New Veep can't be effective leader-Political Scientist declares

Akwasi Amakye-Boateng, a Political Science Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, yesterday said he was not enthused about the answers Vice President Amissah-Arthur gave to questions when he appeared before Parliament's Appointments Committee Monday.

 
Mr Amakye-Boateng said he was particularly not impressed about the answers to questions bordering on corruption, the economy, as well as the Woyome saga, describing the answers as “bad.”

 
He expressed scepticism about the ability of the former Governor of the Bank of Ghana to bring anything meaningful to bear on the Mahama-led administration, which has barely four months to govern the country ahead of the December elections.

 
Speaking on Adom TV's 'Badwam' programme on Multi TV, the lecturer stated that the country needed an effective political leader as Vice President, stressing that Mr Amissah-Arthur does not embody that quality.

 
According to Mr Amakye, Ghanaians should not expect anything new from the Mahama-Amissah government, insisting that it is impossible for the administration to make any meaningful impact in this short period.

 
In a related development, Kofi Konadu Apraku, a member of the economic management team of the New Patriotic Party, has sharply criticized the Vice President for what he describes as his lack of leadership in addressing the alarming depreciation of the cedi while he was Governor of the Bank of Ghana.

 
The leading member of the opposition NPP, who was reacting to comments by the new Vice President regarding the regulation of interest rates, said Mr Amissah-Arthur failed to outline concrete steps to address the downgrading of the cedi, as well as the high interest rates charged by banks.

 
“For example, what did he say about interest rates? He said basically that we are in an unregulated era and that he cannot regulate the interest rates but we know the basic fundamentals that are working to create the high interest rates that we see,” Myjoyonline quoted Dr Apraku.

 
“…With respect to depreciation, he gave only one example – the huge import volume – but there are very fundamental problems beside that. If you look at the agricultural sector, the performance over the period – last year, going at the rate of 0.08 percent and we know even food we are importing,” he stated.

 
According to Dr Apraku, “people are not interested in the past; people are looking to solutions that he is going to proffer, that will help change the state of the economy.”