The Head of the Political Science Department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (KNUST) says it will be in the best interest of the President, John Dramani Mahama to step down if he is not ready to take the blame for occurrences in the country.
Dr. Richard Amoako Baah was reacting to media reports that quoted the President as saying he is not to be blamed for the current economic conditions in the country.
The president�s comments on his official Facebook page come in the wake of harsh economic conditions in the country. The president, on the page, explained that the country was only reacting to the current global economic downturn and so his government could not take the blame entirely.
�Since the beginning of this year, several countries, with stronger economies than Ghana�s, have seen their currencies depreciate in value due to the moves of international players on the stock market. In January, for instance, Argentina�s peso fell more than 20%, Turkish lira lost 6%, the South African rand fell 7% and so did the Russian ruble.
The president said, �the government is aware of the effect this depreciation has on your lives,� and urged the country not to panic at the current economic trends since �panic only worsens things in the financial market.
�Concerning the depreciation of the Ghana cedi, this is not caused by our national decisions. We are part of the global financial system and so we share both its ups and downs� Mr. Mahamah wrote on his face book page.
However speaking on Kumasi-based Ultimate Radio�s news analysis programme �Fact File�, the outspoken astute political science professor, argued that the pronouncements made by president Mahama betrayed his ignorance and misconceptions about the very issues concerning his own country. Articulating his discontent with the President�s appreciation of national issues, he said the President was behaving like a chief and not like a Head of State in charge of the country�s affairs.
Flabbergasted at the President�s plea not to be blamed, he said �he comes out to tell us that the whole world is going through [a similar situation] but he forgets to tell us the Ivory Coast and Nigeria are not losing their currency this disturbingly. These are our neighbors! And instead he goes to give us Argentina and forgets about the CFA and the Dollar and the Pound. What is he talking about� he inquired.
�I will tell you right here and now, President Mahama should do the honorable thing and resign. He should do the honorable thing and save his country from further decline because this is a serious issue,� he suggested strongly.
�People are unemployed, criminals are more and more empowered because they have no food to eat and I can go on and on. And if you can�t take responsibility for it how then can you take the initiative to find solutions to it?� he asked passionately.
He queried, �If the president is just sitting aloof hoping that the international community will do something about Ghana�s ailing economy then what did we vote him for?�
Dr. Baah entreated the president to consider rather resigning and receiving the good will of the international community than keep on making propagandist promises in hopeless situations and creating the impression that all was well.
�He should resign and let Amisah Arthur take over and then appoint another person to be vice president. The international community will have good will for him. He will start saying the good things instead of this same �we�ll get it done�, �we�ll get it done� propaganda talk while things keep getting worse by the day,� Dr Amoako Baah added.
But the President of the Ashanti Regional Branch of the Ghana Bar Association, Yaw Boafo, who was a co-panelist on the programme, had a rather divergent subtle opinion stating that appointing a new person would mean giving someone else the burden of cleaning up the mess created by another administration.
�I am of the view that he has created the mess even though he went on the campaign platform to clean up the mess so let him sort it out. The problem is that if you ask him to resign he is going to leave a legacy of a mess for someone to fill� he said.
Lawyer Boafo indicated that �this government has hit rock bottom and it�s because of profligate spending and mismanagement of affairs by this particular government�
He said president John Mahama has no excuse and cannot even blame the late president John Evans Attah Mills since as his vice he was the head of the economic management committee of the country. He was of the view that president John Dramani Mahama should be made to sort out the mess with �his 678 presidential staffers.�
Source: Ultimate Radio/Kumasi/Ghana
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