Dr. Bawumia can no more fool Ghanaians with his high-sounding economic lectures in 2024

Dr. Bawumia was at his best ‘economic version’ when he was talking about the NPP’s approach to managing Ghana’s economy in the lead up to the 2016 General elections.

We were all told by Dr. Bawumia in 2016 that the NPP government would not lead a ‘dumsor economy’ and that they would competently deliver on their overly sexy electoral promises.

Dr. Bawumia successfully branded former President Mahama as ‘incompetent’ in terms of governing the country to dislodge him in the 2016 General elections. It rather turned out that former President Mahama was a more competent leader than Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia as evidenced by their pathetic results in government.

You and l were there when Dr. Bawumia also told Ghanaians that the ‘money was sitting at the top and not coming down’ because he knew what he was talking about as a former deputy Governor of the Back of Ghana (BOG) then. He forcefully made this point of bringing the money down to the masses by buttressing the NPP’s promise of $1Million1Constituency when they came to power. Ghanaians are now engulfed in excruciating hardships under the ocular view of Dr. Bawumia and Nana Akufo-Addo.

As if that was not enough, he also made Ghanaians understand that there was no need to borrow as much as the NDC government was engaging in but rather tolling various sections of the roads and get the necessary money to develop Ghana’s roads. On the contrary, we are witnessing ballooned public debt of almost GHC600 billions and deplorable roads across the length and breadth of this country for the past 7 years.

The Vice President is also known for his popular quote that ‘when the fundamentals of your economy are weak, the exchange rate will expose you’. As the Chairman of the Economic Management Team (EMT) under the Akufo-Addo-led government, the fundamentals of Ghana’s economy are further weakened, and a poorly negotiated IMF bailout was procured last year.

Within 100 days in office in 2017, Dr. Bawumia also claimed that Akufo-Addo’s regime has 'arrested the cedi', and it was under lock and key. But what are we experiencing now?

There are several things that Dr. Bawumia said which have been deemed to be pure liars and that has contributed to his credibility crisis now.

The least one should expect from Dr. Bawumia and the NPP Party was to be true to their words made to Ghanaians. However, we are seeing the opposite of whatever Dr. Bawumia said in his high-sounding economic lectures and at other public events with no concrete results to show fo r it now.

It is not that the solutions to identified challenges by Dr. Bawumia cannot be found, but rather no pragmatic and genuine efforts have been made by the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led government to ensure the lives of Ghanaians in the past 7 years are better than before. Unfortunately, Ghanaians are worse off now than before and Dr. Bawumia cannot be trusted for spewing half-truths about the economy of Ghana and former President Mahama then.

Dr. Bawumia’s credibility crisis is already in the public square and does not need special announcement to the voting public. However, it is crucial to remind Ghanaians of the questionable value that the NPP Flagbearer, Dr. Bawumia will bring on board after poorly heading the EMT and being the Vice President under Akufo-Addo’s regime.

The messy economy of Ghana coupled with the unprecedented environmental devastation via High Tech Galamsey (HTG) and general hardships under this Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led government showed that Ghanaians were taken for granted and they will not be fooled again by any repackaged half-truths from Dr. Bawumia and the NPP in the upcoming general elections.

The power of the thumb of the people is more powerful than the aggrandizement of those in power! Be determined to vote for the needed change in government in 2024 to clean the mess created by this insensitive Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led government. Not even a run-off is needed after December 7, 2024, if Ghanaians massively vote with anger and hunger.