The Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper says President John Dramani Mahama was wrong in questioning the cost of the redenomination of the cedi.
Speaking on MultiTV/Joy FM news analysis show, Newsfile, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako said: “the President goofed and goofed big time.”
President John Mahama while on a campaign tour at the Ablekuma North constituency in Accra last week questioned the cost of the cedi redenomination undertaken by President John Kufuor’s government in 2007.
He challenged the NPP’s vice-presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia who was then a Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to come clean on the cost of the redenomination.
In a response, Dr. Bawumia said the request by the President was another “demonstration of incompetence.”
Kweku Baako in his submission on the issue said the comment by the President was an “inexcusable gaffe” that must not be rationalized.
Mr Baako believes “it was just politics…propaganda on a political platform which all of them do anyway…but in this case it is the President so you take him on, you deal with it but because he is our president, we are showing some little moderation and respect in dealing with this matter.”
Kweku Baako read part of a Parliamentary Hansard of December 4th, 2006.
According to the Hansard, the then Governor of the Bank of Ghana was asked to disclose the cost of the exercise in parliament but he did not give the full figure.
However, with reference to a Daily Graphic publication, Mr Baako said the cost involved in the exercise was announced by then Bank of Ghana Governor Paul Acquah at the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting in 2007.
“There is no need to rationalize it….yesterday I heard some NDC communicators trying to revise the whole thing to the effect that the president was not talking about the cost of the printing but that there were some other related things which should be added to, then why didn’t the President tell us? he quizzed.
Policy Advisor to the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Kofi Asamoah Siaw on the same platform said the President’s comment is evidence of a “desperation that has hit the NDC campaign and they are pushing the President so hard…they should give him a break so that he can retire peacefully after December 7.”
On his part, the NPP MP for Obuasi West Kwaku Kwarteng quoted a Daily Graphic publication Mr Baako referred to.
He said the story, authored by Samuel Doe Ablordepe read: “The bank of Ghana spent a total of $66.2 million about GHC62,188 million on the redenomination exercise, the governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Paul Acquah has disclosed.”
He then challenged the President to arrest the culprits if he suspects any corrupt dealings in the redenomination of the cedi.
The NDC MP for North Dayi, George Loh, on the other hand, reiterated the President’s call and urged Dr. Bawumia to make public the cost of the redenomination exercise.
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