Vice President and NPP presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has taken a swipe at former President John Mahama, exposing what he calls Mahama’s dreadful record in all economic indicators.
Delivering a speech at Nungua in the Krowor Constituency of the Greater Accra Region, Dr. Bawumia laughed off claims by former President Mahama on his Facebook page that the current government is a failure.
Dr. Bawumia, in reply, censured former President Mahama saying he lacks understanding of economic data, otherwise he wouldn’t compare his “failed government” with the New Patriotic Party’s noting that every economic data shows that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration has over-performed.
Dr. Bawumia touted their superior record saying “he (Mahama) said he has performed better than us and I said if you believe you performed better, come for a debate but he has run away..I hear he has written on his Facebook that NPP is a failed government. Then I said maybe he doesn’t understand the economy. He either does not read the data or he does not understand the data. He doesn’t understand.”
He stressed; “I want him and those around him to listen to me this evening, so I explain the data to them so that they will get an understanding. Let me tell him that when it comes to the economy, overall GDP during your government is lower than ours. We have performed better than you.”
“When it comes to the economy in terms of agriculture growth, we have performed better than you. In terms of industry growth, we have performed better than you. In terms of budget deficit to GDP, we have performed better than you.
“The primary balance, we have performed better than you. The trade balance, we have performed better than you. The current account balance, we have performed better than you. Gross international reserves, we have performed better than you.”
Dr. Bawumia continued that despite the current government being affected by the global economic crisis, its exchange rate depreciation record is better than Mahama’s government which didn’t deal with any global economic crisis.
”Let me tell you about the exchange rate. I want them to listen because they don’t understand…When it comes to the exchange rate, we measure performance by the rate of depreciation. So, if you look at the NDC period of 8 years, the rate of depreciation was 74% without a global crisis. No Covid crisis. No Russia/Ukraine war. No global economic recession.”
“Under the NPP, as at today, after 8 years in office with a global economic crisis and with the Covid pandemic, we have depreciated the cedi by 72% which is lower than their depreciation. So, if they say that we have mismanaged the cedi, then they mismanaged it worse than we have without a crisis.”
Dr. Bawumia also highlighted other sectors of the economy where the NPP’s performance far outweighs John Mahama’s.
“Jobs, we have created more jobs than him; 2.3 million jobs. He was creating unemployment. He wasn’t creating jobs…We have built more roads than him. We have built more airports than him. We have built more railways than him. We have built more interchanges than him. We have built more hospitals than him.
“We have built more schools than him. We have built more Astro turfs than him. We have built more Sports facilities than him. We have built more sanitation facilities than him. We have built more courts than him. We have built more public libraries than him. We have built more fish landing cites than him.
“We have brought more drones into the economy. We have done more school feeding than him. We have restored teacher training allowances, restored nursing training allowances. We have brought free TVET and we have brought Free Senior High School education.”
Dr. Bawumia further moved to digitalization stating “we have brought the Ghana Card which he could not issue. We have brought the digital address system to Ghana. We have brought mobile money interoperability, brought e-pharmacy, brought paperless ports, brought e-health into Ghana.”
“By all account, if you look at the data on the economy, from top to bottom, we have performed better than him…He should go and check the data and understand the data before he comes out to speak on the economy. We have performed better than him in all ways.”
“He (Mahama) said we are a failed government. I want to tell him that we have rather failed to do 4 years of dumsor…We have failed to cancel teacher training allowance. We have failed to cancel nursing training allowance. We have failed in the policy of ‘no chalk in schools’. We have failed in three months pay policy for teachers”, the Vice President sarcastically replied Mahama.
He further slammed the former President saying “we have failed in the SADA guinea fowl project. We have failed in collapsing the NHIS; he collapsed it. He collapsed the ambulance service. We have resuscitated it…And he had green book project for development. We don’t have that. So, if there is any failure, it is his which was a failed government…He should come and debate me, one on one and we will see who has succeeded and who has failed. He should come and debate me and we will get into the data”.
