Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
And it came to pass that the then running mate to flag bearer Nana Akufo-Addo the man some said can never become President made a prophecy about the state of local banks in the context of our ailing economy.
It was a gloomy picture he painted about the financial institutions but such matters are largely considered academic treatises until the realities dawn on us as in the past couple of days.
In a country where such cautions, if you like, admonitions are high risk factors, Dr. Bawumia was subjected to an assortment of vitriolic attacks for in their state of denial, ‘lying to Ghanaians when the economy was posting good returns and nowhere near where Dr. Bawumia claimed it was.”
Today his word has come to pass but those who led the country to this state are no longer in power but in a position to throw scum at anybody who points at their ineptitude and how deep they have taken the country into the abyss.
The haphazard manner in which the country’s economy has been managed over the years has been anything but acceptable and in conformity with international best practices. The breaches of banking standards in furtherance of the bad governance module in practice over the years have shaken the economy and reduced us to international paupers in a country where natural resources and human capital are enough to move us beyond this sorry state so many years after independence.
Dr. Bawumia’s word about the state of the banking sector at the time he uttered it, scary as it was at the time, was on point. He stopped short of being specific about the ailing banks but it was palpable that players in the industry appreciated his analysis and knew the financial Armageddon would not be long in coming. So has it been.
Now that no amount of propaganda can save the previous government from public query for its poor performance in the economic front, we must as a people review the way we fall prey to political gimmicks.
Those who claimed to set the records straight but ended up throwing dust into the eyes of adults- the ages of their fathers – must bow their heads in shame.
Such ruses should no longer be tolerated. Hiding behind entitlement to speaking their minds should stop where our intelligence is being insulted.
It is unacceptable when in the face of dwindling economic fortunes attributable to the inefficiency of a government and the deliberate stealing from the public purse by managers of the economy, politicians at the helm, as we experienced a few years ago, shouted on rooftops that all was well.
Now that the chickens have come home to roost haven’t we observed who was lying and what has accounted for our dire economic state?
We pray that none of the remaining banks suffers what their counterparts did and made the worrying headlines which should certainly be the subject of discussions in some international boardrooms. Oh, gosh!