Former President John Dramani Mahama has asked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to apologise to Ghanaians for backtracking on his government’s position on state borrowing.
Nana Akufo-Addo and his vice president Dr. Bawumia in the run up to the 2016 general elections criticised the Mahama government’s appetite for contracting loans, describing it as “reckless borrowing”.
They did not understand why the Mahama government was borrowing from other countries to finance developmental projects in the country, and promised Ghanaians that a New Patriotic Party government would not indulge in such borrowing when voted into power.
But Nana Akufo-Addo has failed to walk the talk on his position on borrowing to finance government projects as his government has within the last 18 months borrowed nearly eight billion dollars, approximately 40 billion cedis.
Many Ghanaians have criticised the government for borrowing with frenzy, with some arguing the government has nothing to show for the amount of money borrowed so far.
Government has however justified Akufo-Addo’s borrowing.
President Akufo-Addo last week stated his government would continue to borrow to finance its programmes and projects, arguing even the United States of America, which is seen as economic giant, contract loans.
“We will borrow money; everybody borrows money. The United States of America is one of the biggest debtors in the world. So borrowing money is not necessarily a betrayal of the concept of independence,” President Akufo-Addo said.
Former President Mahama who now feels vindicated, wants President Akufo-Addo to apologise to Ghanaians for making a u-turn on his position on loans.
“We have all your quotations on loans,” Mr Mahama told Nana Akufo-Addo while addressing delegates of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at Tantra Hills in Accra in the Trobu Constituency on Monday
He said while the NDC was in government, it borrowed to invest in assets such as hospitals, roads, bridges, interchanges, ports expansion, electricity and water, among others yet the NPP consistently criticised the government.
“So today if you have turned around and you have seen that you can borrow and invest in assets, then the first thing you do is to apologise and say sorry to Ghanaians. But when you behave as if we don’t know what you said, and say even the US is borrowing. And so what?” he quizzed.
He said after borrowing almost GHC 40 billion, the NPP cannot tell Ghanaians what it has used the money for.
Mr. Mahama also rejected the claim by the NPP government that, it is using some of the borrowed money to service the debt behind left by the NDC government.
He said the NDC in power also paid some of the loans left behind by the previous NPP administration, citing the Eurobond as an example.
By 3news.com| Ghana
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