Dr. Bawumia’s Controversial Challenge To Bank Of Ghana And Ghana Statistical Services

Dr. Mamudu Bawumia has recently descended heavily on the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Statistical Services with a reckless challenge on the integrity of the two reputable State institutions. His challenge is that they have falsified recent foreign exchange and inflation rates to give them a positive spin that indicates that both rates are stabilizing.

In the first place, Dr. Bawumia as an economist should have the highest of regard for such reputable state institutions, and show utmost circumspection when making pronouncements concerning these institutions. The integrity of Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Statistical Services is vital to Ghana and should not be thrown into the arena of politics as was recklessly done by Dr. Bawumia.

Secondly, it appears that in Dr. Bawumia’s world bad news is good news and good news is bad news as regards Ghana’s economy. Hence any positive movement in inflation and foreign exchange figures is bad news that has to be attacked and destroyed. He seems to take comfort in negative economic news for Ghana as if to say that such news represents his only trump card to he and his party’s political fortunes.

Dr. Bawumia revels in spewing out gloomy economic news about his country without offering any real alternative solutions to policies currently being implemented by the Government. He should rather put his energies into publicing alternative solutions to Ghana’s current economic challenges as opposed to specializing in spewing out gloomy economic predictions, and reckless attacks on public institutions whose figures he has always relied on for his doomsday predictions.

Dr. Bawumia should also tell Ghanaians the economic wisdom in the redenomination exercise that he supervised when he was the Deputy Governor of Bank of Ghana. Couldn’t a simple solution such as the printing of larger denominations of the old cedi have accomplished a better result for the cedi than abandoning a historical store of value that the old cedi had built in all the years of its existence? Dr. Bawumia should tell Ghanaians whether the new Ghana Cedi has retained its value since its introduction in 2007. Indeed, there is a strong case for stating that the old cedi had better value for the purchasing power of Ghanaians than the Ghana cedi that he assisted in introducing into the Ghanaian economy.

By the way whether he realizes it or not Dr. Bawumia’s political future depends on the success of President John Mahama since both of them are Northern politicians. President Mahama’s success is obviously a positive reference for future politicians from the North. He should therefore desist from unnecessarily running down President Mahama’s Government and state institutions since it amounts to shooting himself in his own foot.

God Bless our Dear Homeland, Ghana

Long live President Mahama