The Member of Parliament for Bawku Central Constituency, Mahama Ayariga, says all indications have proven that the problem at the Bank of Ghana is a creature of the Minister of Finance.
Therefore, he says the Minority and, indeed, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have taken a new position to demand that Ken Ofori-Atta also goes.
“We demand that the Governor should resign, he and his two deputies and, in fact, given the posture and attitude of the Finance Minister, we now take a position that the Finance Minister himself should go because even if we bring a new Governor, every indication is that this Finance Minister is going to collude and collaborate and put pressure on them to do the very things that this Governor and his teams are doing,” he said on Ghana Tonight on TV3 on Thursday, September 14.
This comes in the wake of an article penned by Mr Ofori-Atta in defence of Governor Dr Ernest Yedu Addison.
Titled ‘Standing Strong with the Bank of Ghana’, the article, published earlier on Thursday, described the Governor as “a competent professional of quiet courage”.
“In these nearly seven years, we have worked together to ensure: the inviolability of the banking system; the establishment of the Consolidated Bank of Ghana (CBG) and the Development Bank of Ghana; the raising of over $10 billion in the Eurobond market and AfriExim bank.
“He brought inflation down to single digits of 7.9% for the first time; and managed an impressive period of currency stability in our country including the implementation of the Gold-for-Oil programme.
“It is either simply the height of irony or a sad reflection of the state of public discourse in our country that this man, steps up in a period of unprecedented global economic meltdown and domestic economic crises, and he is being pilloried for his good work.”
But Mr Ayariga stressed Governor Addison “cannot be praised for that”.
“If the Finance Minister says we should praise the Governor because two or three or four years ago, the Governor brought inflation down to single digit but today the same Governor has brought inflation down to over 40 percent, so when he brought inflation to single digit, he deserves praise when due to incompetence, he brought inflation to over 40 percent, then there is the basis of asking the Governor to leave office.”
The Minority had given the Governor 21 days to resign, failure of which members would march to demand this.
After the period elapsed, the Minority has made two failed attempts to march to the headquarters of the Bank of Ghana.
The first, scheduled for Tuesday, September 5, saw the Accra Regional Police Command of the Ghana Police Service securing an injunction, which is still before an Accra High Court.
The second, to have been staged on Tuesday, September 12, was also cancelled due to an engagement with the police.
A new date has been agreed to have the march on Tuesday, October 3.