President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo’s stance on proposals presented to him for how to resuscitate Ghana’s faltering economy, according to the managing editor of the publication The Insight, is not encouraging.
According to Mr. Kwesi Pratt, the president’s contempt for many of these proposals presented to him without malice is the main cause of the country’s current predicament.
The president’s attitude to proposals, particularly those regarding the removal of Ken Ofori Atta, the finance minister, and other of his appointees, was, he said, disagreeable.
Mr Pratt said for the president to describe the people who made these suggestions as people who are hungry and had no job to do was unpleasant, to say the least.
He argued that such comments must not come from a personality such as the president who is duty-bound to rally everybody around.
He said the president at this moment is the one supposed to call the people to action and not to describe them unpleasantly.
“How can everybody including the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament (MP) be hungry?” he questioned and wondered: “So, what is in God’s name can a personality like an economist Kwame Pianim of high repute be seeking to achieve by calling for the removal of the finance minister?”
He said the president is also part of the problem stemming from his posture on issues of national interest.
“People are arguing the finance minister is incompetent and the president’s posture is that the finance minister should use his incompetence to seal the International Monetary Fund deal before his removal,” Mr Pratt noted.
This posture, he added, is worrying and not encouraging people to do more for the state.
“Is this what the president is telling Ghanaians who are suffering from the indiscretion of the finance minister?” The Insight newspaper managing editor asked.
He posited: “Ghanaians do not want any long-term solutions but a short-term solution that will bring some reprieve to them in the wake of the economic challenges.”
He called on Ghanaians to be measured at this time of economic challenges and further called on them to eschew political rivalry by offering solutions that would take the country out of the current economic challenges.
Kwesi Pratt made these comments speaking on a local radio station on Tuesday, November 1, 2022