NEWSPOLITICAL

Mahama can’t be trusted to fulfil ‘deceitful’ promises

The Director of Communications of the NPP, Richard Ahiagbah, has stated that John Dramani Mahama cannot be trusted to carry through his promises should he be re-elected at the polls in 2024.

He claimed that Mahama’s victory speech delivered after the NDC’s presidential and parliamentary primaries, was “unconvincing and an attempt to whitewash” his under-performance during his tenure in government.

“Everything the former President said on Monday cannot be trusted. Nobody will be able to hang their hat on it. Because, if you measure his performance in the past, and what he’s saying, you ask the simple question, why didn’t he do these things the first time?” Ahiagbah said this in an interview on JoyNews.

However, Mr Ahiagbah, indicated that based on the history of previous killings that were not fully dealt with under Mahama, he cannot be trusted on this promise.

“Under John Mahama, J. B Dankwa died. Samuel Ennin died under him. Now, suddenly, he’s able to investigate the death of Ahmed Suale. What happened to Ennin? What about J.B. Danquah’s death? Why was it not investigated if it was that simple to just investigate that in a broad stroke?” Mr Ahiagbah questioned.

Impossible

Meanwhile, a financial analyst, Joe Jackson, says it would be a herculean task for the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to restore operating licenses of banks which were collapsed under the clean-up exercise conducted by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

Mahama delivering his acceptance speech after being elected as flagbearer of the NDC ahead of 2024 polls, said the banking licenses that were unjustly cancelled by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) will be restored if given the nod.

He said “we shall promote robust, local participation in our banking and financial, telecommunication, tourism, mining and agric and manufacturing sectors to grow our economy and create sustainable employment for our youths.

“We will restore indigenous Ghanaian investments in the finance and banking sector and we will create a tier banking system that will serve various segments of the market. We will give the opportunity to experience banking hands who were laid off needlessly to secure their careers once more and move away from the menial jobs that they were compelled to take,” Mahama stated.

Question?

Questioning the feasibility of this promise, the financial expert stressed that the decision will somewhat be difficult due to the wave of challenges in the financial sector at the time, which called for the Central Bank’s intervention to safeguard depositor’s funds.

In an interview with the media, Mr Joe Jackson noted that the decision by the BoG remains justified despite some disagreement with the process at which some banks became insolvent.

“You have got to be clear that there were a lot of challenges in the financial sector, huge challenges, some of the institutions were in deep trouble such that, there is arguably a legitimate reason for the central banks stepping in. You may disagree with the process but you cannot disagree with the premise that these institutions were in trouble,” he indicated.

Mr Jackson added that: “The caveat is they were unjustifiably shut down. First of all, we have to wait and see who can claim legitimately that they unjustifiably shut down but the bigger problem is this, it is going to be some seven or eight years after the event, even if you win, how are you going to entangle this?”

“At best, maybe, you will compensate the owners and the shareholders. As part of its efforts to clean-up the banking sector, the Bank of Ghana examined the affairs of a number of banks and discovered a number of anomalies relating to its licensing, the sources of its capital, and related party transactions,” he added.

Upon its determination, some nine local banks, 23 savings and loans companies, 347 microfinance institutions, 39 finance houses and 53 fund management companies were collapsed during the exercise.

The central bank also determined that pursuant to sections 9 and 12 of Act 930, the majority shareholder of some banks did not meet the “fit and proper person” test.

 

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