Kwesi Botchwey seeks Terkper’s job

-As lobbyist intensify subtle moves

Snippets of information picked up by the Republic newspaper indicates a grand scheme being unfolded by certain powerful individuals within government to sneak in former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey through the ‘backdoor’ into the Finance Ministry.

According to reliable sources, the ‘schemers’ have managed to lobby to get Dr. Kwesi Botchwey into the ‘good books’ of President John Dramani Mahama in a systematic and carefully staged come-back for the former Finance Minister who served under ex-President Jerry John Rawlings’ administration.

This paper has gathered that the ultimate plan for the carefully planned strategy is to edge out the unsuspecting current Finance Minister, Seth Terkper.

The President’s brother, Ibrahim Mahama is said to have fallen out with Mr. Terkper, further giving impetus to critics of the Finance Minister.

Already, the spirited lobby by his backers has led to him being successfully nominated by President Mahama to head the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) after the demise the NDPC’s former boss, Paul Victor Obeng (PV Obeng).

President Mahama recently disclosed to the Reuters that Dr. Botchwey will be leading the impending bailout discussion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) scheduled to start on the 16th September this year.

The discussions that will commence soon with the IMF will touch on all sectors of the Ghanaian economy in a bid to rescue the rapidly escalating economic challenges being faced by the country.

The Ghanaian officials who would be interfacing with the IMF will basically consist of staff of the fiscal unit of the Ministry of Finance and those in charge of monetary policy at the Bank of Ghana (BoG). They would be led to the negotiation table by Dr. Botchwey and supported by the BoG Governor, Dr. Henry Kofi Wampah. The lobbyist for Dr. Botchwey have capitalised on the spotlight being enjoyed by Dr. Botchwey to subtly tout him as having the antidote to the current economic challenges the country is facing, this paper has learnt.

The backers of Dr. Kwesi Botchwey-who is known for his inherent Presidential ambition-, have managed to rally a number of pro-government media platforms to further the agenda of getting Dr. Botchwey into the heart of the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.

However, critics of Dr. Botchwey have said he is not the panacea for Ghana’s current economic challenges, especially given his much-condemned decision to ‘abandon ship’ and tender a shock resignation as the then Finance Minister when the economy took a critical nose-dive during the latter part of the Jerry Rawlings administration.

This is not the first time that subtle measures have been adopted to push the current Finance Minister Seth Terpker to relinquish his post. Indeed there is an unrelenting resolve by certain interest groups within the ruling party to get Mr. Terkper out, allegedly due to his uncompromising stance on insisting of judicious expenditure of public funds.

Meanwhile, every time the pressure is mounted on him to leave, President Mahama has been unequivocal in his confidence in his Finance Minister.

He was recently forced by the clamour for Mr. Terkper’s head to make a public declaration of his support for the Finance Minister.

The unrelenting clamouring for the ouster of the Finance Minister recently forced some traditional leaders and core supporter base of the ruling NDC to wade in to support the efforts being expended by Mr. Terkper to correct a fundamentally debased economic fundamentals.

Mr. Terkper has always insisted that rather than the economic challenges being seen as his personal short-comings, they should be viewed as short-term challenges caused by extraneous factors such as a newly calibrated economy into a lower-middle-income one.

The Minister of Finance has been argued for that he undoubtedly inherited an unstable economic fundamentals and a global phenomenon of declining international commodity prices of Ghana’s main exports products such as gold and cocoa that had robbed the country of vital income.

“Seth Terkper is only acting as an auto mechanic making efforts to repair a faulty vehicle manufactured by someone, which is like the economy of this country created in bad condition inherited by the Minister, which requires correction and improvement as he is doing,” the Chiefs and NDC cadres stated in a statement issued recently. According to the cadres, the minister, since his assumption of office, had “done away with unsustainable financial policies that prove harmful to Ghana’s Economy.”

They continued: “He had proved himself to be a man of public probity putting economic interest of the nation before narrow sectarian concerns and personal gain. And as such we do not expect for people to be attacking such a hardworking minister who is trying to transform our crawling economy for the better.”

“Those who seek to derail Seth Terkper seek to derail and destroy the progress he is undoubtedly making in rehabilitating our national economy for Ghana’s betterment as a nation,” the cadres charged.

Despite the criticism, the leadership of Mr. Terpker has chalked certain significant milestones in the records of the economy, for instance, the government had issued about two Euro bonds since his assumption of office.

The latest one which sought to raise US$1 billion was largely oversubscribed with orders reaching up to US$3 billion, indicating investors growing confidence in the economy.

Mr. Terkper, at the end of the pricing of the latest Eurobond in New York on Thursday said, “Investors saw fundamental long-term value in the Ghanaian economy. We have always emphasized that the mid-term prospects for Ghana were bright and with the coming on board of the IMF, we hope to come out of our short term challenges pretty soon.”