‘Hardship is not the doing of government policy’ – Tiah Abdul-Kabiru Mahama

The Technical Advisor to the Vice President, Dr. Tiah Abdul-Kabiru Mahama says the current economic hardship should not be placed at the doorstep of the government.

Speaking in an interview on JoyNews’ Top Story on Thursday, he said that the hardship currently faced by Ghanaians is not the doing of any government policy.

According to him, “it is not a mistake committed by the President.”

“Ghanaians are facing difficulty, the government has understood that times are very hard, the President has acknowledged that; the Vice President even acknowledges that times are hard and that Ghanaians just like other people across the world are experiencing the hardship of the times.

“We have never experienced a situation of this caliber and we’ve never experienced it in our modern history. People have to go through that particular hardship that is not the doing of any of government policy,” he stressed.

He explained that the hardship is due to the fact that “we find ourselves at the wrong time of history. That point has to be made.”

He noted that “When you are having problems with your economy, every measure, every aspect has to be assembled in order to address that particular problem.”

His comment comes as a response to the pressure group, Arise Ghana’s complaint of an increase in utility tariffs by the Public Utility and Regulation Commission.

The group called for the tariff adjustment to be withdrawn.

According to Mr. Mahama, the same people who are today calling for the “electricity and water prices to be reduced, condemned Electricity Company Limited when they were making losses when they are supposed to be making profits.”

He added that “they came back to tell us that we can only be profitable if we make consumers pay realistic prices.”

When asked why they aren’t fixing that issue since the President was put in office to do that, he the issues are being fixed.