Don’t embarrass yourself; look at the data before you speak – Bawumia to Mahama

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has taken a swipe at ex-President John Mahama, accusing him of being ill-informed about the true state of the Ghanaian economy.

Dr. Bawumia said the former President must apprise himself with the right data on the state of the country’s economy before making contrary statements that set him up for embarrassment.

Speaking at a media interaction after a COVID-19 response team meeting on Monday, the Vice President said John Mahama’s claims of the economy being in disarray due to the COVID-19 outbreak should be disregarded because it is untrue.

“My humble advice to former President John Mahama is [that he should] take a look at the data, this is not green book data. Take a look at the data before you speak, otherwise, you will end up embarrassing yourself. When it comes to the data, it has been very clear; in agricultural growth,

we have performed better; industry growth, we have performed better; inflation, we have performed better, on interest rate, we did perform better; exchange rate depreciation, we have performed better. That is the data.

The Vice President indicated that despite the heavy toll the Coronavirus pandemic has taken on the country’s economy, the government’s policy programmes and plans are still in progress. He said statutory payments were still being made while road contracts are still ongoing.

John Mahama in a Facebook interaction session last week, said the much-hyped economy by the governing New Patriotic Party has failed the test of time as it is currently in shambles a month after the Coronavirus outbreak.  ThAccording to him, the economy is currently in Intensive Care following the ravaging impact of COVID-19.

The former President in answering a question from a viewer about how he intends to revive the economy should he be elected as President in the 2020 general elections said the economy is struggling because it was built on propaganda.

“In reflecting on this question, this is one of the issues that we have continuously talked about that it is always necessary that when you are building an economy to have enough buffers and create fiscal space so that when you are faced with a shock or adversity, you are easily able to overcome it”.

“Unfortunately, this government has used a lot of propaganda saying the economy has been the best that we have ever had since independence. Unfortunately, just one month of coronavirus the economy is in ICU.

If we didn’t run to the IMF for the one billion rapid credit facility, it is possible that in the next month probably salaries would not have been paid and so our economy is on ventilators, and it needs thinking to rescue it from the ICU,” Mahama said.

Mahama’s comment has already triggered a response from the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah who stressed that the economy is resilient and can afford the many interventions and programmes the government is rolling out amidst the COVID-19 outbreak in Ghana.