Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament for North Tongu has hit out at government for claiming that the task of getting out of the current economic difficulties rested on the entire population.
Ablakwa hold that the current economic mess had been caused by government’s crude decisions and policy positions yet appointees are often trumpeting the cliché, “we are in this together.”
He described the phrase as”most annoying and contemptuous, especially on the back of a destroyed economy and recent haircuts – i.e. restructuring of domestic institutional bonds.
“The most annoying and contemptuous cliché coming from government officials after destroying the Ghanaian economy and imposing crude haircuts is: “we are in this together.”
“Were we in their €20,000 an hour chartered luxury jets together?” he quizzed. The post was accompanied by photos of the luxury jet LXD-IO which the president is said to have chartered for especially overseas trips over the last two years.
The most annoying and contemptuous cliché coming from government officials after destroying the Ghanaian economy and imposing crude haircuts is: “we are in this together.”
Were we in their €20,000 an hour chartered luxury jets together? pic.twitter.com/SU00dFsnW3
— Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa (@S_OkudzetoAblak) December 7, 2022
Okudzeto Ablakwa has maintained a dogged campaign in pointing out what he described as profligate expenditure by the government.
Whiles efforts to get official records of the cost of the presidential jet travels have serially failed even through Parliament, the issue of the National Cathedral recently got concrete answers especially from Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta.
He disclosed while appearing before an ad hoc committee of Parliament that monies paid in lieu of the project were drawn from the Contingency Fund.
For the first time, government also included an expenditure item relating to the project in the 2023 budget with an amount of GHC80 million cedis earmarked for disbursement.
Ghana is currently facing economic headwinds with a domestic debt programme facing opposition from stakeholders – largely from institutional bondholders.
Government is hoping to close a deal on debt restructuring at home in order to be able to access an International Monetary Fund, IMF, facility to support the failing economy.
