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Bolga Central MP Isaac Adongo has said Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s recent comparison of the energy crisis (dumsor) under Mr John Mahama’s presidency and the coronavirus pandemic under President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government, lacked “intellectual depth”.
Dr Bawumia, on Monday, in a response to Mr Mahama’s comment that COVID-19 has sent the Akufo-Addo government’s oft-touted “resilient” and “robust” economy into the ICU, said President Akufo-Addo is a better manager of crises than his predecessor.
The flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had said in one of Facebook interactions with Ghanaians that: “Unfortunately, this government has used a lot of propaganda saying the economy has been the best that we have ever had since independence. Unfortunately, just one month of coronavirus the economy is in ICU. If we didn’t run to the IMF for the one billion rapid credit facility, it is possible that in the next month probably salaries would not have been paid and so our economy is on ventilators, and it needs thinking to rescue it from the ICU.”
But speaking at a media interaction after a COVID-19 response team meeting on 4 May 2020, Dr Bawumia noted that: “If you want to test the robustness of an economy, you test it in a time of crises. Thankfully, we’ve had two crises.
“Under the NDC, there was an internally-generated crisis, which was dumsor. Under the Presidency of Nana Akufo-Addo, there’s been an externally-generated crisis, which is the global coronavirus pandemic. I just want you to ask yourselves how have these two crises been managed?
“The dumsor crisis, which crippled this economy for four years, what were the mitigating measures offered to businesses and individuals during dumsor which was an internally generated crisis?
“We saw that even during dumsor, electricity prices were being increased, fuel prices were being increased, teacher training allowances were being cancelled, nurse training allowances were being cancelled; all of that was happening during that particular crisis.”
He continued: “You look at the coronavirus crisis and you look at the difference in terms of what has happened. The President has reduced electricity prices, made it free for lifeline consumers, given free water to all Ghanaians for three months, has made sure there’s a stimulus package of GHS600 million for businesses and we have seen domestic production of PPE for our health workers.
“So, the difference couldn’t be [clear] during a leadership under the crisis of dumsor and under the coronavirus pandemic. So, I ask a simple question: Who will you trust in a time of crisis? The answer, I will say is very clear – Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has shown leadership and concern for ordinary Ghanaians.”
Responding to Dr Bawumia, Mr Adongo told Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana programme that: “I have never seen that before; that you are talking about two different things – coronavirus is equivalent to dumsor. Can one go to the IMF to access Rapid Credit Facility to construct power plants for dumsor, can you do that? In fact, can one share food on the road and get a power plant?”
“After almost nine days of no update from the government on coronavirus, the President suddenly has gotten tired of updating us. We were waiting for ‘fellow Ghanaians’, it didn’t happen. At least, we expected it; ‘fellow Ghanaians’ has become part of our routine. We were expecting it, it didn’t happen. Then the vice-president chairs COVID-19 Response team meeting. When you lead the COVID Response team meeting and you call the press, what do you tell them? You speak about COVID response and what COVID-related matters you’ve discussed and you come to talk about incoherence. You come and start talking about infrastructure in 2015, 2014, 2013. And you come and talk about a resilient economy and that we should trust a commander-in-chief who has disappeared from the battlefield and we are still waiting for him to just give us this fellow Ghanaians he’s been given us; that commander-in-chief has disappeared.
“He now makes you to go and chair a meeting that ordinarily he would have chaired and when you come, this is what you deliver: dumsor is equal to coronavirus. Did dumsor kill people? Did dumsor infect people?” he asked.
Mr Adongo said despite the power crisis, Mr Mahama achieved a lot in his administration.
“Was it not in the same dumsor that we built the hospitals that former President Mahama is touted for? Was it not in the same dumsor that we built all the roads that we built? Was it not in the same dumsor that John Mahama found money, almost $100 million to give to Tobinco, to give to Ernest Chemists and co., to produce drugs in this country? Was it not in the same dumsor that John Mahama was able to build the schools, the e-blocks after three, four years; COVID-19, only two months, you’re sharing food that was rather infecting people, people gathering in masses without any protocol to collect the food”.
“Now, I want Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to listen and learn: the propaganda and deception of 2016 and the benefit of the doubt that Ghanaians gave him in 2016, has fast-disappeared. Now, his mediocre performance would be compared with the excellent performance of John Mahama. Thank God coronavirus exposed the fundamentals of our economy because we have something from the IMF which is the truth and not the lies, to compare with. I don’t know what data Dr Bawumia has that he consistently refers to that he was not willing to make available to the people of Ghana”, he said.
