'Lives destroyed under NDC Govt'

Several lives have been destroyed in Ghana due to the governing National Democratic Congress’ bad economic policies, former deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana has said.

Presenting the New Patriotic Party’s analyses of the 2016 budget read to Parliament in November by Finance Minister Seth Terkper, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who is running mate to Nana Akufo-Addo told journalists that “one wonders if this government is in touch with reality.”

This economy has rather been deformed and not transformed, Dr Bawumia said, adding: “Lives have been destroyed because of ‘dumsor’ – erratic power supply.

In his view, the government has failed to deliver its ‘Better Ghana’ promise, but rather ended up with wasting many opportunities.

He said all eight budgets presented by the NDC in the last seven years have been “abysmal” saying none of them tackled the country’s major economic problems such as addressing unemployment, stopping a decline in the agriculture sector, halting the collapse of businesses, improving the energy situation, dealing with the unsustainable debt situation, as well as improving infrastructure and fighting corruption.

“Ghanaians were promised a ‘Better Ghana” in 2008 but going into the 8th year of government in 2016, this government has delivered one of the worst economic performances of any government in Ghana’s history.

“The record after the seven main budgets of the NDC is definitely not one of a “Better Ghana” than the one this government inherited in 2009. Rather, it is a record of a monumental waste of an historic opportunity to transform the economy of Ghana and improve the lives of Ghanaians.

“While budgets are a statement of intent for the year ahead, there is no substitute for a seven-year record of performance. We have an opportunity today to compare the record of performance of the “NPP government of 2001-2008 under President J.A. Kufuor and the NDC administrations of Presidents Mills and Mahama (2009-2015), comment on the 2016 budget and present an alternative vision for the NPP that will guide future NPP budgets under a Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government.

“Today, the promise is to “change lives and transform the economy”. One really wonders if this government is in touch with reality. The reality for most Ghanaians is that the economic policies of this government have destroyed many lives as young graduates are unable to find jobs, people are unable to pay school fees for their wards, people cannot pay for hospital fees, businesses are collapsing, etc.

“Many lives have been destroyed and the economy, as we would show shortly has rather been deformed and not transformed. We have kept warning the government that you cannot use propaganda to manage an economy. The reality is that the people are suffering under this government and there is no transformation. Propaganda cannot change this reality,” he said.