Domestic debt restructuring makes us slaves in our homeland — Oliver Vormawor

The convener of the #FixTheCountry movement, Oliver Barker Vormawor has waded into the brouhaha surrounding government’s domestic debt restructuring programme.

He stated that the policy has made Ghanaians slaves in their own country.

In a post on Twitter sighted by Modernghana News on Thursday, December 8, Mr. Barker claimed that it is disgusting to see the haircut not affecting government officials’ ex-gratia and the Article 71 beneficiaries.

The legal practitioner and good governance advocate bemoaned that the policy was only going to affect people with low incomes, such as nurses and teachers, whose pension schemes would be affected.

“Haircut won’t affect Ex gratia. The haircut won’t affect Article 71 employees who will be retiring on their salaries.

"But shouldn't a haircut affect the pensions of teachers, nurses, and civil servants? How is there no shutdown of all public services?" he quizzed.

He lamented, "Wow! We are slaves in our homeland, I swear."

Some labour unions in the country, including the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) have warned government not to touch their pension funds.

At a press conference in Accra on Monday, December 5, NAGRAT President Angel Carbonu described the move as illegal and vowed his outfit will completely oppose it.

“We enter into a contractual agreement that I am buying bonds at ‘X’ per cent. So, I have informed the beneficiaries that I have bought bonds on your behalf at this rate.

“All of a sudden, government who is the party on the other side of the agreement comes to say, for me, this is what I can pay, take or leave it,” he said.

“This will not be accepted, my union NAGRAT, the teacher unions do not accept this. We are members of the forum made up of the public sector unions and we want to assure our members that we will resist this move by the government," he stressed.

On her part, Madam Perpetual Ampofo, President of GRNMA told Accra-based TV3 that the government's debt exchange programme lacks transparency.

She stated that members of the Association will lay down their tools to protest the policy that may affect their pension takeaways.

“If it means that we all have to lay down our tools we will do that. Because you see, we haven’t been engaged properly on this matter. What has been communicated is not something that in our view will serve the interest of the workers and our pensioners well, it wouldn’t serve them,” she said.

She continued, “the hurtful part of this is that it is not just the government bonds but now they are touching the corporate bonds and the special purpose vehicles like the ESLA and all of that.”

Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, on Monday, December 5, officially launched a debt exchange programme as a new measure to restore the economy and spur growth.