Maverick Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, has expressed grave disappointment over the government’s decision to engage the IMF for a bailout.
According to the New Patriotic Party MP, who had in the past described the opposition erstwhile National Democratic government as a failure for going to the IMF, the decision by the current government in effect hands over power to the opposition in the next election.
“It is just like handing over power to NDC without a contest, straight away because of the noise we made, and I chew my own words back when I said the NDC went to IMF because of mismanagement of the economy. So if NPP is going to IMF, what am I going to say? So breaking the 8 is going to be tough,” he is quoted in a report by 3news.com.
Kennedy Agyapong, who was addressing an ongoing NPP National Constituency Officers workshop in the Eastern Regional capital of Koforidua, noted that the decision to go to IMF will prove detrimental in winning the NPP power in 2024.
“My message to you is simple, you cannot read my lips and I am not scared of anybody in the party, I will tell you the gospel truth, those who take you to IMF cannot break the 8,” he stated.
The Government in the last few months has parried calls by the opposition and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to seek an IMF bailout.
According to the government which described an IMF bailout as catastrophic, it would rather pursue homegrown policies to salvage Ghana’s economy which has been in crisis for a period.
But in a release issued on Friday, the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah announced that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to commence official engagements with the International Monetary Fund for a financial bailout.
