Don’t blame Covid for your incompetence — NDC MP jabs Bawumia

Member of Parliament for Bia East, Richard Acheampong is asking Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to accept that he is incompetent and stop blaming the depreciation of the cedi on the Covid-19 pandemic.

The National Democratic Congress MP said it is clear that his party is a better manager of Ghana’s economy than the ruling New Patriotic Party owing to the numerous unfulfilled promises.

According to him, the NDC told Ghanaians in 2017 that the economic growth witnessed in the budget was as a result of the good works done by the Mahama administration but the NPP vehemently denied it, ascribing the glory to themselves.

“We voted in December 2016, and they prepared the budget in March 2017, so how could they have grown the economy in six months and get a GDP of 7 percent. This is clear that what we witnessed in 2017 was due to the good ground preparation by President Mahama.”, he recounted.

He said even though the NPP refused to accept it, the decline of the country’s GDP from seven to five percent in 2018, and three percent in 2019 shows that the country’s economy was already on the decline even before Covid-19.

“Just look at the declining trend of the GDP growth from 2017 to 2019 and you will know that it was not the covid-19 but Bawumia’s incompetence”, he maintained.

According to the Bia East MP, the Covid-19 has come to stay with its positives and negatives.

He questions why the NPP failed to talk about the numerous financial supports they got from the World Bank and others due to covid.

“IMF gave Ghana $1 billion dollars, World Bank gave Ghana $1.5 million among several others, so if we embraced these positive effects on the economy, why can’t we also embrace the negatives that came along and work hard to protect the growth?” he noted.

He noted that the telecommunication companies made a lot of profits during the covid-19 era which meant that the taxes they paid to government would also go high.

According to him, he wonders why government failed to acknowledge all those positives.

“If he cannot manage the economy he should not blame it on covid, he should blame it on his incompetence”, he intimated.