Fraudulent Denial

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia could not have rendered a more appropriate description of the current situation of the country vis-a-vis the depreciating Cedi and a government living in shameful denial of the reality.

We did not have any doubt about the gentleman’s ability to make a poignant presentation. It laid bare the underpinnings of the dire economic situation of the country in a manner which left his audience in stupendous awe.

It was a situation report which did not leave anything out, a diagnosis that was accompanied by a litany of prescriptions which a selfish presenter could have kept to his chest. Dr. Bawumia, an economist to the core, appropriately shed his political garb outside the auditorium and tackled his assignment as a nationalist peeved at the wayward management of the country’s fiscal matters.

With a clenched fist, there is no way that the NDC government would be pervious to the suggestions. When we are dealing with a government more concerned about the next election rather than the next generation, such attitude is not unusual.

The denial tag, which Dr. Bawumia hanged around the neck of government, was so fitting that it surprised many that the impression had eluded many for a long time, even as its symptoms continue to pop up in propaganda.

Although the aftermath of Dr. Bawumia’s analysis was not greeted with the usual barrage of insults as in previous academic discourses, a few have been recorded though.

Unless the NDC hounds are being coached on how to launch a counterattack as it were, given the complexities of the Bawumia discourse, we would congratulate the human hounds for their newfound sense of decency.

It has not been a total post-presentation silence though: the few remarks in opposition are as interesting as they sound insincere. Coming from academics, we are at our wits end as to how such glaring realities of the economy would be skewed to brighten the visage of government for a pittance of course.

We are calmed, however, by the verity of the Ghanaian situation: the ability to resist monetary and other favours for such special operations is a rare quality at times like these. Need we not therefore understand and sympathize with the moral shortcomings of such otherwise respectable gentlemen in society?

The individual Ghanaian consumer who feels the pinch of the economic pain does not need an ivory tower egghead to tell him that things are not normal. The inability to make statutory payments, the depreciation of the Cedi, the adoption of outrageous fiscal measures are, among other symptoms of an ailing economy, enough to dilute such government-prompted interventions.

Addressing the economic challenges of Ghana would be a useless venture when the denial about the worrying indices is provided constant impetus by government, with the support of academic frauds.

Source: Editorial/Daily Guide