As the Flag-bearer of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia begins his tour of Ashanti Region, the good people of Ashanti are hoping for once that he will finally use this occasion to render true accountability to the stronghold of the NPP for the faith the region has reposed in the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government.
It is a fact that 7 out of every 10 people who voted in the 2016 and 2020 General Elections in the Ashanti Region voted for the New Patriotic Party. It is equally a fact that various promises that were made to the people of the Ashanti Region played a key role in the NPP’s impressive electoral outturns of 2016 and 2020.
At the heart of the NPP’s mouth-watering campaign promises was a certain Dr.Mahamadu Bawumia, their so-called poster-child of economic transformation.
While in opposition, candidate Akufo-Addo (as he then was) presented Dr. Bawumia to the whole world as that economic whizz kid who has practical solutions to all our economic challenges.
Ghanaians will recall how Dr. Bawumia inspired by these accolades began to hold series of economic lectures to trumpet superior knowledge of economic management and how a future Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government will implement a so-called blueprint for Ghana’s economic prosperity.
After eight years at the helm of affairs as Head of the Economic Management Team, Dr. Bawumia’s handling of the economy has been nothing short of a disaster. Ghana’s bankrupt economy on the watch of Alhaji Bawumia epitomises how not to run an economy and exposes him as someone who does not have what it takes to manage an economy.
Today, under the watch of Dr. Bawumia, the Ghana Cedi is amongst the worst performing currencies in the world, currently trading at over GHS15 to a dollar. The rate of inflation is in excess of 23%, while food prices continue to skyrocket. Interest rates are now over 40% while Ghana’s public debt has hit an unprecedented GHS658.6 billion.
Ghanaians are reeling under unimaginable hardships; businesses are folding up by the day as the Ashanti Region, which is the stronghold of the NPP and the economic nerve-center of Ghana, experiences its fair share of Ghana’s economic meltdown occasioned by the mismanagement of Dr. Bawumia.
As this same Dr. Bawumia embarks on a tour of the Ashanti Region today, the people of the region expect answers to these pertinent questions.
1. Why is the Cedi falling so freely under his watch as head of the Economic Management Team? What has happened to his infamous claim of arresting the Cedi and handing over the keys to the IGP?
2. In which Zongo in Ashanti Region can we find the brand new secondary school he promised to construct in all 16 regions?
3. Muslims in the Ashanti Region want to know why Hajj fare is GHS75,000 under his watch when it was just GHS11,900 in 2016?
4. When are the Kejetia Central Market phase two and the Krofrom markets going to be completed?
5.Where are the five interchanges that he and his boss promised the good people of Ashanti Region?
6. Why is the Kumasi Airport phase two and three not in use after it has been commissioned by his boss?
7. Which of the Agenda 111 Hospitals that they promised to complete in 18 months has been completed and ready for use in the Ashanti Region 4 years down the line?
8. Where is Ashanti Region’s share of the one million dollars per constituency that was promised all the constituencies in the Ashanti Region?
9. Why must it take the revered King of the Ashanti, the Asantehene Otumfour Osei Tutu II, soliciting funds to heal Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital when we don’t pay taxes to Manhyia?
10. What is the state of the Boankra Inland Port?
The people of the Ashanti Region expect accountability from the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government for the faith they have reposed in them over two electoral cycles.
Elections are upon us again, and there comes Dr. Bawumia again, on another mission to hoodwink the good people of Ashanti. It will however not be business as usual. This is our assurance to the people of Ashanti, as we ready ourselves to subject Bawumia’s perfidious and empty promises while on this tour to strict scrutiny.
A word of advice to the dishonest – if you cannot spell, then don’t attempt to write in the first place. If Bawumia fails to provide sufficient answers to these critical issues, then we expect him to render an unqualified apology to the good people of the Ashanti Region and desist from making any further phantom and unrealistic promises.
Signed.
ABASS NURUDEEN,ESQ
ARCO
