Former President John Dramani Mahama says it is outright insult for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to refer to noise-making by Ghanaians as cause of the rise of the Cedi against its international trading currencies.
He said by what the President said last year during a national broadcast, Ghanaians talk too much.
“When you knelt down to beg us one time, today you are saying we talk too much,” Mr Mahama said in Twi on Wednesday at Asebu-Abura-Kwamankese as part of his campaign in the Western Region.
Addressing delegates of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in that constituency, the flagbearer hopeful said when President Akufo-Addo said ‘Sika mpɛ dede’, he was only saying Ghanaians talk too much.
He jestingly stated that President Akufo-Addo only found his French because the management of the economy has become difficult for him.
“L’argent n’aime pas le bruit. . .now they speak French on us,” he stated, mentioning as well the Twi equivalent: ”Sika mpɛ dede’.
“So, the President is telling us we talk too much that is why the money has run out of the country.”
President Akufo-Addo in his address on Friday, October 21 said the fall of the Cedi to the Dollar, in particular, as the result of some Ghanaians talking down the domestic currency.
He made an allusion to an anonymous WhatsApp message as one of the causes.
“Fellow Ghanaians, as the French would say, l’argent n’aime pas le bruit, to wit, money does not like noise, sika mpɛ dede.
“Where there is chaos, where there is noise, where there is unrest, you will not find money. If you talk down your money, it will go down. If you allow some unidentifiable person to talk down your money, it will go down.”
Mr Mahama insisted that all and sundry should disregard the theory that Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine crisis are the cause of the current economic meltdown.
“It’s all lies. We are not kids.”