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Nana is Going On a Borrowing Spree; He Lied His Way to The Presidency

There are times when President Akuffo Addo’s utterances on critical national issues give you pause, and leave you wondering why on earth he would even say such things.

Mr. Addo recently raised eyebrows when he inexplicably asserted that Ghana would continue to borrow from abroad to sustain the economy and finance development projects.

No matter which way you look at it, the President’s contention was at best an admission of failure, his inability to turn the economy around, and at worst, a reinforcement of the wide spread notion that he lied his way to the presidency.

Mr. Addo’s argument that Ghana will borrow because the United States, the world largest economy borrows, too, rings hollow.

While it is a proven fact that the United States borrows massively, it is also true that it has a very resilient economy that currently has an unemployment rate of 3 percent.  American companies cannot find workers to fill positions. Jobs are going a begging.

In contrast, Ghana’s economy is lousy and the unemployment rate is nothing to write home about.

At face value, Mr. Addo’s comparison was lame, weak and porous; it was akin to comparing apples with oranges. And it was shocking that the President will draw such parallels between a poor performing economy such as ours and the strong, vibrant economy of the United States.

I can see foreign lenders now in Western Europe and China popping champagne bottles and laughing all the way to the bank as they salivate at the prospect of Ghana coming to them cup in hand soliciting for loans.

Meanwhile, the borrowing means Ghanaians will continue to suffer financial indignities and the scarcity of jobs, and our economy will see little growth and remain stagnant for decades as whatever foreign reserves we have will go into servicing our debts to western lenders.

I find the NPP’s sudden obsession and fascination with borrowing perplexing. Was it not the same political organization that made it a point to insist at every opportunity that it won’t tax, borrow and spend in the lead up to the 2016 elections?

It repeatedly excoriated former President John Mahama and the NDC for unhinged and uncontrollably borrowing only to turn around and do exactly what they accused Mr. Mahama of doing. Sad.

The fact of the matter is that Nana sold Ghanaians a bill of goods, a bunch of lies. He knew, as did those around him that the economy was not going to be turned around in the twinkle of an eye, overnight.

Yet they deliberately painted a rosy picture of how the NPP was going to tackle the economy and create jobs which somehow have so far proved elusive.

Let me be brutally honest here; harsh realities have finally hit Nana in the face like a sledge hammer. He is no more in La La land.

Governance, after it is all said and done, is not like eating a hot bowl of appetizing TZ with bra soup and enjoying every morsel of it. It is a difficult undertaking, tinged with many unforeseen challenges.

 

 

 

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