Accra, Ghana, March 18, 2019//-The attempts by people within the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to ‘crucify’ Ghana’s Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for the free fall of the Cedi (Ghana currency) is an attack on Northerners in the party.
The Cedi is which trading today at GHC5. 66 as against the $1 has been on depreciation gear since the beginning of the year. The Bank of Ghana’s artificial measure of injecting more dollar reserves to contain the Cedi is yet to achieve any results.
This development has brought untold hardships to Ghanaians who depend on importation of foreign goods and services to make ends meet. Importers are crying over the steep depreciation of the Cedi but the government is still finding it difficult to arrest this time around.
Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo lamented recently at the commissioning of the Fujian Sentuo Ceramic Tile Factory at the Tema Heavy Industrial Area that: “I am extremely upset and anxious about it too, but I want to assure you that all efforts are being made to arrest the decline and restore the cedi to stability in order to improve the competitiveness of Ghanaian industry and I think very soon you will be seeing the results of our policy”.
Political commentators interpreted the President’s anger to mean that he has no hope on Dr Bawumia who is the head of the Economic Management Team of the government.
Snippet s of information emanating from the Golden Jubilee House, the seat of government is not palatable to the ears especially if the international community hears it.
During the vetting of Osafo Marfo for the post of Senior Minister, he made it clear that he would never report to the Vice President as the Chairman of the Economic management team but rather to the President.
The power struggle has widen the distance between the senior Minister and Bawumia because the senior Minister still believes Bawumia was imposed on the party by Nana Addo. So he (Dr Bawumia) does not deserve where he is today.
It has been reported that at the last cabinet meeting Dr Bawumia attended before travelling, he was relieved of his position as the Chairman of the Economic Management team and replaced with Dr. Paul Aquah the former Governor of Bank of Ghana and the Chairman of the Ghana Fiscal Council on the basis of the incompetency of the Vice President as echoed by the Senior Minister.
The angry Bawumia who wanted to challenge Osafo Marfo in the presence of the President was shut down by the senior Minister and called the Vice President useless and lazy.
At same meeting the senior Minister called Bawumia a talkative and a disgraced to the academia and all Northerners and don’t even deserve to be DCE in the NPP, the report alleged.
He questioned Bawumia why he has been quite on the cedi depreciation and why he made Prof. John Gatsi of the University of Cape Coast and Isaac Adongo, MP for Bolgatanga Central to be exposing the NPP for public ridicule.
“Is that so called Professor in Cape Coast University called Gatsi better than you? Or is it that Adongo you are afraid of?” “Wake up beyond your Presidential ambition and work just as you promised us Mr Vice President, Osafo Marfo angrily said.
Although Dr Bawumia’s comments on the Cedi are not the best especially his infamous comment purporting that he has arrested the Cedi and handed it over to the IGP to lock, blaming the current Cedi fall on him can be described as myopic.
It is also an attempt to silence the vociferous Northerners that their counterparts from the South are not appreciative with performance in government.
African Eye Report
