A leading member of the New Patriotic Party, Gabby Otchere Darko has urged Ghanaians not to give ex-president John Mahama a second chance.
Speaking in an interview with Paul Adom Otchere, on Good Evening Ghana show on Thursday, the renowned corporate lawyer said Mr. Mahama and the NDC administration wasted the opportunity they had to positively transform the country.
He said Mahama took over the administration of a country characterised by low debt stock, rising cocoa prices and discovery of oil.
“Despite these opportunities, Mr. Mahama had the nation running back to the IMF in view of the negative performance of the country,” Gabby said.
He added that the loss of confidence in the Ghanaian economy was evident from the increase in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from $2.4 billion to $4.4 billion when Nana Akufo-Addo took over from Mr. Mahama.
“This clearly showed foreign investors had a renewed confidence in the Ghanaian economy.”
He further implied that if Mr. Mahama’s campaign message for the upcoming 2020 election was going to be based on a direct comparison of his 4 –year performance to that of Nana Addo’s 4-year performance, then he didn’t have any message.
“This is due to the fact that the key issue is the piling up of debt given the great opportunities at his disposal only for the next government to clear the mess.”
When asked of his view on the current size of government given that the NPP administration had made a record of having the highest number of ministers in the 4th Republic, he explained that Nana Akufo-Addo had a plan for the country.
He added that the large size of government was not to give job to the “boys” but rather to create the kind of political leadership required to oversee the developmental programs that had been planned out.
He defended the large size of ministers by explaining that a lean size of government was not always an assurance that the work required would be done.
He added that what mattered was getting the right people in charge of what needed to be done and clearly, the ministers appointed were all delivering.