President Akufo-Addo gets booed for the third time
The fallen Cedi, high inflation, high interest rates and worsening economic situation, has put suffering, pain and anger in the streets of Ghana and the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, is being sent an indication through boos and jeers across the country.
In Eastern Region last Friday, he witnessed the third booing after the one in Accra at the Global Citizens Festival at the Independence Square and the second one from the Kejetia market women in Kumasi, Ashanti Region; a stronghold of his ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP). A video of the booing went viral on Friday.
The situation is getting hopeless by the day and so far, two individuals have killed themselves citing economic hardship.
Private legal practitioner, Martin Luther Kpebu, expressed anger and frustration at the President, describing him as super incompetent, insisting that in his view, the president is clueless in managing the economy well.
“This man, is he okay?” he wondered on The Keypoints on TV3/3FM last Saturday, October 22. “You eat our food and tell us that? We have to talk back to him. “Ghanaians must understand that somebody has to die,” he threatened, calling Ghanaians to a demonstration he has dubbed ‘Kumepreko II’.
On the suicides, residents of Axim in the Western Region, woke up in the morning of Thursday of July 28, 2022, to the shocking presence of the 21-year old man hanging dead.
He was said to have committed suicide by hanging himself with a rope. He wasn’t married, but according to the residents of Axim, he left behind a girlfriend, and the lady was seen weeping bitterly over his death.
On Friday, October 14, 2022, another man, who was later identified as Kofi Kakra, a 24-year-old bus conductor (trotro mate), also committed suicide at Kasoa Galilea in the Central Region.
The man was seen in a widely circulated video on social media climbing a high-voltage transmission pylon.
According to some eyewitnesses, he had claimed he was tired of life before stepping on the transmission line and electrocuting himself.
Galilea is located after the Kasoa toll booth on the way from Weija to Kasoa in the Ga South District of Greater Accra.
Kofi Kakra’s suicide, has gotten many people including former President, John Dramani Mahama talking and urging Ghanaians to remain hopeful even in the face of economic hardship.
He said the “current levels of hardship in Ghana is dire and probably the worst we have ever experienced in the last three decades”.
“I returned from a trip to hear the sad news of Kakra who killed himself by electrocution.
“The current levels of hardship in Ghana, is dire and probably the worst we have ever experienced in the last three decades, but suicide is never the answer.
“Even in the darkest night, there will always come the dawn. The sun will rise again. Let’s be each other’s keeper. Let’s keep hope alive!”
But the 80-year old Senior Presidential Advisor, Yaw Osafo Marfo, has admitted current economic hardship in the country, however, he is confident the crisis will soon be over as measures are in place to bring the economy back on its feet.
Addressing a durbar at Ofoase in the Eastern Region, the former Finance Minister said voting for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is not the alternative to solving the economic woes.
“We all know the economy is not in good shape,” he said in vernacular, adding “The economic challenge is not from Ghana. If something is not from you, you have to take your time to strategically resolve it. It won’t keep long and we will work on the economic challenge.
“Those who are seeking to govern this country, I don’t understand them. They aren’t providing any alternative. They actually don’t have anything to offer,” he subtly jabbed the NDC.
Mr Osafo Marfo, was part of the President’s entourage on a three-day tour to the Eastern Region. But Unlike in Kumasi, the President received a rousing welcome in his home region perhaps due to the near completion of the Nkawkaw-Abirem-Ofoase Road.
The Founder of National Interest Movement, Dr Abu Sakara, has said that Ghana needs a long term national development plan, in order to ensure the needed development for its people.
For him, the trend where one group of people form a government and implement a particular plan only for another set of people to take over to also come with their own plan is not helping the country.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday October 21, he explained that the nation is faced with a crisis situation which must first of all be contained.
The onetime Presidential Candidate for the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) in the 2012 elections, said “Accept and admit that no one group of people in Ghana can solve the problems. We have to come together, build consensus, face reality and come up with long term plan.”
“We need a reformed development agenda that looks at the fundamentals. Lashing the [President] may give us some satisfaction but it won’t solve the fundamental problem” he said, adding “Right now, we have a crisis situation, the first is to contain it.”
Among the challenges facing Ghana is the poor performance of the local currency against the Dollar and high inflation rate (32.7%).
Meanwhile, the President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Dr Joseph Obeng, has advised businesses to find new ways of engaging in buying and selling, following the ongoing global economic challenges.
Dr Obeng, said the usual buying and selling form of commerce is fading out, for which commercial entities must innovate.
“Trade diversification is one of the things we talked about in our letter to the president. Businesses must diversify and find alternative ways of doing business, buy and sell is dead,” he said on the New Day show with Roland Walker on TV3 Friday October 21.
He was contributing to discussion around the exchange rate and the impact of black market operators.
Dr Obeng indicated that there is a powerful association behind black market operations in Ghana, and explained that these operators mostly receive up to date forex information that sometimes the regulated operators do not even have.
“Who is giving them this information?” He asked.
He added “there is a cartel which is being built by black market, it is dangerous. Who is giving them the rate, it is a cartel.
“People are shying away from the mainstream banks and doing businesses with the Black markets.”
The Bank of Ghana (BoG), together with the Ghana Police Service, on Tuesday September 20, 2022, conducted a special operation on foreign exchange (forex) parallel market operators (otherwise known as black market operators) at identified hot spots within Business District (Rawlings Park, Tudu, Cowlane, Circle, Kimbu, Timber Market and Lava) and throughout the country.
In all about 76 perpetrators were apprehended by the police for prosecution. The special operation will continue nationwide.
The purpose of the operation was to clamp down on individuals and entities engaging in the business of buying and selling foreign exchange without a license from the Bank of Ghana in violation of Ghana’s foreign exchange laws and regulations.
Speaking to Journalists after the exercise, the Head of the Foreign Exchange Bureau Examinations Office, at the Bank of Ghana, Adjoa Konadu Torto, indicated that the exercise will continue in other parts of the country in the coming days.
She maintained that members of the public who patronise the activities of ‘Black Market” operators are equally guilty before the law.
“The over 76 perpetrators were apprehended by the police for prosecution. The special operation will continue nationwide”.
“The purpose of the operation was to clamp down on individuals and entities engaging in the business of buying and selling foreign exchange without a licence from the Bank of Ghana in violation of Ghana’s foreign Exchange Laws and regulations”, she explained.
She cautioned the general public to desist from engaging in illegal foreign exchange business without a licence.
“The general public must always trade with the Bank of Ghana licensed foreign exchange (forex) bureau.
Accordingly, the Anti-Money Laundering ACT, 2020 (Act 1044) as amended instructs all bureau customers to insist on their electronic receipts by providing the acceptable valid ID, the Ghana Card, to cover the buying and selling of all foreign currencies”, she added.
Some NPP supporters in Kwabre and Manso, threatened to vote against the party in the next elections as a result of the hardship they are suffering.
But in an interview with Kumasi-based Otec FM while on his tour of the Region, President Akufo-Addo said the threats do not bother him.
“If you decide to vote for the NDC in the general election, it is your choice and that is not my problem. No one will force you to vote for someone,” he said in the local language Twi.
But an angry Mr Kpebu, said the over 31 million Ghanaians must not be cowed into silence by the president but rather put him in his right place since the comments in the interview appear insulting.
“Thirty-one million [people], we can’t all be scared. What does he take us for? Who does he think he is? Everything you use, we pay for it and you insult us like this? What have we done to deserve this shabby treatment from President Akufo-Addo?”
He, consequently, served notice to the police, inviting Ghanaians with similar sentiments, to hit the streets on Thursday, October 28 against the Akufo-Addo-led government.
Mr Kpebu, also asked Parliament to start the process to impeach Mr Akufo-Addo as per Article 69 of the 1992 Constitution.
He said the tree of democracy is watered by the blood of some people and he has elected himself to join this group of martyrs.
For him, one can even die in one’s room while in bed and so to die by fighting for the rights and freedom of the masses must also be worth it.
“Look as for death, you can lie in your room and die. So those of you out there who don’t want to pay any price, look, lets step up.”
Martin Kpebu, has described the President as super incompetent insisting that in his view, the president is clueless in managing the economy well.
On the same programme with Dr.Abu Sakara, Mr Kpebu lamented the poor performance of the local currency against the Dollar.
“The president is clueless, he is super incompetent,” he said and asked Parliament to begin a process to impeach the President following what he believes is the mismanagement of the economy.
The President, he said, should go with his Vice, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
“We need a Kumepreko demonstration and then Parliament takes up from there. One third of MPs, let’s make the efforts to remove Akufo-Addo from office otherwise it will be an indictment on all of us.”
He stressed “the MPs, both sides, we need just one third, they should step up. If you don’t start the process to impeach him, it means as a nation we lack honour.”
“Make an effort, if it fails it is another matter,” he added.
But the Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Elsie Addo Awadzi, assured that these are temporary.
She expressed confidence in a positive outlook for Ghana’s economy.
Speaking at the 21st Annual National RCB CEOs conference on the theme ‘Positioning Rural banking at the Centre of Financial Services delivery in Ghana – the role of stakeholders” she explained that recent global developments, have heightened economic and business uncertainties for businesses and individuals. Our domestic economy is not spared from these developments.
The Bank of Ghana, she said, is working closely with the Ministry of Finance and other key stakeholders, to negotiate a sound economic reform programme supported by the IMF, to stabilise and transform our economy.
“We at the Bank of Ghana are confident about the outlook for our economy. The current high inflation and cedi depreciation are temporary, and we must avoid speculative behaviour that only works against attaining stability sooner,” Mrs Addo Awadzi stated.
The BoG, recently identified five key reasons for the woes of the local currency.
They were “The strength of the US dollar, Investor reaction to Credit Rating Downgrade, Non-Roll over of Maturing Bonds, and The sharp rise in crude oil prices and impact on the Oil Bill, Loss of External Financing.”
The central bank, went ahead to announce measures introduced to resolve the situation.
They were the “Gold Purchase Program to increase foreign exchange reserves; Special Foreign Exchange Auction for the Bulk Distribution Company’s (BDCs) to help with the importation of petroleum products; Bank of Ghana is entering into a cooperation agreement with the mining companies to provide BOG with the opportunity to buy gold as when it becomes available.
“The Bank of Ghana is supporting the banking sector with foreign currency liquidity to help meet the demand for external payments. The recently approved USD750, 000,000 Afrexim loan facility by Parliament, once disbursed, will boost the foreign exchange position of the country and help restore confidence.”
The recently signed 1.13billion dollar Cocoa Syndicated loan was also a measure to shore up the Cedi, the BoG added.
