Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, a member of parliament for Tamale Central, claims that Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s finance minister, mismanaged the country’s finances gravely, particularly at the height of the Covid-19 outbreak.
He claims that this justifies requests for the Minister’s resignation or firing.
He contends that the widely held belief that Ghana’s COVID problem was better handled than that of the nation’s neighbours is untrue.
“Before Covid, our economy was the second largest and second best-performing economy within the West African sub-region. And I heard a lot of the NPP dudes; they say ‘oh we managed Covid than our neighbours’ that is utterly not true.
“The best way to manage Covid was to prevent lives from being lost. If you take percentage terms, lives were lost in Ghana than in Togo, than in Burkina, than in Senegal, even if we want to look at it on percentage terms.
“The point I’m making is that none of our neighbours went to the IMF to borrow 3billion dollars in the name of Covid. None. As a matter of fact, Burkina went for 20 million dollars. None of our neighbours went to the World Bank for 904 million dollars that is what we borrowed,” he said on JoyNews’ PM Express.
Despite not having access to the same level of funding as Ghana did during the pandemic, Murtala Mohammed claimed that the neighbouring countries had recorded substantially fewer deaths than Ghana.
Under the pretence of combating the pandemic, he claimed, the Akufo-Addo-led administration had squandered the country’s financial reserves.
“We went for 3billion dollars in the name of Covid, none of our neighbours went to the World Bank for 904 million dollars, none of our neighbours dipped their hands into all manner of funds established by the President you described as incompetent to the extent that monies or funds established by President Mahama, you dipped your filthy hands in them, messed up the money. Absolutely filthy! And I will tell you why I say it’s filthy,” he stated.
He continued, “Today we were deceived. Part of good governance is transparency and honesty. We were told we were being given free water and free electricity. When people questioned what they were using the money for, they said, ‘o we gave you free water and free electricity’ only for us to be tricked.
‘We are now made to pay for the so-called free water and electricity, and mind you it is even unethical. Not everybody in Ghana enjoyed the free water and free electricity. The likes of myself and you never enjoyed that. Today we’re all being made to pay for something we never enjoyed.”
He added that the Minister, despite opposition from the minority caucus in parliament and some civil society organizations, had implemented the Covid charge but had refused to disclose to the public how much money had been amassed since the levy was put in place.
“The covid levy we’re paying, we do not even know how much government spent in the so-called free water and free electricity yet we’re paying the tax. I have filed a question, in fact I filed the question before we rose; wanting the Minister of Finance to come to Parliament to tell us how much did the state spend in providing the free water and free electricity to us? How much have they collected so far?
“Assuming government spent 3 million Ghana cedis in providing the free water and free electricity and now with the covid levy we’re paying, assuming we have paid more than 3 million that is robbery. That is absolutely robbery. Because you imposed a tax for a purpose, people have done that obligation which is even unethical because that tax is paid by everybody.
“So the point I’m making is that this Minister has no success story, the only reason why the Minister is still there is because he uses the name Ofori-Atta,” he said.
“Sack the Finance Minister”
At a news conference on Tuesday, October 25, some NPP lawmakers requested that Mr. Ofori-Atta be immediately fired from his position as finance minister.
If President Akufo-Addo ignores the request, the MPs have threatened to skip the 2023 budget hearing, then the administration runs the risk of losing their support moving forward.
“If our request is not responded to positively, we will not be present for the budget hearing, neither will we participate in the debate,” Mr Appiah-Kubi, spokesperson for the Majority caucus and MP for Asante-Akim North Constituency indicated.
The “#KenMustGo” Trend
In other news, as several Majority MPs advocated for the dismissal of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, the hashtag #KenMustGo became popular online.
As Ghana battles an economic crisis, Mr. Ofori-Atta has come in for some of the harshest criticism.
The cedi has been identified as the worst-performing currency in the world and inflation has reached 37.2%.
Online observers noted that the majority of MPs’ urge to overthrow their own administration was unprecedented.
Others urged the Finance Minister to step down rather than hold out in case the President decided to fire him.
In reality, some Ghanaians supported the calls for the Finance Minister’s dismissal.
The Ashanti Regional capital of Kumasi, which serves as the government’s electoral bastion, has some locals who believe it would be better for everyone if the Finance Minister left.
According to some locals who spoke with Citi News, Ken Ofori-Atta’s tenure as finance minister is overdue and he ought to be fired.
“If the key members of the government are saying that the Finance Minster should go, then I believe it has a lot of benefits for us, especially those of us who are sympathisers of the NPP,” one of the residents said.
“I agree with them that the Finance Minister should be changed. It is long overdue because that is the clarion call of everybody,” another Kumasi resident said.
Akua Karle Okyere
Akua Karle Okyere is a lifestyle blogger at The Vocal Ghanaian and also a PR technician. She enjoys researching on travels and tours and writing fictional stories in her leisure time.
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