The Deputy National Youth Organiser for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Edem Agbana, has said that President Akufo-Addo’s government does not have a workable policy to deal with the economic challenges bedeviling Ghana.
Speaking with Roselyn Felli on Prime Morning, Monday, he indicated how unpredictable the government is when it comes to planning for the country.
“President Akufo-Addo and his government, and their management team are very inconsistent, and they do not have any clear-cut policy to help Ghanaians out of the economic mess.” Edem Agbana said.
His comment comes on the back of government’s decision to reintroduce the road tolls less than a year after it was scrapped.
“Because a year ago, you read the budget and you gave reasons why you needed to scrap the tolls…what happened to those reasons? Why are you now reintroducing the road tolls?” the Deputy NDC Organiser quizzed.
Mr. Agbana indicated that the government is a populist one that does not think beyond propaganda and that their policies are just a pretence to gain political capital.
“But again, it points out to the fact that we have a populist government…Every policy, every initiative that they pretend to be introducing is to help them get some political capital,” he added.
The NDC Organiser further said that the government claimed to have scrapped the road tolls just so they could introduce the e-levy.
He said that this was to make Ghanaians believe that they have reduced their tax burdens.
According to Edem Agbana, the government wanted to raise about GH₵6.9 billion from the e-levy but after some months, they realised they were unable to raise even 10% of the proceeds, so they sought after the IMF for pecuniary aid.
He thus believes that the government is clueless as to how to bring the economy back to life.
He said, “I don’t have a problem paying road tolls, but the challenge is that government is consistently inconsistent when it comes to their economic policies.”
“This is a very confused government, a government that is clueless, and just jumping on doing trial and error, but try and error cannot run the economy,” he stressed.
The NDC Deputy Youth Organiser suggested that “We must have consistent policies, dedicate ourselves to pursuing those policies, and ensure that we bring Ghanaians out of the economic mess that we find ourselves in.”
