The continuous stay of Ken Ofori-Atta in office is rather poisoning Ghana’s economy

The soft-spoken Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta is rather unleashing unprecedented hardship on ordinary Ghanaians by his economic and fiscal policy implementation strategies so far.

It is indeed baffling for many to see the continuous stay of Ofori-Atta in office at the Finance Ministry under the Akufo-Addo-led administration even after he suffered parliamentary censure on six claims of abuse of his office not long ago. Even some of President’s NPP MPs objected to the continuous stay of Ken Ofori-Atta in office as the Finance Minister.

As known in the censure motion, serious allegations levelled against Ken Ofori-Atta by the opposition NDC included conflict of interest, unconstitutional withdrawals from the consolidated fund, illegal payment of oil revenues into offshore accounts, deliberate and dishonest misreporting of economic data to Parliament and fiscal recklessness leading to the abysmal performance of the Ghanaian Cedi against the dollar. These were very damning charges in the history of Ghana!

Despite this historical dent on the person of Ofori-Atta, President Akufo-Addo is still unable to disappoint him. Therefore, the President must equally be blamed for all the economic mess being created and witnessed now.

The classical flip-flops or inconsistent pronouncements regarding the ongoing Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) e.g. whether haircut or not, inclusion or exclusion of individual bondholders, etc. made by the Finance Minister and the President himself have further exacerbated Ghana’s economic health.

Thus, the continuous stay of the Finance Minister in office is rather a deadly poison to Ghana’s economy. For the sake of Ghanaians, the president should honorably ask his cousin to go home after he has occupied the Finance Ministry for the past six years to allow for a fresh mind and energy to replace him and restore confidence in the economy. This is indeed not the time to be a very proud Ghanaian considering the current happenings in the country.

Let politicians in higher and sensitive places at this moment be mindful of their actions and/or legacies to be left behind for future generations, and not lord over the people they lead.