Presidential Staffer Dennis Miracles Aboagye has urged former President John Dramani Mahama to not only discuss the challenges facing the country but also propose solutions that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) can adopt to address them.
Mr Aboagye expressed the view that it is unfair for the opposition National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) flagbearer to focus solely on highlighting problems without offering potential solutions.
In an interview on the Pulse on JoyNews, he said “It is very easy for the former President to just recount the obvious challenges and difficulties. That is very easy. What he fails to do is to give a clear indication as to what is being done to resolve this challenge that is part of the global economic difficulties that all other countries are going through. And how he believes he has a superior alternative to what we are trying to put in place to resolve some of these things.”
Miracles Aboagye made these comments in response to former President John Dramani Mahama’s assertion that the Akufo-Addo administration is leading Ghana into economic turmoil.
Mr Mahama criticized the decision to discard the 40-year National Development Plan, suggesting it has contributed to the country’s current challenges. Aboagye countered, stating that difficulties are not unique to Ghana and are experienced by countries worldwide.
“If he acknowledges the primary cause of this challenge, we can all work together to be able to resolve some of these things, it is not enough for him to just recount. It is important for you to tell us how you believe you have a superior alternative to what is being put in place to resolve this once and for all,” he said.
Miracles Aboagye emphasized that there has been an improvement in Ghana’s economic situation. He pointed out that the challenges faced in 2023 were different from those encountered in the latter part of 2022.
Mr Aboagye justified the claim with the assertion that “We had seen some improvement from where we were in 2022 and today that is why you see some stability in terms of our cedi against the dollar since January till now unlike what we experienced between March 2022 and December 2022. Today the dollar that went all the way to about GH₵17 somewhere in November 2022 is around GH₵12 in 2023. That shows an improvement from where we were.”
Again, he added that the prices of fuel and goods went high at the end of 2022. However, there has been a decline in 2023 because of policies the government has put in place, like the gold for oil deal.