Professor Godfred Bokpin, an economist, has urged President Akufo-Addo to heed public demands to reduce the size of his government and fire Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
He claims that the nation’s common good necessitates the President giving up his loyalty to his nominees.
Ken Ofori-Atta’s leadership has been discounted by both internal and external investors, so keeping the Finance Minister in office is counterproductive to the government’s efforts to stabilize the rapidly depreciating cedi and the ailing economy, he said.
He added that the Finance Minister has overstayed his welcome because of the Finance Ministry’s sit-and-wait approach to the IMF program without implementing any measures to halt the cedi depreciation or other fiscal issues.
“Sometimes it matters to sacrifice someone so close because, if the President is aware of what is going on even among the investor base domestically and internationally, they may already be discounting the Finance Minister’s leadership.
“So, one part of being a leader is choosing the right signal so that you can say, “I’ve gotten to the stage where I need to trade-off loyalty, I need to trade-off personal interest for the common good,” and that’s where leadership comes in.Why not try this instead, if this is what works?because everyone does it.In times like these, it is done.And that will only serve as a foundation.
The request we are making goes far beyond simply requesting the departure of the Finance Minister.Ghana has reached a point where an IMF-supported program is insufficient, and all we can do now is wait for the outcome of the IMF negotiation.
He said on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, “Come on, the IMF is not here to govern this country. Therefore, there are necessary governance reforms that we need to initiate. We must do that regardless of whether an IMF programme is in place.” Reforms are more effective when they are bundled together and reinforce each other.
Professor Bokpin went on to say that the Akufo-Addo administration has no moral right to demand cuts to investors’ and the general public’s investment returns when it has not done so.
He mentioned that cutting back on government will save a lot of resources for the nation, which can then be put back into the economy to boost confidence.
They have no moral right to demand haircuts from Ghanaians or investors who have kept their hair on.It is illogical.And if we do the permutations, we can say, “Look, we know that Cote D’Ivoire made the decision to reduce the number of Ministers from 41 to 32,” so what makes Ghana unique?
Instead of handing out haircuts to ordinary people who might not have contributed to the mess, we can accomplish that and clear space.That is the subject of our discussion.Look, there is evidence to suggest that Ghana’s growing government is hindering growth.That is crystal clear.
Therefore, there will be some level of reorganization, the government will be reduced in size, and state-owned businesses will also be examined.When you don’t have enough money, the best thing to do is to have a small government,” he said.