Please, scoff not at Bawumia: He is a genius of ‘a driver’s mate’!

I have been laughing my head off over the isolated thinker’s notion that Bawumia is only a driver’s mate and therefore he is incapable to steer Ghana in the right direction.

You see, my dear reader, it seems to me that some Ghanaians unfortunately suffer from memory loss, a condition which former President Mahama has facilely diagnosed and conveyed to Ghanaians.

If that were not the case, how on earth would anyone forget that we have a sad history of a sitting driver mysteriously perishing on the steer and his unprepared and somewhat inefficient mate fecklessly accelerating into the ditch?

Well, I would like to believe that the sceptics concerns stem from the unfortunate example set by the previous driver’s mate. His performance was indeed abysmal!

Things regrettably started to fall apart. It went from bad to worse following President Mills sudden and mysterious death.

Ghana’s total debt rocketed astronomically (GH9.5 billion in 2009 to GH122.4 billion as of December 2016). This was as a result of the unbridled spending in the 2012 election and the numerous corruption scandals involving GYEEDA, SADA, SUBA, Bus Branding, dubious judgement debt payments amongst others.

Given the circumstances, concerned Ghanaians believe that it would be extremely catastrophic if Mahama was to go back to the Jubilee House, notwithstanding the calamitous errors in judgement which led to the business crippling dumsor amid massive economic collapse(dragged 14% economic growth in 2011 to 3.4%, and 15.4% inflation in 2016) in the absence of a pernicious coronavirus and Russia/Ukraine protracted conflict.

In his time in Office, former President John Dramani Mahama was given a descriptive epithet, ‘the incompetent one’ by his adversaries. His opponents would argue that although there was no known diffused global crisis such as the pernicious coronavirus or the intractable Ukraine/Russia conflict during his time in office, he could not manage the economy.

Take, for example, in his short spell at the presidency, the late Mills left an auspicious economic growth of 14% and Mahama perfunctorily dragged it to a meagre 3.4%, the late Mills raised agricultural growth to 7.5%, and Mahama reversed it to 3.0%, the late Mills single digit inflation was perfunctorily raised to 15.4%, GDP of GH47Billion shrunk to GH40billion by Mahama in the absence of the ecumenically diffused coronavirus or Ukraine/Russia protracted conflict.

Unsurprisingly, prior to the 2020 general elections, the reputable Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) reported that former President John Dramani Mahama was going to find it extremely difficult to convince discerning Ghanaians into accepting that he is the preferable manager of Ghana’s economy.

In all this, the teeming supporters of former President Mahama are contending passionately that even if former President Mahama was perceived as incompetent during his tenure in office, there is no Messiah with the ‘Midas touch’ to turn around the fortunes of the country other than him.

It is, however, worth mentioning that before the deadly coronavirus, Bawumia dutifully assisted Akufo-Addo and raised Ghana’s economic growth from 3.4% to 8.6%.

Truly, it was Bawumia who admirably assisted Akufo-Addo and within a short space of time reversed the inflation from 15.4% to 7.5%.

Interestingly, in the first two years of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration, the Agriculture sector recorded the highest growth rate of 8.4%.

Indeed, the Agriculture sector expanded from a growth rate of 3.0 percent in 2016 to 8.4 percent in 2017 (GSS, 2018).

The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration, before the unspeakable coronavirus, recorded the highest growth rate of 16.7 % in the Industry sector.

The Industry sector, the highest growing sector with a GDP share of 25.5 percent, had its growth rate increasing from -0.5 percent in 2016 to 16.7 percent in 2017 (GSS, 2018).

Truth be told, Ghana’s economy received thumbs-up from the likes of the then Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ms Christine Lagarde, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, and other reputable international organisations, who had earlier commended the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration on its excellent economic performance in the two and half years in office.

In 2017, the Bloomberg News, for example, predicted Ghana to become “Africa’s fastest-growing economy in 2018 “and Ghana was proclaimed “Star of Africa in 2018 Lenders’ Economic Forecasts”.

In reporting on the same fiscal policy achievements, Le Monde pointed out that “Ghana’s economic success is not just as the result of an oil-driven boom, but is also due to prudent economic management, an entrepreneurial population, the role of traditional leaders, and good governance.”

The then Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ms Christine Lagarde’s observed that the Ghanaian economy, before the insidious coronavirus, was in a better place than it was in the previous years under the John Dramani Mahama administration.

Ms Lagarde opined that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration made important gains towards macroeconomic stability, including inflation, which declined to a single digit and within the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG’s) tolerance band; buoyant growth, averaging about five per cent in 2018, and, over six per cent in 2017-18) and a primary surplus in 2017 for the first time in 15 years (IMF 2018).

The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, observed: “Ghana met the targets for halving extreme poverty and halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, and it achieved the goals relating to universal primary education and gender parity in primary school.

The ace journalist, Kweku Baako Jnr hit the nail on the head when he pointed out on Joy FM’s political show (News File) on Saturday 6/04/2019 that the NPP administration led by President Akufo-Addo has performed exceedingly better than the erstwhile NDC government led by former President Mahama.

Comparing the state of the economy in first two years of the two administrations, Kweku Baako Jnr aptly concluded that the economy is in a better shape under the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration than it was under the Mahama administration.

Baako Jnr, therefore, asserted poignantly: “There’s no doubt that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration has done far better than the Mahama administration; it’s as simple as that, the figures and the records support it (myjoyonline.com, 6/04/2019).”

Some of us have always held an unfailing conviction that governance is a serious business and as such it requires forward thinking, serious and committed group of people to bring about the needed progress.

K. Badu, UK.
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