A member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Alfred George Kojo Thompson, says the Minority in Parliament should have exhausted all other legitimate means before hitting the streets to demand the resignation of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana and his two deputies.
On Tuesday, October 3, the Minority led thousands of civilians to march to the head office of the Bank of Ghana, demanding the resignation of Dr Ernest Yedu Addison and his two deputies – Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari and Elsie Addo Awadzi.
They, however, met the absence of the Governor, who was said to be in a crucial meeting with officials of the International Monetary Fund at that time.
Later in an interview with international business news website Central Banking, Dr Addison said the Minority knew the right channel to have used in making their demands.
“The Minority in Parliament have many channels to channel their grievances in civilised societies, not through demonstrations in the streets as hooligans,” Dr Addison told Central Banking in the interview on Wednesday, October 4.
Commenting on this on TV3‘s New Day on Friday, October 6, Mr Thompson, who is a former Deputy Managing Director of the National Investment Bank (NIB), reiterated that there are many other channels the Minority could have used.
He, therefore, advised the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament (MPs) to explore those channels before hitting the streets.
“Till then, I see the going on the streets as a keep fit exercise,” he said.
But a Professor at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Lord Mensah, suggested that under the current circumstances, hitting the streets was the best available option.
He mentioned that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as per the current economic situation in Ghana could have asked the Governor to go, for instance.
But Prof Mensah conceded that all these other options may not yield the expected results.
“If you lay down all these options, the public pressure is the best available.”
The Minority in Parliament who led the protest on Tuesday, October 3 promised to return to the streets after the Governor failed to show up to receive its petition.
The Director of Security of the Bank, Wing Commander (rtd) Kwame Asare-Boateng, had been delegated to receive the petition, a move that Minority Leader Dr Cassiel Ato Forson described as “disrespectful”.