Ghana at a Crossroad: Highlights of John Mahama’s speech

 

1. A government that is bereft of ideas has resulted to incarceration of critical voices

2. Politicisation of independent state institutions and the dismissal of those who dared to ensure what is right

3. Promise to move Ghana from taxation to production, and this has not been achieved

4. Taken to blatant lies on rising prices of goods and services

5. Blatant refusal to admit facts

6. Nation characterised by unsustained public debt resulting from high debt servicing

7. Our country is on the verge of bankruptcy

8. Contrary to the promises of this government, they have tripled our debt to GDP

9. Debt servicing rose from 10 billion in 2016 to almost 50 billion as we speak

10. Our debt accumulation is not in anyway in line with the investment in capital expenditure

11. A ballooning local debt on the books of government

12. Ghana’s liability to local businesses exceed 30 billion Cedis

13. Government is unable to meets if spending obligations due to lack of fiscal space

14. Only 6% of the budget for 2021 was released to the National Health Insurance Authority

15. The government has squandered its way into a ditch from the successes it inherited in 2017.

16. Now we know that responsibility and prudence is not something that is appreciated by this government

17. No textbooks for basic schools for 3 years

18. Capitation has been in arrears for nearly a year

19. Irregular supply of essential services to Senior High Schools

20. Colleges of education students have been at home more than they have been at school

21. The mismanagement of the GETFUND has not led to the needed progress in the education sector

22. Statutory payments are in arrears for months

23. Reckless collateralization of certain strategic funds

24. Collateralised ESLA until 2035

25. They are ready to collateralise the proceeds from the E-Levy

26. The President couldn’t tell the Labour Unions that part of the taxes on petroleum products cannot be removed because the proceeds were collateralised, some up to 2035

27. The Agyapa deal is only an action of Agyabone and not Agyapa

28. Ghana has been shut out from the Bonds market until there is some improvement in our economic situation

29. The depreciation of the Cedi would cause a massive increase in our public debt even if we don’t borrow further

30. The rising taxes are eroding the disposable income of families

31. The unemployment crisis is increasing our risk

32. Government continues to pay lips service to the unemployment situation

33. Many have lost hope in securing employment before retiring from unemployment

34. President continues to parry away the taxes in the charter of luxurious jets

35. This government can draw on the NDC 2020 manifesto to find solutions to the current economic problems

36. The constitution we adopted has the power to cause accountability

37. President Akufo-Addo addressed the nation recently, and failed to address the very concerns that face the people

38. The President used the opportunity in addressing the nation to apportion blames, nothing is ever their fault. Everything, Mahama.

39. They have fallen victims to gaslighting

40. The very words they used against the NDC, has become taboo words for them

41. The list of excuses keep growing every day, moving from Covid-19 to Russia and Ukraine war, from financial sector cleanup

42. Covid-19 made available a windfall to this government than any government could ever dream about, over 30 billion

43. Covid-19 affected every economy on earth including our neighbours, but these neighbours have emerged stronger than us

44. Long before Covid, it was evident that the economy was being mismanaged and headed for a crush

45. The creative accounting and cooking the books caught up with this administration

46. Instead of cushioning the people, this government saw these Covid-19 support money as a conduit to its electoral fortunes

47. The people of Ghana require an independent audit into the Covid-19 support fund

48. Before Ukraine and Russia war, fuel prices had gone up for more than 40 times

49. The government could have used far lesser resources to revive the collapsed banks

50. To save the banks, would have protected jobs. The total estimated cost was 9 billion to save these banks, but the current government chose to go for the nuclear solution, collapsed indigenous banks built from scratch and sweat of Ghanaians at a cost of 25 billion

51. A government that chose to spend 25 billion as a solution to something that 9 billion could do, cannot blame that exercise as the cause of their economic woes

52. The NDC was determined to expand energy demands and to resolve the challenges that governments faced ahead of the Mahama administration

53. On March 18th 2022, our peak demand for power left only a redundancy of 391MW less than the over 600MW that is recommended to be on standby

54. If any of the major plants currently working develops a fault, Ghana would suffer to sustain power. There is no excess capacity

55. I could have also blamed others for the power challenges. But I was aware that Ghanaians didn’t elect me to come and complain, so I took responsibility

56. President Akufo-Addo and his government must learn this leadership trait and be ready to take responsibility

57. The use of electronic transfers was to enable us bring in the informal sector. But unfortunately, government has decided to tax mobile money

58. When asked on the BBC why he wants to tax electronic wallets, he said it was a new growing area that is not being taxed. It’s either the President did not understand the question, or he was simply clueless.

59. Government determination to tax Ghanaians out of the debt hole would not work, because even the government’s own budget shows that this E-Levy would not change anything

60. The NDC is not against taxation, but is opposed to this E-Levy

61. The next NDC administration, with the votes of the good people of Ghana, will REPEAL THE E-LEVY ACT

62. It is not right to tax people to fund the creature comfort of the President and his family members

63. The financial malfeasance recorded by the Auditor General, is twice what the E-Levy is meant to provide

64. This government has become jittery and has become hyper-sensitive to the mildest form of criticism and has decided to instil fear in others who would wish to criticise it

65. For the first time in our history, 8 Ghanaians has been brutally killed in an election, yet, nothing has happened. The president has not spoken openly against it, has not uttered a word to the families of the victims, and has not made any indication of will to get the perpetrators dealt with

66. The current government is behaving more like a military dictatorship

67. These acts would not break our collective resolve to hold this government to account, no matter how many times they come at us

68. Suppression of the views of people has never shown to have kept a government in power than what the people can tolerate

69. There is a clear concern on the open bias of rulings in the judiciary that only favour government

70. We should build a judiciary whose fidelity is to the state and not the appointing political parties

ALTERNATIVES

71. Those accountable for the economic challenges must take responsibility

72. The president must remove the finance minister from office and appoint someone who would not pursue personal interests that his company benefits from the excessive borrowing

73. Reconstitute the economic management as it has failed – worst performing currency, ever rising inflation, worst fuel prices, unprecedented hardships, etc. which has caused the head of economic management to fall from his high tower to a poster boy of the economic management team

74. Appoint one of Ghana’s renowned economists to lead the economic management

75. The president must reshuffle his economic management

76. A clear and measurable government expenditure

77. Government must cut and trim down its size and rationalise the pay packages of heads of SOEs including innovative allowances that only provide more comfort to these individuals

78. Plug the loopholes that causes severe leakages in government revenues

79. Reduce borrowing by instituting a moratorium on all non-concessional borrowing

80. Stabilise the Cedi by ensuring that mining giants keep their profits in Ghana to help ease the pressure on the Cedi

81. Build buffers for repayments for the 2025 maturing bonds

82. National data and economic indices should be a matter of fact and not issues of debating

83. Government data must be transparent and not comparing rebased figures with non-rebased figures

84. Cease the collateralization of every fund which would tie the hands of even future governments

85. Revert to more realistic targets and stop creating further doubts in the minds of foreign investors

86. Capture the commanding height of our economy – improve our production in agriculture
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87. Sustaining democracy is not a matter of rhetoric, but by deeds

88. There must be a clear commitment to national benefit rather than of individual benefits

89. Ghanaians expect respect and humility from those who lead them

90. The administration must show commitment to building consensus with Ghanaians on things that concerns them most

91. Respect the rights of all citizens and stop witch-hunt of political opponents

92. The President must be bold to prosecute people who are engaged in corruption in his government

93. Do away with rogue elements infiltrated into the security services

94. The Attorney-General must prosecute those who brutally murdered 8 innocent citizens at the 2020 elections including the perpetrators of the Ayawaso West Wuogon brutalities

95. This government has lost its way and is ill-suited to govern

96. Recent showing in the sports arena shows that changing management can lead to better results

97. Time is not on our side and we must do well to bring hope and prosperity to Ghana

Compiled by Stephen Kwabena Attuh (ASK)