Running mate to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has debunked claims made by Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur that restoring the teacher and nursing training allowances will collapse the economy.
The economist explained that what is destroying the Ghanaian economy is the “incompetence, mismanagement and corruption of the government”.
Dr. Bawumia also noted that there is confusion between the president and his Vice-President and several inconsistencies in government’s stance over the allowances.
Speaking at the Nalerigu Nurses Training College, Dr. Bawumia expressed shock at the constant contradictions of government officials on the allowances, saying “in government, we will expose the incompetence of this NDC administration. There is nowhere where they have demonstrated as much incompetence as in the area of the teacher and nursing training allowances. They have demonstrated monumental incompetence.”
“Today, you do not really know what the policy of the NDC is as far as the issue of training allowances is concerned. First, they said they have cancelled the allowances, and as the election was getting close, they said they are going to restore the allowances. And there is now a clear conflict between the President and Vice-President over their policy on nursing training allowances,” he pointed out.
Responding to the claim made by the Vice President on the same campus barely a week ago, Dr. Bawumia noted that the comment by the current Head of the Economic Management Team suggests that handlers of the economy still do not understand how this economy works and how to handle it.
“So when the Vice-President came here and said that the allowances will destroy this economy, it simply means they do not understand the economy. What is destroying the economy is mismanagement, incompetence and corruption; that is what is destroying this economy,” he said.
Providing what he termed as a “free lesson for the handlers of the economy”, Dr. Bawumia explained that Ghana’s current economic challenges, which had led to the cuts in the allowances, among others, were down to the mismanagement and unbridled borrowing which had seen a skyrocketing of Ghana’s interest payments.
“Let me give the NDC and the Vice-President a free lesson in economic management. The interest payments under the NPP before we left office was less than GH¢700million, under the NDC, in just 8 years, it has jumped to GH¢10.5 billion. If you look at the Teacher and Nursing Trainee Allowances as a percentage of Ghana’s total income, the Training Allowances are 0.1% of our total income. If you look at our Interest Payments, it is 6.5% of GDP; that means that Interest Payments every year is 65 times the Training Allowances,” he stated.
Amidst cheers of “we need change, we need change” by the hundreds of trainee nurses gathered, Dr. Bawumia explained that the numbers indicate that thanks to the NDC’s incompetence and mismanagement of the Ghanaian economy, a year’s interest payments can pay 65 years of Teacher and Nursing Training Allowances at the current levels.
“So one year’s interest payments under the NDC can pay Training Allowances for 65 years. Therefore, when they come and say that Teacher and Nursing Training Allowances will destroy the economy, it means they don’t understand the economy,” he reiterated.
Dr. Bawumia is on the 2nd leg of his tour of the Northern Region. He has so far visited the Yunyoo, Bunkpurugu, Nalerigu-Gambaga and Yagaba-Kubore constituencies.
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