Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has slammed former President John Dramani Mahama for suggesting that Ghana’s economy is on life support after just one month of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ablekuma West Member of Parliament believes if anybody should talk about the economy, it should not be the former President because of his very bad economic track record he left for the ruling government.
According to a publication by abcnewsgh.com and sighted by adwoaadubianews.com. Mr Mahama in a Facebook conversation on Thursday, April 23, 2020, said the coronavirus pandemic has shown that the much-touted robust economy of the Akufo-Addo government had only been a facade.
”Unfortunately this government has used a lot of propaganda. They said the economy has been the best that we have ever had since independence. Unfortunately in just one month of coronavirus and the economy is in ICU,” he said.
Reacting to these comments, the Communications Minister who appeared very disappointed in the former President’s comment said COVID-19 should not be the determiner of what a robust economy is since it has affected every economy in the world.
If someone will talk about the economy, we beg him not to. We beg him in all humility, he shouldn’t go there, it’s a very slippery path. Who has coronavirus exposed? Has he heard about what is going on in America? France? England, Italy or even China? Is he living in this world or he’s living in a world of his own? I beg him, economic issues are very slippery for him. JM and economy are diametrical opposites, there are some things if you do, people will take you on, I like him so he shouldn’t do that. Maybe he’s not quite sure of the impact of coronavirus on the global economy and that is why he is talking like this about the Ghanaian economy, it’s possible so I’ll be magnanimous. He should consult his team so they will sit down and research a bit more about where the world is today,” Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said.
She added, “Look at the American economy, the Chinese economy, English economy, the French economy, the Italian economy, the whole world is facing a recession worse than the great depression in the 1930s and you are there saying our economy is on life support. Who in January 2020 would have thought that by March 2020 airports and virtually the whole world would be closed and airplanes will not operate? Has this happened before? If someone had predicted this we would have hooted at him. I traveled and returned on March 1, I went to Paris, I went to the Hague and then to Moscow, life was normal there but today go and look at what is happening there, all shops are closed, all businesses closed, the streets have become ghost towns.”
The blunt-spoken MP said the NPP government did not tout their economy as robust but all the economic indices showed this Government is doing relatively better than the John Mahama Administration.
On suggestions that President Akufo-Addo should cut down the size of his government to save money for COVID-19, Owusu-Ekuful said, “when he talks about cutting down the size of our government at this time, I laugh because that is cheap partisan politics. Is this what we need at this time? And that is what hurts me because as we are having sleepless night thinking about how best we can handle this virus, all that they are interested in is engaging in politics.”
“Your Excellency Former President John Dramani Mahama, if you haven’t realized it, the world you knew is not the world of today. Coronavirus is having a devastating impact on every impact on every sector of the economy, maybe he hasn’t realized it yet. He is saying we touted our economy as robust and just one month of coronavirus we can’t handle, we are not the ones that said it was robust, all the indices showed that our economy before coronavirus was robust much better than what he left, we are not the ones saying it, the evidence is there. Has coronavirus harm our finances, yes, directly attributable to coronavirus, if it hadn’t come we were on course to do a lot of things,” she added
