We need to ‘restructure’ the NPP government itself

The sheer lack of initial consultation in the ongoing Domestic Debt Exchange/restructuring Programme (DDEP) with key domestic bondholders championed by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta in the Akuffo-Addo-led government is indeed unfortunate and requires Ghanaians to ‘restructure’ the NPP government itself.

The outcry of the domestic individual bondholders in the DDEP is justifiable, as it is no fault of theirs that Ghana’s economy finds itself now in such a critically exposed economic condition. The accommodating nature of Ghanaians should not be grossly underestimated.

The bitterest pill the government wants common Ghanaians to swallow is to ask them to burden share in this excruciating economic hardship while the government itself is never ready to drastically slash its bloated size to significantly cut down discretionary expenses. As we speak, there is a lot of waste in the system as recently reported by the Auditor-General regarding the Covid-19 funds expenditure riddled with corruption.

How this government is steering the affairs of the country is so uninspiring! There is, therefore, the need for Ghanaians to speak up in a sustained manner to expose the double standard of the government of wanting citizens to burden share by accepting crippling conditions of DDEP for individual bondholders but being so reluctant at reducing its plus-size government and other discretionary expenditures.

Kudos to Lawyer Kpebu and Hosi for spearheading the Individual Bondholders concerns and exposing the ill-intended plans of the government and not kowtowing to the insensitive and inconsiderate conditionalities of the DDEP as far as individually owned bonds are concerned. There is indeed power in a unified voice!

The ‘Restructuring’ of the NPP government is crucially vital come 2024 through the power of the very thumb that brought it into political power in 2017.

BY Dr. John-Baptist Naah
Cologne/Köln
Germany