Source: newsthemegh.com
The clergy has come under fire from former president John Dramani Mahama for their silence on the government’s years-long practice of excessive borrowing and extravagant spending.
He claimed that the current economic issues facing the country are a result of the clergy’s lack of outspoken resistance to the borrowing binge.
Speaking to opinion leaders and NDC supporters in Techiman as part of his tour of the Bono East Region, the former President expressed his disappointment with the clergy for their silence regarding the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration’s extensive borrowing to fund what he called non-existent projects.
Mr. Mahama, who seems to be making a last-ditch effort to persuade Ghanaians to support the NDC in the general election of 2024, accused the clergy of choosing to keep quiet, meaning that the NDC would be the only party able to criticize the government’s policies.
The flagbearer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) blamed the clergy for the nation’s economic woes.
In contrast to John Mahama’s charge, Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, the president of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, recently criticized the Akufo-Addo administration for allegedly enabling corruption to flourish in the nation.
Speaking at the 2023 Plenary Assembly of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference opening ceremony last week in the Sunyani Diocese, Bishop Gyamfi stated, “Since we became an oil-producing country, there have been no significant positive changes in the economy.”
What became to the mineral resources, gold included? Why are the majority of our roads in such terrible condition? Why do we visit the IMF so frequently? Why, as a wealthy country, should we continue to borrow so much?
Why are we stuck in this financial and economic maze, he bemoaned? The country is being choked by the widespread unchecked corruption. It seems that corruption is now accepted.
Given that the majority of Ghanaians are left behind by the current type of democracy, what should the country’s citizens do? What about certain politicians’ haughtiness and impunity as well as their advocacy of corruption?
“Should the Constitution not be changed or bettered so that it works for all Ghanaians instead of for a select few?” he said in his additional statement. Is it not necessary to retool the legal system to eradicate corruption? What about our parliament, where party and personal interests are prioritized over the needs of the people? Why haven’t we put the Constitutional Review Committee’s recommendations into practice?
“Can the governments explain to us why we are in this economic mess? What explanations can the two political parties give to Ghanaians for the unfavorable agreements we sign on our oil, minerals, power generation, etc.? Countries that have these resources in abundance are rich. Why do we remain poor? Ghanaians no longer accept the old explanations that the governments of Ghana have been giving’’ he added.