List of 301 questions Bawumia must answer

Bawumia

Bawumia

Bawumia

How many times have I called you?

Your utterances are getting gory at the altar of flimsy and frivolous political chauvinism. The fast fashioned rumpus of the hullabaloos carved by your intellectual dishonesty and political hoopla for fake frisky favour keeps many Ghanaians like my very self until now, uneased.

Our people do say, “a lion does not go to the market square unless there is something there.” Indeed, “a fly that does not heed advice follows the corpse to the grave.”

You were warned at the embryonic stage by no less a person than the late former Vice President of Republic H. E Kwesi Amissah-Arthur but you paid lip service to his “home sense.”

Now, here you are dancing to no music at the market square. Today, you have reduced yourself to nothing in the Ghanaian politics that you so much cherish. Go to Facebook and many other social media platforms and see how you have submitted yourself to ridicule and castigations.

No wonder, a colleague scholar from my alma mater, the University for Development Studies likens you to the “one pesewa coin.” As the saying goes “what is said over the dead lion’s body could not be said to him alive.” Indeed, “a roaring lion kills no game.”

Dr. Bawumia, you have succeeded in coercing the intellectual class into joining the needless comparative time series analysis at the time we supposed to be fighting Covid-19 together in spirit.

I am also here once again to lecture you as I did in 2018 about the depreciation of the Cedi against the US Dollar. “He who wakes up a sleeping dog must be ready for its barking.”

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, you are struggling to give Ghanaians “whole scale” free electricity, free water, free food, and zero rent in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic.

It is crystal clear you have mismanaged the situation, there are no PPEs and insurance packages for our health workers but you found it wise to procure a fraudulent app and patronized musicians to launch it.

You touted yourself the messiah of economic management and the time has come for us to submit you to a truly unquenchable fire of accountability. During the 2016 elections, you pledged to deliver sound macroeconomic stability and double digit growth.

Ghanaians clapped for you and indeed elected Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo into office as President of the Republic. Unfortunately, you manufactured macroeconomic figures to woo Ghanaians and the international community.

More intriguing is the quality of the so-called three years of sustained 7%average GDP growth under your government. The much touted “cholesterol growth” engineered by oil revenue amidst performance in the agriculture sector from 6.1% in 2017 to 2.2% in the first quarter of 2019 and the service sector from 8.1% to 7.2% over the same period speaks for itself.

The emergence of the coronavirus has come to aid us to comprehend the realities much easier than the usual uproar.

As the Dagombas say “when your mother died at the market square you don’t need to announce the funeral” We no longer need John Keynes, Adams Smith, Modigliani, etc. to educate us about the fundamentals in Ghana. The “coronanomics” is here to provide us with the realities about the fundamentals.

Dr. Bawumia, your government just secured a 1 billion US Dollar facility from the IMF and some 35 million US Dollars (partly delivered) from the World Bank to complement the fight against Covid-19. Does it mean the much touted economy is already out of gear? Does it mean you have been telling us a plethora of lies all these while?

This points to the fact that you have grossly mismanaged the economy as the head of the Economic Management Team (EMT) having borrowed 235 billion Ghana Cedis in less than three and a half years talk less of tax revenue, grants, and FDI inflows. Today, the realities have exposed your ineptitude and lack of “industrial input” as put forward by H. E Bekoe Amissah-Arthur (of blessed memory).

In the past five years, Ghana has sustained economic growth in the average of 5.5% (~6%) and 6.7% (~7%) in the past three years under almighty “Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.” Elementary economics highlights the need to sustain economic growth in order to raise enough income for redistribution.

It seems your case posits otherwise where your government is struggling to feed even the “poorest of the poor.” Togo, a country with less than 4.8% (~5%) annual GDP growth for the past five years managed to give her citizens free food, free electricity, free water, and even zero rent.

The case of Guinea is not much different, I am told the government of that country is even considering sharing money to its citizens in order to keep them home. What is more intriguing is Rwanda, a country that just recovered from one of the most atrocious genocides in Africa is considering more than stated above.

The question that comes to mind is why is the government of Ghana not sharing free food, free water, free electricity, and even get rent frozen for all citizens than the partial interventionist approach? Another interesting question to ask is where is Ghana’s so-called 6% sustained GDP growth in the past 5 years, particularly your 7% in the past three years? Does it mean sustaining economic growth in Ghana does not guarantee income redistribution in the future?

Finding answers to the foregoing questions brings to fore how you have grossly mismanaged the economy of Ghana but found wisdom in appointing NPP apparatchiks into the Ghana Statistical Service to manufacture economic figures just to woo Ghanaians and the international community for favour.

A Typical example is how you scammed the IMF for the 1 billion US Dollar Rapid Credit Facility (RCF). The novel Covid-19 has come to expose your incompetence as the manager of the economy. You claimed to be the Don of economic management in our country but the reality has just caught you up.

Can you use such prowess to feed every Ghanaian today as we witness in Togo, Rwanda, and Guinea among others? I think you are taking Ghanaians for granted and won’t let you kill us before Covid-19.

You have borrowed about 235 billion Ghana Cedis in less than three years and received more than 7 billion US Dollars from our oil revenue. Besides, your government has received more than 9billion US Dollars in the past three years through aid from donors.

Billions of Ghana Cedis have also been raised through taxation. The question is where is the money? Corruption, embezzlement, bloated government, expensive trips, mismanagement, and several others have become the order of the day in your government.

Dr. Bawumia, you have a lot of questions to answer but in the meantime, I need answers to the following questions:

Why can’t we redistribute the income from the 7% average GDP growth?

Are the Ghanaian economic fundamentals so weak that we have to request for 1 billion US Dollar RCF from the IMF in less than two months of Covid-19?

Where is the 3 billion Eurobond receipt raised in February this year?

Where is the 2.5 million UD Dollars raised from the World Bank out of the 35 million US Dollars suggested by WHO?

Where is the earlier 100 million US Dollars (the audio money announced by President Akufo-Addo) from the World Bank?

Where is the 200 million US Dollars from the Stabilization Fund?

Do you know who created that Fund?

Where is the Ghana Beyond Aid and the US$1.9 billion raised during the Year of Return?

For 2018, you reported –3.9% fiscal deficit to Ghanaians through the BoG Annual Report and chose to report –7% to the IMF for the RCF. Why?

For 2018, you reported 2.3% primary balance to Ghanaians through the BoG Annual Report and chose to report –1.4% to the IMF for the RCF. Why?

For 2018, you reported US$5.6 billion gross international reserves to Ghanaians through the BoG Annual Report and chose to report just US$5.3 billion to the IMF for the RCF. Why?

For 2018, you reported 3.0 months of import cover to Ghanaians through the BoG Annual Report and chose to report 1.9 to the IMF for the RCF. Why?

For 2019, you reported –4.5% fiscal deficit to Ghanaians through the BoG Annual Report and chose to report –7.5% to the IMF for the RCF. Why?

For 2019, you reported 0.3% primary balance to Ghanaians through the BoG Annual Report and chose to report –1.8% to the IMF for the RCF. Why?

For 2019, you reported US$8.1 billion gross international reserves to Ghanaians through the 2020 Budget Statement and Economic Policy and chose to report just US$6.6 billion to the IMF for the RCF. Why?

For 2019, you reported 4.1 months of import cover to Ghanaians through the BoG Annual Report and chose to report 3.4 to the IMF for the RCF. Why?

Dr. Bawumia, initially I concluded that you actually cooked the figures to scam IMF for the US$1 billion facility but upon second thought I realized that the Covid-19 pandemic has just come to explain the realities of the Ghanaian economy.

The situation has also exposed the magnitude of the lies you have been telling Ghanaians over the years. It also confirms the prophecy of our late Vice President when he said we should not give the economy to someone who has no industrial input.

You only memorized the economics theories and poured them during examination but never understood what it meant when the marginal efficiency of investment curve gets flatten and the appropriate policy response to adopt for growth to take its course without putting all our hopes in oil revenue. Dr. Bawumia, you truly lack industrial input.

From the foregoing issues at hand, can we conclude that the economy of Ghana needs intensive care as suggested by former President John Dramani Mahama?

Dr. Bawumia, Ghanaians demand an answer to why Moody revised the economic outlook of Ghana from positive to negative?

We also want to know why the agriculture sector declined from 6.1% in 2017 to 2.2% in the first quarter of 2019.

Dr. Bawumia, Ghanaians also want to know why the growth in the service sector declined from 8.1% in 2017 to 7.2% in the first quarter of 2019.

We want to know why our GDP growth dropped from 8.1% in 2017 to 6.7% in the first quarter of 2019.
Where is the bank account you promised every Ghanaian by 2018?

Where is the toilet and water you promised every household?

Where is the planting for food and jobs?

Where are the warehouses you promised us?

Where is the 350 senior high schools you promised Ghanaians?

Mention just one hospital you have constructed in the past three years of your government.
Why unlock Ghanaians amidst deadly Covid-19?

Is it that you cannot feed us?

Fourteen of our health workers got infected by the deadly disease due to lack of PPEs, are you aware?

Why did you chose to abandon hospitals built by the previous government to promise 88 new ones?

Do you think you can build 88 district hospitals and 6 regional hospitals in less than 8 months?

Can you give us the source of funding for the 94 hospitals?

Dr. Bawumia, where are your drones? Can’t we use them to transport samples to Noguchi?

Dr. Bawumia, you seem to have forgotten your 2016 NPP manifesto promises. Do you still remember your promise “to manage the economy competently?”

In the 2016 NPP manifesto, you pledged to achieve double digit GDP growth in your four years in office. Why still in single digit growth?

Why the cost of doing business in Ghana so high?

You promised a machinery of government that will deliver the benefits of progress to Ghanaians. How far with that?

Where are the benefits of progress?

You promised in your manifesto to broaden the tax base by formalizing the economy. Why are we still facing revenue shortfall?

You also promised to ensure tax compliance. Why are we still facing revenue shortfall?

You promised to reduce government expenditure through PPP engagement yet your fiscal gap keeps widening, why?

How much savings have you made from your promise to reduce the interest paid on Ghana’s debt stock?

Dr. Bawumia, you promised in your manifesto to eliminate corruption in the procurement of goods and services. According to the CHRAJ, Ghana loses 13.5 billion Ghana Cedi to corruption, please explain.

Are you sure the GhanaPost GPS app costs 2.5 million US Dollars?

Your government has been identified as the most corrupt in the history of Ghana. Can you prove Ghanaians wrong in the following scandals?

Each question carries equal marks.