying "if you have been the leader of the country before and you make that statement, for me, I think you're ridiculing the situation. That's what I mean by political ridicule and that ought not to have come from that source''.

To Kweku Baako, the former President is making mismatching the performance of his administration vis-à-vis the Akufo-Addo government.

"NPP took over in 2017. Before 2017, what was the state of the economy? We're not talking of having structurally transformed the Ghanaian economy. We're talking of having brought some efficiency relative to economic management. That's the distinction because we're still on the journey," he pointed out.