Gabby ‘schools’ Atuguba on implications of ‘Ghana is ripe for coup’ comment

“We do not want a coup in this country, yet I fear if we don’t act quickly, we will have one on our hands very soon,” words attributed to Professor Raymond Atuguba Dean of University of Ghana Law School.

The academic was speaking on Monday, February 28, 2022, at a public event organized by Solidare Ghana.

He prefaced the above statement with the fact that he did not want an unconstitutional takeover but that failing economic indices were usually the motivation for such actions by non-political actors.

The comment has since attracted different reactions from politicians and security analysts alike.

Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a leading member of the ruling New Patriotic Party, gave his take via his official Twitter handle. Without mentioning Atuguba, he pointed out that the call for a coup simply meant no political party could fix the country’s current challenges.

“If you’re a senior member of an opposition party that can be described as an ‘alternative government’ & yet you say that your country is ripe for a coup, what you’re really saying is that your party is no better & cannot be expected to fix whatever you see wrong even if elected!” his tweet of February 28, 2022, read.

On the issue of Ghana’s economy, Atuguba’s verdict was that Ghana is broke, “your nation is radically broke,” he stressed.

He restated a recent claim by the Speaker of Parliament about the possibility of the government failing to pay salaries if something radical is not done in the next few months. Government has officially denied that claim.

Atuguba also wants the government to come clean on failed economic management and for lawmakers to accept the E-Levy as ‘wicked’ as it was in order for the country to escape the last option of going to the International Monetary Fund, IMF.

He further asked the government to confess its difficulties in managing the economy to Ghanaians to win public support for the controversial E-levy.

“The starting point for passing the E-levy is for government to stop lying to the citizenry, come clean and confess that they thought the job of managing the economy was simple, but now they know better, plead with the people of Ghana that we have limited options now.”