A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has wondered why pensioners including former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo were picketing over an offer that they have the choice not to accept.
Mr Otchere-Darko indicated that the pensioners were asking to be exempted from an improved offer programme which is voluntary.
In a series of tweets, he said “As an individual bondholder myself I wish to join the others in thank ling those like Senyo Hosi, Gayheart Mensah and co, who volunteered to lead the advocacy resulting in a far better offer for individual bondholders (particularly pensioners) than the original offer. Ayekoo!
“Whiles I have sympathies for those picketing, I think we should be bold enough to ask them what really is the purpose? Why picket over an offer which you have the liberty not to accept? You are asking to be exempted but from an improved offer programme which is voluntary!
“The former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, may mean well but she erred big time in her basic appreciation of the issues. Rather than asking the Govt for exemption at this late hour, why did she simply not ‘exempt’ herself from exchanging her original bond for the new one!
“Why picket over something you don’t like (the improved offer) when you have the right not to sign up? Sorry, but I struggle to get her emotional outburst over-exemption! I hope she won’t volunteer to picket tomorrow and on the same issues when the time to sign up has expired.
“I was among those who pleaded for the exemption of pensioners. But, the Govt had to balance all that with the need to protect the economy for the 33m population and settled on the 15% yield maturing in 5yrs instead of 15, and that the individual was FREE not to participate.
“For a former CJ to take up a noble cause such as she did but at such late hour when all was done and for all that publicity, she owed it to herself and her social standing to have understood the issues far better than what she exhibited last Friday. She is bigger than that.”
(1) As an individual bondholder myself I wish to join the others in thank ling those like Senyo Hosi, Gayheart Mensah and co, who volunteered to lead the advocacy resulting in a far better offer for individual bondholders (particularly pensioners) than the original offer. Ayekoo!
— Gabby Otchere-Darko (@GabbyDarko) February 12, 2023
Ms Sophia Akuffo has rejected the inclusion of pensioners in the DDEP.
Speaking to journalists after joining a group of pensioners to picket at the Ministry of Finance in Accra on Friday February 10, she said “These are all people who have worked, they have worked very hard, they could have left the country when others were going but they stayed, they worked for the nation.
“We have had our ups and downs. A lot of us were from generations where we were encouraged to save for tomorrow and all that. We have been through times where all your savings become nonsense because of some government policies, then over the years, bit by bit, people have become more confident in the economy and investments.
“Quite a number of people here today, when they retired last two years they have put everything into government bonds, it is a contract and now all of a sudden, you virtually want to, at gunpoint, force them to agree with you that the repayment of the yield of their investment should be as you dictate it. Why?”
She further criticized the government for not being able to account for the borrowings done over the years.
“Why are we in the mess? Nobody has fully explained to us, yes we took debt, what was it used for? and where is the accountability? Exactly what was it used for? You are not telling us about how you are going to be able to make things better but just that ‘help me and I help you’, no, you help yourself first, let me see you doing something serious because we have seen these sort of things too many times.
“I am over 70 years now, I am no longer government employed, my mouth has been ungagged and I am talking and I am saying that we have failed and it is important that the elderly should be respected. I find this wicked, I find it disrespectful, I find it unlawful, I find it totally wrong.”
The pensioners have been picketing at the Ministry since Monday, February 6 to be exempted from the Programme.
Already, government has reached agreements with banks, insurance companies and securities companies to join the Programme, which is meant to be part of the country’s debt restructuring exercise ahead of an extended credit facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Government had assured all active workers of exempting their pension funds from the Programme but is said to have included pensioners’ funds in its revised memorandum.
Most of the pensioners say the bonds with government is their only source of livelihood, having worked to save those monies.
Government’s seeming nonchalance to their demands forced them to begin an action, which sees them come to the Finance Ministry between 10:00am and 11:00am each day to press them home.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana