The Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Richard Ahiagbah has said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has no alternative ideas to counter the policies that the government is using to rebuild the economy.
To that end, he said, members of the NDC have been talking down the economy and denying that the corner has been turned.
“The NDC is talking down the economy because they don’t have alternative ideas to counter the policy offerings of this government to regenerate the economy.
“The economy has turned the corner, Ghanaians must stand with the government to stabilize the economy,” he tweeted.
It is recalled that the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson told Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta that he has not turned the corner relative to the economic challenges.
Dr Forson said the Finance Minister rather deepened the economic woes of Ghanaians with poor policies and programmes.
His comments come after Mr Ofori-Atta said that the government had avoided the unimaginable.
He told Parliament during the presentation of the 2023 mid-year budget review on Monday, July 31 that with a lot of effort, the government managed to avoid empty shop shelves for medicines and other essentials the country has seen no shortages of food.
“We have been spared the frustrating spectre of long queues for fuel at our filling stations; and, we have managed, in spite of all the challenges, to keep the lights on,” he said.
“Indeed, as the Psalmist said (in Psalm 118:23) this is the LORD’s doing; and it is marvellous in our eyes.
“This ‘turning the corner’ is underpinned by the investments and sacrifices we have
collectively made during this difficult period since March 2020,” he added.
Mr Ofori-Atta further said that it is important that we acknowledge some of the major milestones that this country has experienced in the last 3 years.
“We should be still and appreciate that despite our challenges as a country, we have been saved from many extreme conditions that others have suffered, including peace, health, security, continuous supply of power, and life itself, amongst others.
“Over that period, the country has gone through extremely difficult situations, and
the gratitude of His Excellency the President and his government goes to the good
people of Ghana for their patience, understanding and positive contributions to
Government’s efforts to weather the storm.”
Speaking on the floor of Parliament after the budget presentation, Dr Forson who is also the Member of Parliament for Ejumako Enyan Essiam said “Mr. Speaker, let our minister not say anywhere that he has turned the corner; he has rather deepened our woes.”
Reacting to these in a statement, Mr Ahiagbah said “The NDC has chosen deliberately to deceive Ghanaians to incite and make the government unpopular. This is unethical and extreme partisan behavior must be condemned.
“The idea that the mid-year revision of the macro-fiscal projections means that we have not turned the corner is very laughable. It simply does not make sense and should not be taken seriously. The NDC has zero ideas to contribute to how we build back from the ruins of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War. Fellow Ghanaians, this is evidence that if the NDC were in power today, Ghana would have been worse off. We must ask ourselves what ideas has the NDC contributed since the Covi-19 pandemic broke in 2020 and later the Russia-Ukraine War in 2022. The answer is that they have contributed zero original idea(s). Their communication strategy is simply to bastardize the genuine efforts of the government to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and the War on our economy.”