The South African Council of Elders Chairman of the National Democratic Congress and the Group Chairman of Allied Consortiums, Mr. Benjamin Kofi Quashie has berated those who are praising the government for securing an IMF bailout.
He described Ghana’s economic situation as chaotic and likened it to a “ship on the verge of sinking.”
“The truth of the matter is that the IMF bailout is going to make Ghanaians suffer when it comes to the economy. This, they’re not telling the people”, he noted.
Speaking to Agyenkwa Media on the IMF bailout, he averred that, “It was shameful seeing bondholders picketing with their grandchildren, but this government doesn’t care”.
It was his contention that, this government cannot be praised for securing an IMF loan because they were the same people who taunted the John Dramani Mahama government for going to the IMF, “So what has changed?”
The S.A NDC Council Chair added that on the Twitter handle of Ekow Essuman, one of the legal brains at the office of the current president, at a point in 2016, he indicated that “it was only a lazy government that runs to IMF because of your disregard for rules and regulations regarding the financial sector”.
He continues that today, the same individual has posted that “we should be praising Nana Akufo-Addo and Ken Ofori-Atta for securing an IMF bailout for the country. For me, it’s laughable. If it’s them…I wonder whether they’ve got a conscience. I wonder whether they sleep and wake up believing that we’re deaf or dumb,” he stated.
Regarding the bailout, he indicated that the country needs the money because “we are in a self-inflicted economic quagmire. Happy they’ve got the bailout, happy the economy is going to take shape, happy that finally what the minority advised that you needed to go for an IMF programme that would regulate your microeconomic expenditure…we’re here now”.
He, however, expressed his disbelief whether the NPP government was going to use the money for the right things with the inflows from the IMF.
“But, whatever they do, it’s a sinking ship. John Dramani Mahama is the only hope to rescuing us from this sinking ship,” he claimed.
