Former Manhyia South Legislator and 2024 Running Mate to Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, has noted that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government won the battle and lost the war during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The former legislator pointed to the fact that the NPP government saw the results very early in the 2020 elections, where they lost their majority hold in parliament, with their vote decreasing from a majority of one million people to less than half.
He noted that the party had to bear the consequences of some decisions they took during the period, indicating that economic conditions in the country became terribly hard.
“I must say that if you take the context in Ghana, we did so well under COVID that it became a commendation of even advanced countries on how we tackled that. But like I say, you can win the battle and lose the war,” he said.
“Because of the decisions that we had to take or we took, we bore the consequences of those decisions. Revenue evaporated, especially in a country where your revenue mainly comes from your port duties and levies and charges, and expenditure went through the roof because unlike other countries, nurses and teachers who stayed home for months were paid, civil service offices that were closed were still paid, expenditure ballooned, and economic conditions were terribly harsh,” he stated.
