Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, says he doubts Ghana will experience an economic miracle in the year and some months leading to the next general election.
According to him, taking into consideration the tangent the Akufo-Addo administration is on, it is highly unlikely Ghana’s economic woes will be remedied before the 2024 elections.
He was speaking about the disillusionment with the ruling party he encountered at Assin North ahead of the bye-election.
He stated that the discontentment with the current state of affairs was so palpable within the constituency he was certain of victory even before the Election Day.
“I knew there was no way NPP was going to win. I was on the ground from day one and I spent almost two weeks or three weeks in the constituency, and their views are not different from the views on the streets of Accra.
“The mess that we’re seeing in this administration in terms of poor governance, in terms of mismanagement of Ghanaian economy, increasing corruption and many more are the very sentiments that you can find in those villages and in the farms.”
According to him, the mismanagement that has characterised the Akufo-Addo administration will not cease even as the country is subscribed to an IMF programme.
Hence he is assured that the disillusionment that had caused the Assin North constituents to reject the candidate of the NPP, will also kick out the ruling party in the next presidential elections.
“Let me take you through the major issues; is corruption going to go away? This is not a government that is taking steps to deal with corruption. It’s getting worse by the day so it’s not going to go away, and I do not see that. Item two, poor governance, is it going to go away? In fact, it’s getting poorer by the day so it’s not going to go away. Number three, the economic mismanagement; it is not going to go away.
“They’re still mismanaging the economy even under an IMF programme because the numbers I’ve seen so far, I’m not enthused. Government expenditure is still high up there. The interest rates that went down as a result of the debt restructuring has started going up again … so all of that, I do not see any hope. I do not think that this government is taking the needed steps to deal with the situations that we’re facing,” he said.