Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia speaking at the public lecture yesterday
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) vice presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says President John Dramani Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) government have failed woefully, adding that it would be suicidal for Ghanaians to renew the president’s mandate on December 7.
Dr. Bawumia, a distinguished economist, delivering a lecture titled, “The State of the Ghanaian Economy – A Foundation of Concrete or Straw,” yesterday in Accra, shredded the NDC’s touted economic performance, saying the ruling party is rather taking Ghana backwards with its policies, citing declining growth rate of 14 percent inherited by John Mahama, to the current 3 percent.
He insisted that the Mahama administration has been incompetent and corrupt, promising that the NPP will root out corruption, allow Ghanaians to have value for money and to protect the public purse.
“Despite having more resources than any government ever in the history of Ghana, the data on Ghana’s economy shows that the years under President John Mahama have been worse than any period since the dawn of this century,” he observed at the heavily attended programme held at the National Threater in Accra.
Dr Bawumia’s lecture caught public attention as Accra went dead with residents glued to their radio sets to listen to the erudite economist and running mate to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who was also at the event to give moral support.
Former President John Agyekum Kufuor, who chaired the function, said even though economics is a technical subject, Dr Bawumia made it easier for everybody to understand.
From left: JA Kufuor, Nana Akufo-Addo and wife Rebecca, Dr. Bawumia and wife Samira
One Chief, One Car
Ghanaians, Dr Bawumia noted, have a choice to make: if they want their leader to be sharing cars to individuals at the expense of the people or a leader who will create employment opportunities.
“One leader may prefer ‘one village one dam;’ the other may prefer ‘one chief one car…’ It is all a matter of choices,” he stated.
The NPP vice presidential candidate said, “Virtually every single economic indicator proves that while the eight years under the NPP between 2001 to 2008 were better than these last eight years under the NDC, the NDC first four years under the late President Mills was even far better than these last four years under President Mahama.”
Foundation Hoax
He said President Mahama has been economical with the truth when telling Ghanaians about the state of the economy, wondering how long it would take to build a foundation – since 2009.
Using hard facts and data in his diagnosis of the economy, Dr. Bawumia said, “President Mahama likes to say ‘strong foundation’ when he doesn’t mean it,” asking, “How many foundations is President Mahama going to lay? How can you go back to build a foundation after you have supposedly taken off? They really must think we have very short memories or that we don’t read!”
He said for instance, that on August 30, 2012, President Mahama said in Sunyani that the NDC government for the past three-and-a-half years had been laying the foundation for a transformational take-off of the country’s development and on December 5, same year, the president reiterated the solid foundation supposedly laid, quoting him as saying, “We have taken off and we want to soar.”
Dr Bawumia posited, “So, according to President Mahama and the NDC, they had laid a solid foundation between 2008 and 2012 and the country had taken off. In 2016, President Mahama is again telling us that he ‘has now laid a very solid foundation for the economy and it is ready for takeoff.’ Give him another four years and he will come back to lay another strong foundation!”
Worst Period
“The fact is that the worst period of economic performance since 2001 has been under President Mahama’s stewardship between 2012 and 2016. This is therefore, a very weak foundation. It is a foundation of straw masked with concrete.” Dr. Bawumia insisted.
He said the hard truth is that the foundation for Ghana’s economic boom was laid by the Kufuor government (2001-2008) and added, “President Mahama has spent the last eight years destroying this foundation, replacing it rather with a weak foundation of straw which he desperately tries to portray as one of concrete.
“A mason who inherits a good foundation and spends eight years destroying it cannot be trusted to build the house. We need a competent mason, a mason with integrity, credibility and vision to build the house with the help of the Almighty God.”
Dire Situation
Dr. Bawumia said that the economic situation that the Mahama-led government has put Ghana into is ‘dire,’ saying “It requires serious attention.
“You cannot solve the problem by personal insults, distributing cars, bus branding, lies or propaganda. You cannot run away from the real issues.”
Excessive Borrowing
According to Dr. Bawumia, under the eight years of the NPP government (from 2001-2008), taxes and loans amounted to GH¢20 billion. In contrast, taxes, oil revenue, and loans alone over the 8-year period of 2009-2016 would amount to some GH¢248 billion, adding, “The Mills-Mahama governments would have had in eight years, more than 12 times the nominal resources that the NPP had.”
In terms of GDP Growth, the ace economist said that without oil, the NPP competently managed the economy to increase growth from 3.7% in 2000 to 9.1% in 2008, while with oil and unprecedented resources, economic growth had declined to 3.9% in 2015 under President Mahama and his NDC government.
“After declining to 4.8% in 2009, real GDP growth increased to 7.7% in 2010 and 14% in 2011 following the onset of oil production. Since 2011 however, real GDP growth has declined steadily and drastically to 3.9% in 2015 – basically the growth rate Ghana attained in the year 2000.”
He said that between 2000 and 2008, the size of Ghana’s economy increased from some $5.1 billion to $28.5 billion (a 459% increase in eight years) and this happened during the global economic and financial crisis in 2007/8 with oil prices reaching a record high of $147/barrel.
“Ghana’s GDP, notwithstanding the discovery of oil, has only increased from $28.5 billion in 2008 to a projected $40 billion in 2016 (a 40% increase in eight years). However, between 2012 and 2016 (i.e. during John Mahama’s tenure as president), the economy, in dollar terms, shrank by 5%.”
Public Debt
He said that another critical area which underlined the incompetence of President Mahama’s NDC administration is what he termed “unprecedented” borrowing saying, “From GH¢9.5 billion in 2008, the NDC has incredibly increased Ghana’s total debt to GH¢105 billion.”
He said some 66% of Ghana’s debt (GH¢69 billion) has been accumulated under the presidency of John Mahama in just the last three-and-a-half years.
Interest Payments
Dr. Bawumia revealed that Ghana is currently spending more to service interest payments than it spends on infrastructural/capital projects annually.
“The data also shows that during the NPP period of governance, capital expenditure far exceeded interest payments. This is because low interest payments allow room for more capital expenditure. Infrastructure expenditure as a percentage of GDP declined sharply after 2008 as interest payments increased. From 2014 to date, interest payments have now incredibly exceeded infrastructure expenditure. How can an economy be on an upward growth path when interest payments exceed infrastructure expenditure? This is the result of NDC’s economic mismanagement,” he said.
Contracts Inflation
The NPP vice presidential candidate said the Mahama-led government was ripping Ghanaians off by using inflated contracts.
“I saw two virtually identical sets of teachers’ bungalows in Dambai Teacher Training College this year; one constructed under the NPP in 2007 and the other by the NDC in 2011. These two buildings are side-by-side. The one constructed by the NPP cost some GH¢195,000 whereas the one constructed by the NDC cost some GH¢900,000 (4.6 times more). What accounts for this huge difference?” he wondered.
NPP’s Terms
As a way forward, Dr. Bawumia said when given the chance, an NPP government under Nana Akufo-Addo “will do things differently,” promising to among other things, restore macroeconomic stability without delay.
He said the (NPP) government would enhance fiscal discipline, financial stability, shift the focus of economic management from taxation to production, empower local businesses and pursue what he called Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP).
“The NPP will reorient the national capital expenditure budget to place a focus on constituency-specific needs,” he said, and the party in government would invest heavily in Information Communication Technology (ICT) and education among many other things.
By William Yaw Owusu