{"id":1259752,"date":"2022-11-29T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/11\/29\/muster-courage-to-speak-truth-to-power-bagbin-tells-ofori-atta\/"},"modified":"2022-11-29T20:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T20:00:00","slug":"muster-courage-to-speak-truth-to-power-bagbin-tells-ofori-atta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/11\/29\/muster-courage-to-speak-truth-to-power-bagbin-tells-ofori-atta\/","title":{"rendered":"Muster courage to speak truth to power \u2013 Bagbin tells Ofori-Atta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"464\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-11-24-at-11.11.41-AM-1-1-696x464.jpeg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Ken Ofori-Atta reads 2023 Budget in Parliament\"\/><\/div>\n<p>The Speaker of Parliament wants the Minister for Finance to release more information to the citizenry on measures the government is taking to address the current economic meltdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mr Alban Bagbin said transparency and openness is essential in these times.<\/p>\n<p>The former Nadowli-Kaleo MP suggested that it is the only way Ghanaians will support the government in these difficult times.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>According to him, Mr Ofori-Atta must endeavour to get the citizens along to find needed solutions to the present challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Engaging the media on the sidelines of the post budget workshop on Sunday, Mr Bagbin insisted that lack of openness could dampen the confidence of the public in the government.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe absence of openness and transparency can lead to suspicion and a profound sense of despair and hopelessness.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is in this regard that I call on the Minister of Finance to muster the courage to be candid, open and to speak truth to power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Speaker, thus. asked the government to make available information so Ghanaians can better appreciate its policy decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t come and repeat what we have been told already, We know it. Give us policy alternatives,\u201d Mr Bagbin added.<\/p>\n<p>Ghana is currently at the doors of the International Monetary Fund for a possible $3 billion bailout amidst intensifying hardship, skyrocketing fuel prices, a rising cost of living and a depreciating cedi.<\/p>\n<p>Ghanaians are reeling under this condition and have been calling for a pragmatic solution.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the government also in the 2023 budget has announced a freeze on all public sector employment for the year in question and also reviewed upward the VAT rate by 2.5%.<\/p>\n<p>This, the Speaker wants the government to clear with the public as to the reasons behind these measures.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"nrVMZNHEcYU\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Premtobre Kasee on Adom TV (29-11-22)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nrVMZNHEcYU?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Speaker of Parliament wants the Minister for Finance to release more information to the citizenry on measures the government is taking to address the current economic meltdown.\u00a0 Mr Alban Bagbin said transparency and openness is essential in these times. The former Nadowli-Kaleo MP suggested that it is the only way Ghanaians will support the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1259753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1259752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}