The Member of Parliament for Tamale Central Constituency, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, has taken a dig at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for jubilating over Ghana’s receipt of the first tranche of International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) $3 billion bailout support.
Ghana received $600 million last Friday from the International Monetary Fund as part of the three-year extended credit support.
The legislator questioned why the government is celebrating a debt that will become an albatross on the neck of Ghanaians.
Speaking on Citi TV’s political talk show, the Big Issue hosted by Selorm Adonoo, Murtala slammed the government for being reckless in the management of the economy resulting in the IMF deal.
He lashed out at the government for attributing the economic woes to the Russia-Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The government is being disingenuous to attribute the economic challenges to the Russia-Ukraine war and COVID-19. Sincerity matters in politics, you need to be very sincere to the people. These are a group of people [government] who told us that they will never go to the IMF. And that this country, we have everything we ever wanted, therefore we will not go to IMF, and boom they are at the IMF. And now they are celebrating for going in for a loan. They are celebrating debts, compiling debts for this country, and they expect us to join them in that euphoria?” the MP for Tamale Central asked.
He said other African countries should be the ones crying foul over the Russia-Ukraine war and not Ghana.
“The NDC is cautioning them just as we cautioned them when they refused to listen. At the time when we asked them to go to the IMF, they refused to do so. And they are doing so at a time when nothing significant will come out of it. They have disastrously mismanaged the economy.
“If there’s going to be an impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, Ghana will not be the only country that will be affected. As a matter of fact, many of these countries depend on Russia and Ukraine more than we depend on them. Trade relation between Ghana and Russia in 2008 was about $140 million, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso were more than that,” he lambasted the government.
