According to studies and surveys conducted since his assumption to office, compared results rank the Akufo-Addo government as nightmarish and the worst in the living memory of any Ghanaian.
In a candid assessment, the first faltering step of the maladministration of the Akufo-Addo government started with his use of state power to leverage unfair competition in the banking and financial sector to the undeserved advantage of propping Databank and Enterprise Group up, a technical system to legitimise corruption. Databank and Enterprise Group legally belong Ken Ofori Attah, the Minister of Finance and cousin of Akufo-Addo. Ken Ofori Attah has always been the moneybag of the Akufo-Addo elections campaign since 2008.
The government conveniently labelled the exercise as financial sector cleanup. Due to the syndicate interest and intentions behind the exercise, the government was unable to deliver and fasten a scientific equilibrium scheme to the programme to put the economy on course without disturbing it the way it has happened. It led to lockup of funds belonging to entrepreneurs, and affecting the informal sector which employs 90% of the population, negatively. Further to this, the results from Operations Vanguard and Galam Stop, government exercises to clamp down on Illegal mining, has indicated exacerbation of the economy as thousands of small-scale miners were directly affected by the consequences of brute force used to confisticate and destroy mining equipment and machinery, capital assets acquired at heavy cost and unpaid.
Operation Vanguard and Galam Stop threw many people out of job, and deprived a further thousands direct beneficiaries and indirect dependants incomes. To deepen the woes of the informal sector, the operations license of Menz Gold, a supposed gold trading company, was withdrawn by Bank of Ghana and the Minerals Commission, which legitimised their operations. It led to another wave of locked up funds, further deteriorating an already hemorrhaging economy. Finally, the Akufo-Addo government perceived contractors and suppliers as sympathisers, and deliberately employed inhibitive partisan measures which prevented payments to enable the benefits of the multiplying effect on the economy.
To conceal the syndicate interest and intentions hidden in the Akufo-Addo family and friends government, free SHS has been touted to placate the discernment of many among the electorate. So also has the NPP propaganda deluded itself into thinking that NaBCo has come to solve graduate unemployment in Ghana. And that Planting for Food and Jobs has come to end hunger and create food surplus in the country. But an honest assessment shows the contrary as poverty levels and means of livelihood in the country has barely improved.
Elections 2020 is a referendum on Akufo-Addo who dwelt on a campaign promise to build 350 SHS buildings in 18 months from scratch. It has been almost four years in office, and he has not publicly led the media to such completed projects as he has done with projects even initiated by his predecessor, President John Dramani Mahama.
In fact, at the commissioning of the Tema Motorway Roundabout Interchange, Akufo-Addo didn’t only commit blunder at references he made about the Green Book, but he failed to use the opportunity to demonstrate global leadership and maturity as a role model. He tried to distort glaring facts by not acknowledging President John Dramani Mahama, whose initiative birthed two others more – Obetsebi Lamptey and Pokuase Interchanges.
A recent post on the wall of his Facebook account, the Chairman of PIAC, Dr Steve Manteaw, has nailed the coffin of the Akufo-Addo government with a conclusive conviction.
“Many have been asking me about the missing oil money. Here are the details: 2017= GHC 400,914,441; 2018= GHC 251,377,870.01; 2019 = GHC 1,479,896,300.00. Total amount of oil money the government has been unable to account for = GHC2,132,188,611.01. Why would you vote for a government that has failed to fully account for your oil revenues?”
By Comrade Shmuel Ja’Mba Abm
