Open letter to the president on the hard truth for sacking Finance Minister without further delay and other national relevant maters to ensure Ghana achieve durable macroeconomic stability anchor on solvency

Dear President,

“So after you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support and strengthen you and He will place you on a firm foundation”. This sermon which is at 1 Peter 5:10 is a very loaded one, which I am to present to you Mr President and the citizenry, from the Almighty God, the giver of knowledge and wisdom. As indicated it is very pregnant with different interpretations to deal with how nothing is permanent and one with Almighty God at one side, one can recover from issues related to losses, hardships, difficulties So like the situations in Ghana and the rest of the World have found themselves, each country is to decipher it w socio-political based aspects. So, I am to decipher it with the situation of Ghana, which must be based on the concept of or phrase that God or Heaven helps those who help themselves as follows. Firstly, the President and citizenry must Trust and Obey God and see the current situation as a call from God to change our attitude which will be the game changer.

Mr President, God dislikes greed, avarice, deceit, dishonesty, other social evils, laziness and business as usual people, so these must be discarded for sense of Patriotism, Honesty, Discipline (PHD), hard work, teamwork. love and support for each other otherwise we shall keep on being in the social drift pathway or vicious circle of poverty, or a low level of economy activity of society or governments which adopt the robbing Peter to pay Paul mentality.

Can you imagine our Finance Minister organized in 2017 or so a Kenkey party, simply because he succeeded in borrowing more dollars and some people clapped for him, instead of requesting you his dismissal for wasting national time and funds on no feat but simply the same old fashion of a lazy vodoo economy of robbing Peter to pay Paul practiced since 1983 and characterized the business in the Fourth Republic, was what he did, hence nothing innovative. So, he must go for someone with new or innovating ideas for growing the economy to take over now. The voice of the people through the 80 MPs (Angels of God) must be listened to and acted effectively, so sack him now. If this is done, God will immediately give the key for rebooting the economy when a new face is in charge of the Ministry. For heaven shake, Mr President, appoint an Economist to replace him for Ghana to gain a firm Foundation as in 1 Peter 5:10.

Mr President, God is against deceit of his people, so he is not happy w3hen the Minister of Finance rushed and abolished a very dedicated source of National revenue instituted by Parliament or a legal tax as the Road Toll. God is not happy because he did so in order to hoodwink the Citizenry especially the members of GPRTU in order to gain mass support for the e-levy, so that when approved by Parliament he can use it to secure or mortgage or leverage for more loans, God found this as unacceptable. He wants you to know His Ghana, First, so sack him, the excuses you gave are unacceptable, he is replaceable. He must go before God will restore the economy.

Mr President, another act found unacceptable, was due to his taste for more loans. So, without sufficient selling of the repressive e-levy tax to the public or Stakeholders for win-win solution, he rushed and sent it to Parliament, where some Angels of God in Parliament kicked against it, hence the down grading of Ghana by credible and honest International Credit Analysts was expected. So 1 Peter 5:10 wants you to take note and wise up so that you smartly appoint a replacement now who should prepare and read the 2023 budget and if he, the new persons includes E-levy at 1.5%, so as to raise more revenue for massive transformation and modernization of the Agricultural sector regarded as engine for economy growth, job creation, development, and the trigger for industrialization especially export driven agro-industries for value addition, this will be approved and accepted without cause by Parliament and the Citizenry respectively because he is coming to restore it and put Ghana on Firm Foundation. This is the sermon in 1 Peter 5:10. But as for this Minister, if he even make the E-levy 0.0005% it will not be accepted by the Citizenry. So wise up Mr President, to exploit the goodwill from God.

Mr, President, another matter of concern was that in attempt to get the defeated E-levy passed, he repackaged it and organized fanfares in the name of Stakeholders engagements and hoodwinked the poor citizenry by saying that Ghanaians are proud people, so, it was not proper to go to the IMF and negotiate with small boys and girls for bail out. Hmm, Mr Fellow Ghanaians, we are not proud people, we are just only humble people of the Lord that is why we allowed the governments with the robbing Peter to pay Paul syndrome introduced in 1983 to persist in the Fourth Republic with the yearly rituals of expectation of cocoa syndicated loan to boost the vodoo economy. Please Sir, use your brain and note that it was because going to the IMF option will not allow for the payment of financial engineering fees was the motivation for his statement to hoodwink the humble children of God.

Another issue of concern was his refusal or failure to opt for the Debt Special Suspension Initiative (DSSI) as provided by the World Bank in 2020, so that Country’s with financial difficulty could gain enough fiscal space for more investments in the productive sector for import substitution to reduce our debt level, but ignored this kind gesture and opted for going for foreign loans which accumulated huge debt and due to the exchange rate differential by yearly monthly or daily appreciation of the dollar or depreciation of the Ghana Cedis this cause an increase of the national debt without taking a new loan but just due to the conversion into or computation in dollars problem to account for the loans in Cedis.

Mr Fellow Ghanaians, you are 100% right that external factors of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia Ukraine War, Imported inflation or market shocks, the Federal Reserve Bank of USA fighting inflation and unemployment with expansionary monetary or Open Market Operation policy contributed to the economy downturn. But you must accept that some internal factors since 1983, including not investing massively in the Agric Sector which will also trigger export driven industries for value addition, corruption, elements of mismanagement, Robbing Peter to pay Paul behaviours through loans since 1983 and the due to the Dollar galloping away from the Cedis, made more debts to be accumulated due to a huge foreign exchange variances without taking a new loan, is making the debt unsustainable thus hurting Ghana.

So Ghana must invest massively in the production sector, and with the current situation besides seeking for credibility etc from the IMF, two options also opened to Ghana a combination of the two is the best. Either you look for fiscal space like debt suspension/ debt restructuring to generate more funds to invest in the productive sector OR please reduce heavily the huge public debt on government machinery by reducing number of the staff from the over 1000 to not more than 700. Reduce the Ministers to 60 or so, order for the usage of low fuel consumption vehicles within the city.

Please note, that the 1979 Constitution limited the number of Ministers to 30 including Cabinet Ministers and Dr Liman even appointed a lesser number to allow for fiscal space for his New Deal of two years economy recovery program based on production sector with the Agric granted more investment, similar to the OPERATION FEED YOURSELF launched by the late General Acheampong.

Sir, abolish the superfluous Ministry of National Security with Militias, thus a breach of Article 85 of the 1992 Constitution which states, ‘’ No Agency, establishment or other Organization concerned with national security shall be established except as provided for under this Constitution’’.

Mr President see whether you could reduce the penchant for foreign goods resulting on wasting scarce dollars for importing items including sexy panties, matches, tooth picks, foreign rice through high taxes. Please, through wide communication, launch operation feed yourself and local industries. For instance Sweet potatoes can be grown by all persons, at home, at work place especially schools with no land space. One can do so in cocoa sacks with filled smooth soil or sandy loamy or loamy soil, with solution of water and four boxes of NPK fertilizer used to water it judiciously or use smooth soil mixed properly with compost manure and water it judiciously and obtain potatoes stems about 4 to 6 inches long with at least a node, insert 2 to 3 inches deep about 4 to 6 inches apart or wide. Place at an area to allow some sunlight, keep watering judiciously daily or any other day or every 3 days (considering unavailability at work area or day school during weekends). Remove any weed. After 30 days, then 60 days time mix two to four matches boxes of NPK fertilizer with enough water for a solution to water it judiciously, and harvest potatoes 95 to 100 days after planting.

Mr President, only dishonest persons will blame the Hon Minister for the current state of the exchange rate, when we know that the habit in the past was the ritual robbing Peter to pay Paul through borrowing especially the ritual cocoa syndicated loan introduced by Hon Dr Kwasi Botchwey was the order of the day to boost the Cedis by all governments. So as we blamed him for borrowing too much dollar loans, we cannot at the same breath blame him for the problem with the exchange rate since borrowing of more dollars to increase supply of dollars was the way that was used for strengthening the Cedis in the past.

We need to listen to ourselves and speak logically or correct errors.

The managing of the foreign exchange rate of a Country is the responsibility of the Central Bank herein Bank of Ghana through monetary policy and not totally by the Minister, who can help by generating and controlling supply of dollars through taxes, import substitutions policy, loans, debt restructuring or suspension etc thus the generating of the Foreign exchange is by the Minister and he borrowed a lot, so Bank of Ghana must answer, naa sika (dollar) wah he?. Fiat Money permits central banks therefore the Bank of Ghana to control money supply to check inflation and create employment. A employment is created through printing and supplying more money into the system or support Government business for business to grow. So it is ridiculous to say the Central Bank needs Parliamentary approval to print more money, which one of the prime tools or functions of Central Bank. The current exchange rate problem is due to the Independent Federal Reserve Bank of USA printing more Dollars (Fiat Money) to create more jobs, so Bank of Ghana must be given the free hand to use the necessary tools to help grow the economy.

Bank of Ghana should see whether Ghana should adopt the Gold Standard to back the Cedis with gold or linking the Cedis with a foreign currency say the dollar for strengthening the Cedis to match the USA dollar boot for boot as against the PNDC’s adopted Fiat Money or monetary policy (money not backed with Gold or foreign currency like the CFA backed by the French Franc). The Fiat monetary policy was adopted by the PNDC, so that the Government through Bank of Ghana can print more Cedis anytime she wants through expansionary monetary policy and reduce it with Contractionary Monetary policy both as Open Market Operations by the Central Bank. So the problem with the exchange rate is both the Fiat Monetary Policy in the Free Market or Laissez-faire Economy established by the PNDC and maintained by other lazy administrations in the Fourth Republic. Too much Cedis chasing for few Dollars in a speculative market. Also, the problem with the exchange rate is also due to the Federal Bank of USA Expansionary monetary policy to create more jobs, control inflation and finance the war effort in support of Ukraine.

So, Mr Fellow Ghanaians, as for this one dey Sir, we must be very honest and not put all the blames on the poor Hon Minister for Finance, we cannot be saying that he borrowed so much external loans which like the ritual syndicated cocoa loan comes to fortify the Ghanaian Cedis yearly and at the same breath blaming him for the galloping Dollar from the Cedis. Borrowing through robbing Peter to pay Paul syndrome was the way we used to strengthen the dollar in previous regime. So if he borrowed more dollars then, he must be praised for borrowing external loans in dollars that kept the Cedis buoyant and matched the dollar boot for boot in the vodoo economy of Ghana in the past which is the same policy done by previous regimes or Finance Ministers in previous Regimes.

So, we should rather find innovative ways for strengthen the Cedis and stop the ritual of looking for loans like the Cocoa syndicated loans to keep the Cedis close to the Dollar, so as for this one dey, the Minister should say you too the same (in Hausa duka diah) to previous Finance Ministers in the Fourth Republic. Ghana should invest more in the productive sector, Grow Ghana, eat Ghana and the wear Ghana as introduced by President Kofour are some of the sound measures to solve the crisis with the exchange rate.

So, Mr President, this one dey, you need to come to the defence of the Hon Minister of Finance and let the Citizenry know that your Minister was just following the footsteps of previous Ministers of Finance with the robbing Peter to pay Paul (foreign investors) and Ghana’s Vodoo economy was therefore anchored on Paul’s (Foreign Investors) continued presence in the domestic capital Market. Hmm…, I will later share my very painful personal experience on this matter especially how shareholders or investors reacted positively with a change of a key personality in a Company an act which inputs from myself and others made the person to convince Shareholders to appoint him as CEO. This caused the appreciation of the shares of the Company in two International Capital Markets but later on, together with other investors, we lost millions of USA dollars when the share price of the Company crashed or dropped to a just toilet papers that is below what we bought per Share due to local issues just like what happened with our shares in UT Bank when it became bankrupt in 2016 or so and gave us toilet papers.

Mr President, also let the Citizenry know that the situation now is due to Parliament failure to pass the repressive E-levy, hence the Country was found not able to raise enough money for servicing her debt this led to the down grading of Ghana to a junk status by International Credit Ratings. Of course the Minister may be blamable for not able to borrow more dollar denominated loans now because he failed to gain win-win solutions or failure to reduce the E-levy from the 1.75 % to 0.5% as recommended. Since the buck stops with the President, we should have rather put our blame to you. May be out love for you we are demanding for his sacking. So, please do not make a very big and sad mistake for us to change our mind and demo for your removal or we go the Sri Lanka way.

You need get the citizenry change their penchant for foreign goods, So let the citizenry know that the fast depreciation of the Cedis is due to among others depleting of our foreign reserves for importation of almost everything from Amina (A) to Zenabu (Z) in a free Market Economy with Fiat Currency or Money hence the say water will find its level policy is what we have in Ghana.

As stated Import substitution through massive production in the Agric sector and to also trigger export driven agro-industries is the answer to reduce the crisis. The Koemanda Sugar Factory as stated in one of my submissions is an albatross on our neck. Due to no sufficient land close to it, say within 60km radius for production of sugar cane to maintain the required quality for production, no clear sugar policy to protect it from unbridled competition, no National off taker agreement at a price favourable to both the farmers and the refinery was reached for the factory, so the farmers can sabotage just like what happened to the Northern Star Tomatoes factory set up with the support of the regime of President Kofour, which the late President Mills tried to revive without success, due to the demand for high price for tomatoes by the farmers. With the current exchange rate problem, the Investor for the Sugar Factory may need you support to give him a fixed exchange rate at the Port for raw sugar from India or Brazil or from an Africa Country by the help of MacDan Air, otherwise it will be hassaacas.

Mr President, the Ghana Cedis cannot match the US Dollar boot for boot, so, it is just telling you and the Citizenry that due to Ghanaians not being innovative, so it is finding its level. It is singing ‘I know my Level’ (courtesy Shatta Wale), because I cannot meet the dollar boot for boot please I will continue to fall till I reach my level”. The hardship should give us a lesson, especially you, the nominated person of God to be the President of Ghana at time to come out with solutions that will restore the situation and put Ghana on a firm foundation as stated in 1 Peter 5:10.

Mr President, for Ghana to be put on a firm foundation, you and subsequent Presidents must ensure to employ a patriotic, honest, disciplined and competent economist, who can manage scarce funds ( national economy) through prioritization of wants (needs) through the application of the principles of opportunity cost, making good use of measures like debt restructuring or debt suspension by World Bank etc to allow fiscal space for massive investment for the transformation and modernization of the Agricultural sector which is the engine for economic growth as well as for massive job creation and to trigger industrialization especially export driven industries for value addition.

Furthermore, for the foundation to be firmed by God through dedicated source of reasonable revenue, God wants the Nation to eschew corruption by using measures like digitation and digitalization to prevent corruption and generate more revenue for massive investment in the productions sectors, for creation of more jobs, for development and for earning some of the needed foreign currencies for the nation and stoppage of the importation of toothpicks, fire crackers or knockouts which disrupt public peace during Christmas and broni wawu etc. Also need for the reduction of wastages in the government machinery or system drastically. Replace V8 vehicles with low fuel consumption vehicles for town or city rides. As was done during Dr Liman’s regime in 1979.

The citizenry to do away with the penchant for foreign goods hence government intervention to ensure the taste is reduced. God wants us to know that the rise in the prices of foreign goods as a blessing for us to come out with home grown solutions as localization or ‘domestication programmes to put this country on a firm foundation. Sir, section 6 of the Article 257 of the 1992 Constitution vested all the minerals in the President on behalf of and in trust for the people of Ghana. Has the President of Ghana ever taken time to study the situation in the Small Scale Mining Sector? The Auditor General, Mr Johnson Asiedu did and found the negligence by EPA to ensure the payment of reclamation bond since 1999 into an escrow account by Licensed Small Mining Companies as required by law passed in 1999 as the Environment Assessment Law 1999 (LI2156). Studies by researchers revealed massive corruption/illegalities especially Ghanaians fronting for foreigners especially Chinese financiers, how the Chinese are using secret banking system to transfer dollars to China or how Ghana is missing US$2Billion Dollars yearly through smuggling of gold.

Mr President, Sorry Mr Fellow Ghanaians, you must ban Small Scale Mining now and get the Security to ensure compliance by the citizenry and replace same with Cooperative Mining (Community Mining) to be designated at an area to be permissible if and only if is in the public (Community) interest and for mainly affected communities and addition of Industrial Medium Scale Mining so that you can navigate all licensed Small Scale Miners or mining companies to the Medium Scale Mining Sector (separate submission on this later).

God wants me to tell you at Daniel 2.21 that ‘’He changes the times, seasons and He removed kings and appoints kings,; He gives wisdom to wise men And Knowledge to people of understanding’’ Hence food for thought, so do the right thing Sir . The execution of the above details (recommendations), can put Ghana’s economy on a firm foundation thus with macroeconomics sustainability anchored on solvency.

Mr President, the fortunes of Ghana is contingent on good leadership through affording participatory governance, which therefore requires among others, the leader therefore you, the President listening to the voices and cries of the people including those in Keta which is part of your constituency called Ghana. So please do well to visit them and render apology to them for the late visit and Ghana’s economy will start to recover.

In your inauguration on 07 January 2017, you called for participatory governance through constructive citizens and not spectators, so you need to be Patriotic, honest and a listening person and be a bold leader to act logically and with alacrity on national issues.

Please Sir, Mr President, do not let your ego or personal interest to override that of the destiny of the Nation, full of children’s of God. , otherwise note ’He changes the times, seasons and He removed kings and appoints kings,; He gives wisdom to wise men And Knowledge to people of understanding at Daniel 2:21.

The suffering may continue for some time so in 2023, which is supposed to be a year of economy recovery must have a new Minister for Economics, so sack the Finance Minister now, reduce the size of your staff at the Presidency. You asked for mandate through votes with promise that you protect the national purse. But studies have shown you are rather draining the national purse with the creation of a very big Government machinery or you duplicated Administration by parallel structures in the name of Special Projects Implementation Units, including the superfluous Ministry of National Security. Please the current economy condition cannot bear the cost of some of this Units or desks Officers. So please reduce them to create fiscal space and get a new Minister with strong Economics background to ensure Ghana undertakes massive production in the Agric sector and adopt import substitution measures. Otherwise, you may give a motivation or a reason for a Military Coup or Sri Lanka type revolution to remove you from Office. So, the reasons for the demand for a change must be listened to and appropriate action carried out to tweak the administration.

So, the Finance Minister must go now, notwithstanding the agreement reached with the 80 good Samaritans. Please pardon me to say that when President Mills died, Ghana did not find it difficult to get an immediate leader in the person of His Excellency Ex-President JD Mahama (HEJDM) to replace him and he performed his constitutional mandate and his performance is regarded or alleged by some of the citizenry including non NDC members or sympathizers as better than yours. Please I am just saying what people have been saying due to your failure to accept good advices.

So, Mr President and your Party the NPP, must understand that you are seriously marketing HEJDM with your inaction or with the dragging of your feet on required actions. Thus you are over speeding to hand over power to HEJDM in 2025, with your refusal to sack the Minister and other actions to tweak things. Hence, your failure to act as demanded by the citizenry could give a lucrative chance for Parliament to exercise her muscle by impeaching the Hon Minister of Finance and causing his removal from office, in line with the relevant Constitutional provision. Should this happen it may dilute your leadership and more hooting at you, thus bringing the High Office of President into ridicule and may lead to your impeachment as section (1) (b) (i) of Article 69 of the 1992 Constitution provides. So your Party and any good citizens of Ghana may wise up and prefer this route in order to prevent a lucrative motivation for a Coup or a Siri Lanka type revolution which may make it impossible for early good economic recovery thus cause more suffering and difficult for your Party to win the next National election. So act to put this Country on sound foundation.

I wish to remind you to read my submission on Coups and their motivations, which I indicated among others as protection of corporate interest of the Armed Forces of a Country which as well-organized institution, sees itself as the last resort for Regime change especially when the citizens are under serious hardship occasioned by signs of mismanagement or a recalcitrant Head of State. Example the Egyptian Armed Forces with General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was motivated by the voices of the people of Egypt for a change of the suffering from the Moslem Brothers and by God’s blessing he staged a successful Coup in 2013 for the removal of unpopular and recalcitrant President Mohammed Morsi, when he was impervious and thus refused to listen to the voices of the people which is the voice of God as decreed at Dan 2:21 against unpopular kings, unwise men or person lacking understanding as. ‘’He changes the times, seasons and He removed kings and appoints kings,; He gives wisdom to wise men And Knowledge to people of understanding’’

I am also to remind you of the allegation of an attempt to stage a coup by Dr Frederick Yao Mac Palm and others to remove you from Office just 18 months in your first tenure of office. If this allegation is true then it was without a strong cause. But please sir, once again, listen to the people especially when the demand for sacking of the Hon Minister has been made frequently for more than 6 months. So please do not let your personal interest or that of the Finance Minister to override the destiny of this great Nation.

Please, note that the call for the total changes also come from most of your party personnel as the majority of the MPs from the members of the Majority Party in Parliament thus represent majority of your party. Hence, once again the voice of the people is the voice of God, so you need to walk your talk, when you asked the people during your inauguration as President-elect that they should be constructive citizens to help you rule this country and not to be spectators which may cause this country become a fail one. So you must listen to the people and sack the Finance Minister now. Let me reiterate that the message at 1 Peter 5:10 should bring hope to the Citizenry but the firm foundation is contingent on good leadership, trust in and obedience to the Almighty God, patriotism, honest, disciplined and hard work.

Mr President, the statement that you can revive a dead economy but you cannot revive a dead person during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic cum you monthly fellow Ghanaian updates was very superb. It made the citizenry to trust your leadership and the International Community to give thumbs up to your leadership, this alone is an intangible or good legacy because it fostered or reinforced social cohesion and thus respect and love for you, and this with other good works by you must be preserved, protected and defended.

So, do not let your failure to reshuffle your Ministers especially your inability to see the need for the dropping of the Hon Minister for Finance to satisfy the interest of the people which may bring a good omen or at least remove the load or the pains or garbage on the heads of some of the citizenry. This path may be very dangerous, so do not allow it, thus let him go, so as to carry all the sins of your administration.

Otherwise your continue to maintain him after several calls may cause more people to off load the garbage on their heads on you through insulting and hooting Just like how the Citizens in 1983, attributed their suffering in 1983 to the then Head of State and he had to say that he should not be blamed because he was not God to cause rains to fall or prevent the then predicament. You are Lucky God has come to your side with wisdom to ponder quickly and act with alacrity, So, you and the Hon Minister should see his resignation or sacking as not necessary a challenge to his competency but because the hardship is happening at the period he is the one in charge of the Ministry of Finance. Hence a sacrificial lamb.

So, you and your party must be very grateful to the citizenry for the hardship and the call for sacking the Minister is not bringing a ‘’collateral damage’’ that extends to you and the Party as at now. So act now, Sir, it is unwise for a man who earlier on was against an earlier option for IMF support and even went further to make unpleasant remarks about the persona of the members of the IMF as well as that of International Credit Rating Analysis, to be made to be a leader of Ghana’s team for the IMF bailout. This sounds baloney, hence an insult to the intelligence of Ghanaians as well as speaks volume of the quality of Leadership in Ghana and this must be seen as an error. So, please Mr Fellow Ghanaians, our Show boy, act now to salvage the images of both the Citizenry and Leadership by immediate sacking of the Hon Minister.

Sir, once again note that beside the external factors as contributory factors for the crisis or problem of Ghana’s economy, internal factors are also fueling the hardship due to the problem of Debt Sustainability. hence good management practices including restriction of unproductive movements, staff reduction, can grant fiscal space so reshuffle your appointees as well as reduce the huge number of your appointees from the over 1000 of them to less than 700 to save more money to make the nation’s debt sustainable. The current situation speaks volume that your administration has no Contingency plan B to activate when necessary so as to see going to the IMF as a last resort requirement hence a Contingency Plan C.

Sir, a delay of the needed action by you, may demonstrate that you are either a novice in the politics and the political economy of Ghana, despite your long period in the political scene, or you seemed to be making your personal interest to override that of the destiny of this nation as alleged by your opponents during a media encounter on Wednesday 26 October 2022. This is so because you should have sacked the Hon Minister of Finance a long time ago, as explained in my earlier several letters to you, recommending his sacking from your Administration for other reasons.

At this juncture let me reiterate my personal position for calling for the sacking of the affected Hon Minister as in the below three reasons, which were in my previous open letters to you and also touch on relevant issues for the development of our country ( Ghana) and to enrich public discourses.

Firstly, I wrote to you that as a financial person, our Finance Minister is always thinking of borrowing and spending (the policy of robbing Peter to pay Paul) hence not a very good economist. So, he is not capable of managing scarce resources by application of the principle of opportunity cost, so as to priorities available funds, so as to invest more in the productive sector especially for massive investment for the transformation and modernization of the Agricultural sector, which is noted as the engine for economy growth and generation of more jobs but unfortunately it is behind the service sector of the economy for the past 30 years, especially in the democratic dispensation of the Fourth Republic.

I stated in one of submissions, the previous Presidents of Ghana in the Fourth Republic, like you also promised to ensure Ghana Beyond Aid but failed to invest massively in the productive sectors especially the Agric Sector. I stated that although Ghana under President JA Kofour signed the 2003 Maputo Accord by Heads of States of Africa Union for member states to ensure the allocation of at least 10% budgetary expenditure for the transformation and modernization of the Agricultural sector, President Kofour only launched 10 years Program for massive rice production in the middle of 2008 ending 2018. This was launched 5 years after he signed the accord and it was when his tenure of office was coming to end that he did so. And together with his successors could not achieve the feat of massive production of rice as import substitution which Nigeria made within 5 years from 2016 to 2021. Coincidentally or incidentally, Nigeria did so with a Ghanaian by name Hon Abraham Odoom, as the Consultant and amazingly, he has no Certificate or formal training in Agriculture, thus speaks volume of combination of good funding and of a person of good attitude (commitments, integrity, hard work, teamwork and less bureaucracy or tea parties among others) were the game changer.

According to the Ministry of Agric, the production of paddy rice increase from 320,000 metric tonnes in 2008 to 987 metric tonnes in 2020 which represented 181,000 Metric tonnes of milled rice in 2008 to 622,000 metric tonnes of milled rice in 2020. But the total local consumption of rice in 2020 was 1.45 Million metric tonnes of milled rice. That the yearly increment of the production of paddy rice between 2008 and 2019 was 10%. Thus same results in your regime as in previous regimes from 2009 and 2016 therefore below the expected production to meet the consumption target considering the yearly high rate of 3% increase in population of Ghana.

Sir although, the marginal yearly rate of 10% in the production of rice was maintained by your Administration but due to more funds which were accrued in your Administration and with the much talked about Planting for Food and Jobs programme launched in 2017 and considering the yearly 3% increase in population, so, the yearly production target of 10% increase in rice production between 2017 and 2020 rather 2019 (since 2020 was the year of COVID-19 pandemic, fell short for a policy working towards your vision of Ghana Beyond Aid by 2024.

I must admit that beside lack of fiscal space for more funding for the Agric sector, the situation may also be due to bad investment by the operators in the Agric Sector or problem of likely no judicious usage of limited funds in the sector by operators in the Agric sector, bad weather, effects of pests and diseases, bush fire, post-harvest losses, insufficient accounting by rice farmers or Extension Officers, or rice millers. So part of the blame may be shared with the Minister of Agric.

Though, I find it difficult or it will be dishonest act to apportion the full blame of Ghana’s inability to achieve massive rice production towards the achievement of massive import substitution to only the Hon Finance Minister but as stated despite the huge revenue accrued in your Administration, so I may be right to say that less funds might have been allocated to the Agric sector despite the massive revenue accrued in his tenure of office including foreign loans because a report sighted suggested less than 2% of budgetary allocation was provided in one of the years to the Agric Sector by the Hon Minister for Finance. As such, the Agric Sector lacked behind the service sector for the past 10 years thus including your era, this suggested no proper interventions, and thus business as usual in the Agric sector was also done by your Administration. It will be a dishonest act on my part if I do not credit construction the Minister of Finance and the Agric Minister for the revamping of five irrigation projects and the of the Kpong Left Irrigation Bank Project. Ayeko to him and his colleagues.

Sir, in order to achieve your vision of Ghana Beyond Aid, it was expected that both the Minister for Finance and the Minister of Agric, especially the Minister of Finance who is to see to the realization of your vision by leading the Nation towards the achievement of your vision in the shortest possible point by financing of areas to ensure import substitution and more revenue for development, he would have ensured available or existing national assets especially the Aveyime Rice Project (Quality Grain Project) capable of producing about 800,000 metric tonnes of rice was brought in to production cycle. But this was not so as at date, this situation is unacceptable, because a competent person (an economist) would have known from the onset of the availability or existing of projects in the system especially the Aveyime Rice Project to invest in whilst expanding to other productive areas. This suggests he lacked the acumen to determine what to do in order to improve on the economic towards the achievement of you vision in the shortest possible time. That is to say that a good economy planning in the past will have taken into stock or inventory assets of the nation which would have included the need for the active operation of the Aveyime Rice Project in the national budget to achieve the national goal.

It is important to be honest and disclose that the Minister’s problem of not revamping this project should be blamed on the 1992 Constitution for ceding or detaching the Economy Planning from the Ministry of Economy Panning and Finance by Article 86 and 87 of the 1992 Constitution and gave it to a toothless National Development Planning Commission (NDPC). It is toothless because the recommendations of the NDPC is not binding on the government especially subsequent Administrations. This is very ridiculous, hence, part of our woes thus Money is wasted on a useless constitutional body. This must be reversed to adopt Article 73 of the 1979 Constitution to make the Vice President as the Chairman, with members to include the Finance Minister, Director of the Economy Planning, Agric Minister, Trade Minister, Governor of Bank of Ghana etc. Otherwise remarry the Economy Planning to the Ministry of Finance to make a combined Ministry of Finance and Economy Planning so that proper planning through project appraisals is conducted to determine where and when to invest.

In my previous submission made in 2021 demanding for the sacking of the Hon Minster for Finance, I stated that the novel Gold Royal investment deal initiated by the previous regime of ex-President JD Mahama was an excellent one of thinking outside the box for a good source of revenue instead of more tax handles. This could have given the Nation enough revenue to invest in the productive sector, but due to the bad Agyapa Royalty deal prepared by the Minister for Finance, it was shot down and rather gave a lucrative opportunity to Hon Martin Amidu to use unpleasant words against the persona of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ghana. So this is enough to let him go, otherwise, it may appear you have something to hide.

I also indicated in an earlier submission, that he erred by making the MoMo levy as e-levy, because, E-levy must include tax on all electronic transactions and it was also wrong to tax MoMo Transactions, since it was an area which your Deputy, VP Dr Bawumia earlier on, on the platform of Peace FM educated us why it should be taxed and therefore kicked against it. But because he was looking for another chance for a financial portfolio to mortgage it for more external loans, so some of the citizenry especially the members of the GPRTU were hoodwinked when he made the Road Minister to rush and cancelled the Road Toll, a good source of revenue for at least for the maintenance of our bad roads. But because of a hidden agenda he rushed and introduced the MoMo levy in a very poor manner because he failed to ensure the engagement of sufficient stakeholders for their inputs as part of win-win solution. Hence this was defeated that led to the International Credit Rating Agents down grading the Nation. So I said he was blamable for a poor show and recommended his sack.

Let me also add that your inactions or inability to act as appropriate, has made some public to say unpleasant things about His Excellency, the Vice President, Dr Bawumia with some demanding for his replacement when they are fully aware of how VPs including ex-Vice President Mahama were sidelined and on what grounds VP can be sacked as in the Constitutional provision at Article 69..

Mr President, you as a lawyer should be wondering whether some members of the public especially ex-President Mahama are aware that the Economic Management Team is just a convention, so one may say a tea party, hence its inputs can be varied or not taken on board by the Minister of Finance who is driving the economy. One may also wonder whether they read the 1992 Constitution and compare it with the 1979 Constitution on how an Economic Management Team is provided in Article 73 of the 1979 Constitution and it made the National Development Planning Commission to be chaired by the VP. This would require the VP to be educated literate and maybe with some knowledge in economics but Articles 86 and 87 of the 1992 Constitution provided a resemblance of Economic Management Team which ousted the Vice President.

It must be noted that neither a law nor Constitutional provision that authorizes an Economic Management Team (EMT) mandating the Vice President as Chairman for his view to be accepted for execution by the Minister of Finance. Hence, common sense will tell that any EMT with the VP as Chairman which is not backed by law or Constitutional provision is of no value, could not make the VP aside a member of the Administration to share a blame with the Finance Minister who is running the economy per his expertise or the way he likes. We should be very careful not to make a conventional arrangement that would make the VP subordinate to the Minister of Finance or share the blame of bad management of the economy with the Minister. That is why by the 1992 Constitution an illiterate can be made the VP.

Since collective responsibility lies with the Cabinet, so the VP only shares a blame attributed to the Cabinet. But the citizenry must note that what happened in 1996 between the late Papa J and his Deputy as well as the Kenya case where before the election in Kenya, the President and the VP were not seeing each other. That is why the buck stops with you the President. So do not allow one person to destroy your party.

From the political history of Ghana’s particularly on the Fourth Republic, it is illogical and unwise to say that the VP must be sacked or should not take over from the President if he is removed from office as demanded by a lawyer and others. A check on the history of Ghana will reveal how VPs were treated by their bosses, (the President), some of his immediate Staff and his Finance Minister and in your Nana’s Administration, a study will show how you subtly appointed and used the Hon Senior Minister (Mr Hon Osafo Marfo) to facilitate the Hon Finance Minister to distance himself from Dr Bawumia, the VP of Ghana.

Mr President an interesting story may soon unfold when the NDC makes a mistake and allow Dr Kwabena Duffour to challenge His Excellency Ex-President Mahama in the primaries for NDC Presidential candidate for the 2024 National election. If they make a mistake and allow Dr Kwabena Duffour to challenge HEDM, it is going to be fire for fire, a great revelation is expected which will support my proposal for the amendment of the Constitution for the abolishing of the post of the Vice President and let the President nominate a Cabinet Minister to seat for him as and when required.

Mr President the citizen need to be reminded that there are documentary evidences especially in the electronic media and a book by Mr Manasseh Awuni incidentally approved by HEDM for publication which revealed that he (HEDM) was sidelined when he was the VP of Ghana and when he became President he also sidelined his Deputy. So based on his experience he should rather recommended that you should allow Dr Bawumia to support the Minister of Finance in the planning of the Economy and not management in the Economy which is granted to only the Ministry of Finance for the fiscal aspect and Bank of Ghana, for the monetary aspect.

Ex-President Mahama is our number one seasoned Statesman, because he is a person with very wide experiences from MP, Deputy Minister, a former Minister and member of Cabinet, a former VP and member of cabinet, a former President, so he should be the last person to ask for the sacking of a VP. He should rather be sharing his wide experiences especially challenges when he was the VP, for proper Constitutional amendment either to abolish the post of VP which is normally made redundant by the boss or how we can tweak the Constitutional provision to make the office of the VP cost effective otherwise the President should always nominate a cabinet Minister to seat for him or the Cabinet should nominate one of them to sit as President when the President is not able to perform his functions.

Some of the public need to listen to themselves, because they do say that a contributory factor to our current problem of the unsustainability of our National debt is the penchant for massive foreign loans by the sitting Hon Minister of Finance so that his Company namely the Data Bank can benefit as a Book Runner or Financial Transaction Adviser. They could not mention any gain made by Dr Bawumia, the VP or any of his associates from the loans, so it ridiculous and illogical that at the same breath a blame is apportioned to Dr Alhaji Bawumia, the Vice President of Ghana for the same problem. Knowing very well that the buck stops with the President, who is the line Manager for the Hon Finance Minister, otherwise his reporting line is the Senior Minister and the fact that all the Hon Ministers of Finance in the Fourth Republic acted and acting on their whim and caprices.

Mr President, my friend Hon Mr Alan Cash, allegedly a member of the EMT should watch it because it appears some people in the NDC are campaigning for Vice President Dr Bawumia with some of his remarks on the economy made in 2016, especially on weak economic fundamentals affects or influences the exchange rate and inflation. He was 100% correct and still 100% correct because Ghana since 1982 has been robbing Peter to pay Paul and not working hard on the productive sector so as to address the economy fundamentals thus transforming and modernizing the Agric Sector noted by all as the engine for economic growth with an export driven industries for value addition .

Once again let me conclude by recommending that you abolish the unconstitutional Ministry of National Security, which is usurping the mandate of Constitutional bodies and thus breaches Article 85 of the 1992 Constitution that ‘No establishment or other Organization concerned with National Security shall be established except as provided under this Constitution’.

As a student of security risk, I can guess the huge waste in the cost for the provision of Administration and logistics especially on compensations, vehicles and their fueling/servicing, accommodation on this superfluous Ministry of National Security with a lot of armed personnel or Militias.

It is very dangerous, superfluous and ridiculous that, Ghana with the Ministry of Defence against external attack and a Ministry of Interior for internal security, instead of having only a Minister of State for National Security at the Presidency, also has a Ministry of National Security with a Minister, then a National Security Adviser, a National Security Coordinator and a Special Adviser to the President for Accra Initiative to fight terrorism, what a very ridiculous security nomenclature.

Security is based a principle of unity command for the coordinating or directing of National Security efforts in pursuit of a unified purpose and thus require the appointment of either a National Security Adviser, as in USA etc or National Security Coordinator who is the line commander or Manager for the Intelligence units especially BNI and Regional Security Coordinators. Mr President, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Interior, National Security Council with the National Security Coordinator or Adviser is sufficient.

We need to align the Preventive Sections of CEPs which replaced the defunct Ghana Border Guard to one of the Ministries for Security affairs. Rename it as Border and Custom services and place it under Ministry of Interior like what pertains in the USA where they have a Department of Homeland Security. My former boss at Field Engineers Regiment Teshie, Major General Francis Adu-Amanfoh (Rtd) could be made as the Head for Department of Border,, Customs and Immigrations

Mr President, we are not in normal times, so it is important you address the Nation on the state of the economy and demand for support especially production of food items produce food items etc, eat items produced in Ghana, Dress with made in Ghana items, and keep on updating the citizenry on monthly basis till things improve. Please this is necessary because like what your Deputy one said, some of the citizens do not read or are refusing to appreciate things otherwise they are educated illiterates or mischievous. For instance, the particulars of the Charges preferred against Aisha Huang, indicate that she is in court for among other charges for illegal mining conducted between 2015 and 2017 at Bepotenten in Ashanti Region without license, contrary to section 99 (2) (a) of Minerals and Mining Act 2006 (Act703) as Amendment by the Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act 2019 (Act 995).

No other charge indicated she was arrested after 2017 therefore after the first trial in 2018 which was terminated and culminated her deportation in 2018. But every day people especially the media and some Reps of CSOs, especially the CDD including one Dr Kwapong have been misleading the Nation that she was arrested for conducting illegal mining on her return to Ghana after she was deported. Though a report indicated that she was arrested in the first instance at her house in Kumasi, people including scholars continuing saying that she was arrested on the field

The media need to correct this wrong notion otherwise should the prosecution fail to get a sentence for this particular offence of conducting illegal mining, which must be proved beyond reasonable doubt, they may wrongly impugn the honest judge for wrong acts . Hmm, I can see the prosecution may face a problem with this charge, because they need enough evidence to prove her physical presence at the mining site beyond reasonable doubt, and they must bear in mind that, the Minerals and Mining Regulation 2012 Support Services (LI2174) silently permitted foreigners to be Class A support service providers to undertake extensive contract mining and provision of spare parts. Of course one must register for the said License. This Regulation need to be refrained to give clarity otherwise it is ambiguous like the Small Scale Mining Law.

Mr President, in your fellow Ghanaian message let the Citizenry appreciate that Ghana has gone through the three major types of economy namely as (a) democratic socialism (mixed economy), Socialist (command economy as in 1979 fixed prices). Free enterprise or market economic (driven by demand) which started after 1983 or so when Ghana opted for Economy Reform (Structural adjustment) Programme. The citizenry must also be told that, Ghana during the Economy Reform Programme in the 1980s adopted fiat monetary policy that is currency not backed with gold or a foreign currency like CFA which is on the French Franc.

So the galloping of the dollar away from the Ghanaian Cedis is just expected because it was and is responding to a demand pull effect in a free Market or laissez-faire Market economy (hence the Ghanaian Cedis Currency like water, will always find its level in the International market economy or currency exchange rate

Mr President we need to stop the silly remarks in our body politics like an opponent will accuse or say the other party has never built a hospital, a new SHS, a new university. As if in a situation of no fiscal space building of new school or continuing of some unproductive projects should be the incoming or an administration’s priority. So because the NPP has not built a new SHS or a new University or a new hospital is forced to borrow money to build a new University or a new SHS at all course instead pumping money into the productive sector, or in the case of University must turn Polytechnics or Distance Campuses into Universities at all cost to attain a political equilibrium, though existing SHS or Universities have more than enough spaces for expansion to accommodate the same numbers. As the topic suggests, hereafter, I wish to concentrate on the Economy Down turn.

God wants you to know that nothing is permanent. So you were right when you said on 23 October 2022 at a Church service that ‘This too Shall Pass’, the mantra of President Abraham Lincoln, truly this too shall pass in line with 2 Corinthians 1;10, which state that ‘’He did rescue us from mortal danger and He will rescue us again, because we have placed our confidence in Him and He will continue to rescue us thus God.

So, it is hoped that under your Presidency this mantra of ‘This too all shall Pass’ which has been part of Ghana’s political economy, should be the last. Therefore a new Ghana under your Leadership in 2023 must opt for the declaration as 1PETER 5;10 So after you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support and strengthen you and He will place you on a firm foundation. So, Mr President you have been nominated to put Ghana on the right or firm foundation for the navigation towards Ghana Beyond Aid, by achieving a durable sustainable Macroeconomic stability anchored on solvency otherwise with a very strong Debt Sustainability record that may stand the test of time.

This could be achieved if our economy fundamentals especially inflation and exchange rate are anchored on macroeconomic stability through comprehensive import substitution by allocating more than 10% budgetary expenditure by your regime and the subsequent regimes for massive transformation and modernization of the agricultural sector coupled with efficient generation of revenue, reduction of corruption thus making Ghana’s anchor to hold in the storm of life of the nation as explained by Priscilla Owens in the song ‘Will your anchor holds in the storms of life ,when the clouds unfold their wing of strife ? when the strong tides lift and the cables strain, Will your anchor drift or firm remain?, we have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll; fastened to the Rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Saviours Love. Yes we have an Anchor so All Shall Pass, but success will require that we Trust and Obey the Lord as in the Methodist Hymn written by Sammis which goes as follows ‘When we walk with the Lord; In the light of His word what a gory He sheds on our way, while we do His good will, He abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey; .Trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey;………….Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share but our toil He doth richly repay ------------.