Former President John Mahama has urged diplomats to make realistic assessments of Ghana’s economy to enable them to acknowledge the role policy has played in the struggles of the economy.
“While the norm in international diplomacy of being guarded in what one says is appreciated, comments by high ranking officials must be grounded on facts that take into consideration local realities and opinions,” he observed.
The former president postulated that consequences of the government’s ill-adviced policies such as botched, insensitive and dubious cost in closing down locally owned banks, unbridled levels of corruption and lack of probity, transparency and accountability including mismanagement of COVID-19 pandemic funds could not be ignored in understanding the state of the economy.
Former President Mahama was reacting to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva’s meeting with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo earlier this week when she spoke positively about the economy despite the realities on the ground.
Ghana returned to the IMF for support after months of struggle with the economy and a cost of living crisis and is expecting $3 billion from the Fund.
Former President Mahama added that “unconventional borrowing practices riddled with opaqueness, conflicts of interest, resulting in unsustainable debt envelope, costly, experimental, untested policies, programmes and social interventions cannot be ignored in understanding current dire state of the economy.
“It is a relief to hear Madam Georgieva reaffirm commitment, dedication and determination of the Fund to support and assist the country in perilous times and the citizenry are undeserving of uncertainty and hardships resulting from ineptness of the government has contributed massively to the mess,” he asserted.
According to him, while the norm in international diplomacy of being guarded in what one said was appreciated, comments by high ranking officials must be grounded on facts that took into consideration local realities, opinions and incontrovertible fact was the nation was in a mess due to bad policies of the government.
Former President Mahama called on International diplomats to consider the facts, not just ignore them lest they make wrong diagnosis, prescribe inappropriate remedies, rhetoric emanating from international diplomats must reflect local realities and economy must be managed first for Ghanaians who lived and experienced it daily and not just for international audience.
