Of all Ghanaian Presidents since independence in 1957, Mr. John Dramani Mahama can be said to have acquired some degree of experience as regards elective politics.
Thus, having risen through the ranks as Member of Parliament (MP), Deputy Minister, Minister, Vice President and now President, he knows the political consequences of not delivering on electoral promises.
In fact, one of his campaign promises toward the 2012 elections had been to improve the economic fortunes of Ghana and its citizenry.
Even though with his avowed stance of improving the economic well-being of the average Ghanaian, President Mahama, at different fora, had admitted that times are rough but in the same vein, very optimistic that the Economic Management Team led by Vice President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur which includes Finance Minister, Mr. Seth Terkper is up to the task.
According to President Mahama, the government’s economic management team led by a very capable Vice President has begun the implementation of government’s determined 2014 budget.
The President is reported to have made the above-stated remarks during his interaction with the Diplomatic Corp at the Peduase Lodge, in the Eastern Region.
According to him, government is exercising stricter financial discipline, in order to strengthen the fundamentals, so as to ensure a better and brighter economic future for the people of Ghana.
“This budget is designed to achieve a proper calibration of our macro-economic fundamentals, to ensure that the nation’s economy continues to stay on a positive trajectory in order to address the fiscal deficit caused by expenditure overruns of the past,” President Mahama is reported to have told the Diplomatic Community.
His confidence in the Economic Management Team comes on the heels of an earlier statement that he has been under intense pressure from certain leading personalities of his Party to fire the Finance Minister, Mr. Seth Terkper.
In an endorsement of Mr. Terkper’s capabilities, Mr. Mahama virtually told them to stop those agitations because he wasn’t going to do that, believing in his Finance Minister’s capabilities to steer the economy from troubled waters.