You waste money yet ask Ghanaians to tighten their belts – former NPP General Secretary to Akufo-Addo
Former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, NPP and a 2024 flag bearer hopeful Kwabena Agyei Agyepong has taken on the Nana Akufo-Addo-led government for encouraging Ghanaians to tighten their belts whiles they[government officials] enjoy freebies.
Speaking on Kingdom FM, the presidential hopeful admitted Ghana is currently going through difficult times with price of goods and services skyrocketing.
Economic rating agencies Bloomberg, Fitch and others has consistently downgraded Ghana’s economy, blaming it on poor management by government. However, the government has sinisterly blamed the meltdown of the economy on the Ukraine-Russian wars and the impact of Covid-19.
Reacting to this, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund(IMF) Kristalina Georgieva backed the government.
“First the pandemic, then Russia’s war in Ukraine, we need to realize that it is not because of bad policies in the country but because of this combination of shocks, and, therefore, we have to support Ghana,” she noted.
This was met with opposing views from some economic analyst and the opposition NDC 2020 flag bearer, John Dramani Mahama as they say facts available do not support those claims. But president Akufo-Addo has held onto the claims of Ukraine-Russian wars and the impact of Covid-19 and has called on Ghanaians to rally behind his government as it is strategically working to position the economy of the country in the right direction.
The NPP former General Secretary Kwabena Agyepong believes that there should be an indication that the government officials are also tightening their belts as Ghanaians have been asked to tighten theirs.
He said, “The Problems that we have are social, political and economic. Economic problems have to be solved by the government by example, by leading and doing the right things and taking the right decisions. Simple implementable decisions have to be taken to be able to drive confidence and have society behind us”.
Mr Agyapong made an example of other countries that are implementing the right policies for government officials in the direction of showing leadership in hard times.
“The only way we can do so is when they realize that you are also going through the austerity that they are going through. You can’t encourage people to tighten their belts when you are having freebies, you can’t do that. For example, in countries like Botswana, government officials cannot use public vehicles on weekends, you’ll be surcharged. This is all part of the waste we have in Ghana,” he explained.
