South African Council of Elders Chairman and the Group Chairman of Allied Consortiums, Mr Benjamin Kofi Quashie has cast doubts on the Nana Akufo-Addo's government's ability to honour the new bond arrangements, describing their approach as very nauseating and unbelievable.
According to him, examining the fact that, the former Chief Justice participated in the picketing at the Finance Ministry regarding the exclusion of pensioners from the bond arrangements, tells him that Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo's government cannot be trusted.
"This government is not one that you can trust. This government is not one you can go home and believe that whatever they're doing in terms of the debt structure is something that would inure to the benefit of pensioners", he stated.
Grounding his reason why the government can't be trusted, he argued that, during Covid19, the government sold bonds and misapplied the money as revealed by the Auditor General's report. "Now the same government comes beseeching everyone to come and help out in the name of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme. How can one trust such a government?", he quizzed.
"The arrogance, the sheer arrogance with which they are doing it is nauseating. That, even the former Chief Justice is saying it", the Allied Consortiums Group Chair added.
The SA National Democratic Congress Council of Elders Chairman was speaking via zoom on Blessed Sogah's 'The Pulse' show on Joy News' discussion on the "Debt Exchange", Tuesday, 14th February 2023.
Mr. Benjamin Kofi Quashie further shared that if anyone argued that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is putting in place bold measures to help us come out of the economic downturn, we should take that with a pinch of salt. "We have a president who said he was going to use the Anas principle to fight corruption and today he clears people out of corruption."
"We have a president who promised to fight galamsey. What has happened to that? How do you trust such a government with your money?" he quizzed again.
According to him, when the issues of the Debt Exchange Programme started, the president, the finance minister and others said there wasn't going to be a haircut.
"Today we have it. President Mahama said it, and they laughed at him and called him a doomsayer. Today, reality has dawned on us. We can't trust them until they begin to do what is necessary and we see them lead by example, then as the citizenry, we can all come together to build the nation we want", he ended.
