I was battered and broken – Ken Ofori-Atta on MPs push for his sacking

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said that the push by some lawmakers on the majority side to get him out of office in 2022 was justified because of the poor state of the economy at the time.

But given the urgency that had to be attached to resolving the economic crisis, he decided to stay put and help put the economy back on track instead of abandoning ship.

He admitted that even though he was battered and broken by the Censure Motion of the Minority in Parliament aimed at getting him out as Finance Minister, he saw it as a duty to stay on and serve the nation rather than allow the nation to get into further crisis.

Speaking metaphorically, he compared the country to a sinking ship that had to be saved and he chose to save it instead of chickening out.

“In the period of censure, in which Parliament then voted against it, but more importantly, you were in a situation where you were battered and broken. You do not leave a ship at that time. And given the urgency of ensuring the IMF programme goes through, for me, it was a duty to serve, and there was no running away from it,” the Finance Minister explained on GTV’s Talking Point programme last Sunday.

In October 2022, following hikes in prices of goods and services and a collapse of the Cedi, all 136 Minority Members of Parliament(MPs) signed a motion for a vote of censure on Ken Ofori-Atta for mismanaging the economy, breaching ethics as a Minister and other concerns. In the end, all majority MPs failed to take part in the vote to get him out, thereby leading to the failure of the motion.