Leading member of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Dr Amoako Baah, has claimed that President Akufo-Addo pleaded with Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to rescind a decision to resign from office.
In an interview with Joy FM, Dr Amoako Baah argued that President Akufo-Addo is insisting on the finance minister keeping his job because he is his relative.
“If the finance minister was not a relative of the president, he himself would have resigned. I hear he tried to resign actually; the president begged him not to. All because the president needs him. Whatever it is he was doing, he is the one who understood what he was doing. He was the one who made it work, and so the president needs him no matter what. This situation we are in is not like other times. This is a peculiar situation of family and friends,” he stated.
There are calls for Mr Ofori-Atta to be relieved of his position, with some critics citing the current economic challenges facing the country.
The decision by the government to enter an International Monetary Fund programme despite its earlier position against the IMF has also been cited by several critics of the finance minister.
Dr Amoako Baah, in the interview, described Mr Ofori-Atta leading Ghana’s IMF negotiations as counterfeit logic.
“How is it possible that the very person that is trumpeting the idea that we are not going to the IMF, we have the means to make it work, we don’t need to go to the IMF, we are a proud nation and all of that. Then we end up at the IMF and suddenly this same person is the one who has become the champion of dealing with the IMF. How is that possible?” he questioned.
Dr Amoako Baah, who is a senior political science lecturer, called the minister’s integrity into question, saying, “This is what is called counterfeit logic; it has no integrity nor whatsoever.”