Who am I to advice Walewale Adam Smith? – Adongo quizzes

A Member of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Isaac Adongo, has described the economic lectures presented by the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as one bordering on intellectual dishonesty.

According to him, the vice president, whom he christened “Walewale Adam Smith”, has refused to take “wise counsel” on how he can be assisted to revive the country’s ailing economy and is rather embarking on a lying-spree masked as an economic lecture.

Dr Bawumia, on Thursday, delivered a speech on the economy at National Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) Training and Orientation Conference and highlighted some digitization interventions by the incumbent government that, to him, is saving the country a huge sum of monies and quickly transforming the economy.

In a brutally-frank lecture on Ghana’s economy from 1990 to date, he reminded Ghanaians that although times may be hard now, the Akufo-Addo administration inherited an even more dire situation and successfully moved the country onto a path of growth until the whole world was blindsided by the Covid 19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and locally, the banking sector clean up.

“Not long ago, we had felt similar despair. The fear of losing our lives to a pandemic and the near halt to our economy as we battled to survive each day. Some years ago also we had been confronted by very dire economic circumstances. The joblessness of our youth, years of lights out that impacted adversely on businesses and jobs, the disappointment of dealing with a collapsed national health insurance system and inability to access health care, the bane of the cash and carry system, a nearly collapsed national ambulance system, freeze on public sector employment, an almost collapsed banking sector and so on . . .

“ . . The government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo put in much effort to turn things around and elevate the standards of living of the Ghanaian people above what the situation used to be at the time this government was formed in 2017 . . .

“Together as a country, we proceeded to fix the economy. We made great gains and the records attest to this. Prior to the Coronavirus pandemic which has impacted all economies in the world, we stabilized the economy, and achieved great strides.

“The relatively strong performance of the economy, among other things, led to Ghana becoming the destination of choice for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in West Africa according to the 2019 World Investment Report by UNCTAD.

“In the midst of the current economic challenges we face, we are putting in place the key pillars for the economic transformation of Ghana. We may not yet be where we want to be, and we may be buffeted by the winds of the pandemic and the war for yet a little while, but we have made a great start and, together, we shall finish what we started,” he stated.

But speaking on Okay FM’s ‘Ade Akye Abia’ programme, Hon Adongo, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, was emphatic that the lecture was just another avenue to lie to Ghanaians and slammed Dr Bawumia for attributing the country’s economic woes to the conflict in Eastern Europe.

To him, the ineptness of the NPP to tackle the economy is “legendary”.

“This government has just emboldened their incompetence with this lecture which did not provide any pragmatic solutions to the current challenges the country is facing.

“Why do they continue to blame their inefficiencies on something else? For example, why do you blame the escalation of food prices on the Russia-Ukraine war? How often do Ghanaians add wheat to their staple food? Is this not the same government that said they had abundance of food to feed the whole country through their planting for food and jobs programme? You see, when you lie about things you have not done your own failed policies will expose you.

“The inept administration of the NPP government is legendary. What Bawumia did at the economic lectures is nothing new but another avenue to lie to Ghanaians,” he added.