A former National Treasurer of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Akane Adabengba Adams, has urged minority parties especially those without representation in Parliament to support the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the June 27 Assin North by-election to maintain the current near hung Parliament in the interest of Ghana’s democracy and control the public purse.
He said with the current economic downturn, an absolute majority in Parliament especially from the ruling government was dangerous for Ghana’s economy and could further exacerbate the sufferings of the people.
Akane, as he prefers to be called, told the Daily Graphic in an interview that it was time for the smaller political parties to assume a compromised position on their ideologies and align themselves with the NDC on the by-election for the sake of parliamentary democracy.
The former treasurer who is in the Central Region as a PNC member to back the NDC candidate, James Gyakye Quayson, said an absolute majority in Parliament would lead to the passage of bills which may not be in the interest of the people of Ghana because “the majority will always use their numbers to push them through.”
Until James Gyakye Quayson’s seat was declared vacant, the NDC and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) had 137 seats each in the House with one Independent candidate who tilts towards the NPP to form a slim majority.
Last month, the Supreme Court, by a unanimous decision, ordered Ghana’s Parliament to expunge the name of James Gyakye Quayson from its records as a Member of Parliament for the Assin North Constituency.
Read below full statement by Akane Adabengba Adams
MINORITY PARTIES MUST BACK NDC IN THE ASSIN NORTH BY-ELECTION……… Former PNC National Treasurer 6th June, 2023.
The upcoming by-election in the Assin North Constituency must be viewed as a political exercise that should help in improving our current political system, and also consolidating our rich Parliamentary democracy in Ghana. Our current economic situation is not the one we should be proud of as a nation which was hitherto celebrated as a shining example for our peers. The high cost of living, rise in unemployment rate, high interest rates, unstable inflation, persistent decline in our reserves, as well as the poor management of our Cedi have led us to once again to the IMF for a bailout, despite the numerous capital injection into the Ghanaian economy from the World Bank and the central bank during and post Covid-19 pandemic, totalling a billion or more in dollars. Our current economic challenge is as a result of fiscal recklessness, fiscal indiscipline and lack of innovation by the government. These have led to investors reducing confidence in the Ghanaian economy, and thereby limiting our chances in the international capital markets.
If I may ask, what happened to government programs such as NABCO, 1V1D, 1D1F, and the many others which received huge capital investments over the years, with absolutely nothing to show when effectively evaluated post-project implementation. It is more shocking to discover that, aside from the state funds available to the government upon assuming office in 2017, this government has so far borrowed in addition over 10 billion dollars between 2017 and 2022. This figure is three times the amount we are currently seeking at the IMF. This would push the country’s debt stock to over 13 billion dollars after the 3 billion dollars IMF bailout is secured.
Our current fiscal imbalances have very little to do with Mr. Putin’s bombs which are landing in Ukraine or that of the Covid-19 pandemic. On the contrary, most African countries which recorded more fatalities and spent more resources than Ghana in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic have recorded stability in their interest rates and inflationary figures, unlike Ghana our motherland!
It is my strongest belief that all the minority parties in Ghana should see the upcoming by-election in the Assin North constituency as a savior project meant to salvage and restore the dignity of our current parliament and nation in holding this current government accountable.
We must support the NDC candidate in the upcoming by-election. We must strive to maintain the hung parliament of 137/137. This will go a long way to impede government incessant taste of borrowing without brakes. It will not only be a disaster to give an absolute parliamentary majority to the current government who have not only shown they are not prepared to listen to wise counsel, but, it will be unfair and unjust to the people of Assin North if they are denied of the perfect representation they deserve, as they so wished. It is not for nothing that the people of Ghana elected to have a hang-parliamentary system in the 2020 election. We must uphold the virtues of rule of law against all attempts and machinations to pervert its principles and tenets.
Mr. Akane Adabengba Adams, (BA, MA, LLB)
Former National Treasurer, PNC.
