Odoi-Sykes warns Govt: Prepare to pay the price for IMF bailout

A founder-member of the main opposition New Patriotic Party, Samuel Odoi-Sykes, has said the government must not expect to regain power in 2016, should its option to go for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), bring hardship on Ghanaians.

The NPP elder said the Government must consider all the prospects and consequences of the bailout before accepting whatever package is put on the table by the Bretton Wood institution.

Odoi-Sykes warned that one of the possible consequences could be the imposition of hardship on Ghanaians. “One of them is that the people will have to suffer," he warned in an interview with private FM station, Citi.

The former High Commissioner to Canada advised the government that: “…If you think the suffering will be unbearable," then it must weigh its options properly during negotiations with the IMF, as far as the bailout is concerned.

According to him, if the government still saw the bailout option as a necessity even at the risk of losing the next elections, then it must prepare itself to pay the electoral price for it.

A team from the IMF will be in Ghana in the next few days to discuss various options with the government of the West African country towards infusing confidence in her economy.

This follows overtures by the Government to the IMF for a programme to help rescue the country’s ailing economy.