Minority’s upcoming demo is political gamesmanship - Tema MCE

The Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Yohane Amarh-Ashitey, has deplored the insistence of Minority MPs in Parliament to have the Governor of the Bank of Ghana removed from office, saying their action smacks of nothing but political gamesmanship.

In a statement posted on social media, the MCE said the Minority’s action deliberately overlooks the fact that the BoG has given perfectly satisfying explanation as to why it incurred a little over Ghc 60billion loss on its balance sheet last year.

“We have heard the BoG release a statement explaining that the losses resulted from absorbing costs from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP); we have heard that the loss from this particular variable was a whopping Ghc53.1billion,” Hon. Yohane Amarh-Ashitey wrote.

He added that, “the BoG has also made it clear that price and exchange rate valuation effects resulted in GHC 5.2 billion of the total loss, and GH3.3 billion from interest expense on the cost of monetary policy operation accounted.”

“Having all of this explanation, what will explain the minority MPs demanding the resignation of the BoG Governor and then planning a demonstration against him; what exactly are they going to protest?” the MCE queried.
The statement comes as the Minority prepares to stage a demonstration on September 5, 2023.

Already, the Minority has officially notified the Police about the intended demonstration through a letter from the office of the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, to the Greater Accra Regional Police Command dated Monday, August 21.

According to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs, their action is based on the Central Bank’s illegal printing of over GH¢80 billion to help the Akufo-Addo government.

But as Yohane Amarh Ashitey points out, the Minority’s action is no different from refusing to light the candle so that one can comfortably blame the dark.

“It would have made sense if the Minority would dispute the central bank’s explanation, challenge it and bring us all the alternative facts. But in this situation, where the explanation has been given, it smacks of mischief to just gloss over it and pour onto the streets to demonstrate,” the Tema MCE wrote.

He also pointed out that the Minority’s behaviour disregards the fact that the BoG’s decision to absorb costs was so, that Ghanaians would not be left in financial ruin, questioning whether it is the Minority’s position that the BoG should have not intervened so that Ghanaians would suffer from the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic and the inflation that, that together with the Russia/Ukraine war, caused.