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Kwaku Kwarteng, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Obuasi West in the Ashanti region and immediate past chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee has attributed Ghana’s economic crisis to decades of poor political and economic management by successive governments.
In a strongly worded statement issued on Thursday, 25th July, titled “To break the eight, we must first break the norm”, the New Patriotic Party lawmaker argued that Ghana’s economy has been run like a Ponzi scheme.
Kwarteng expanded on his worries in an article, highlighting that the country’s economic problems stem from years of poor political decisions and mismanagement.
“The economic problems Ghana is facing today, at both the national level and in households, are also the cumulative effects of many decades, spanning different governments, of the bad politics and economic mismanagement that have characterised the governance of our country,” he stated.
“We always offer higher interest to lenders, borrow more, use a part to repay previous debts, and the rest to pay for the current year’s overspending. So, we have been running our country’s economy like a Ponzi scheme. The economy is struggling today because lenders are now refusing to lend to us. It is just like a Ponzi scheme going into crisis once people stop depositing their monies with them.”
He implored the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to offer forward-thinking leadership to save the nation from its economic challenges in order to end the eight-year cycle.
He believes that the NPP needs to recognize the political class’s past and present failures, moving away from the usual practice of labelling all politicians as corrupt.
The Obuasi West MP urged the NPP to carry out extensive and sweeping reforms to tackle years of ineffective governance and economic mismanagement.
He also recommended that the NPP should persuade voters about their dedication to solving the country’s issues and show readiness to persevere despite obstacles.
“To break the eight therefore, we must first break that norm by doing the following: Acknowledge the past and present failures of the political class to provide the kind of quality leadership required to avert the mess in which we find our country today.
“Adopt deep and far-reaching reforms to address the decades of bad politics and economic mismanagement. We must convince voters that we shall be ruthless in our determination to fix this country, that we shall stay the course no matter the challenges, and that, there shall be no sacred cows!”
He is convinced that breaking the eight-year cycle will follow organically if the NPP sets a good example by acknowledging the country’s challenges, taking responsibility for its mistakes, and implementing meaningful change.
“Once we lead by example, we can say with integrity to our people that we are sinking in a common boat and call all Ghanaians to duty. As a political party, if we sincerely believe and can demonstrate our faithfulness to these commitments, breaking the eight will follow naturally.”
Kwaku Kwarteng argues that public concerns about spending by politicians be addressed
“We must address concerns about how much of our national resources we spend on ourselves as politicians, and take steps to overhaul the corrupt public procurement regime we inherited from previous governments and have continued to live with.” he added.
NKONKONSA.com
