The Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, has clarified that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has never denied the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war on the global economy, including Ghana.
According to him, what the NDC consistently opposed was the attempt by the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration to attribute the entirety of Ghana’s economic challenges to these external shocks.
In a Facebook post, the Minister addressed what he described as deliberate misrepresentations of his recent remarks in Geneva.
“I hear our incompetent and corruption-infested friends in the Micro minority are saying that I admitted in my speech in Geneva that COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war had been the cause of the economic challenges we faced in Ghana under their watch, in an attempt to justify how grossly incompetent they managed the economy of Ghana,” he wrote.
“I do not know whether I should cry or laugh. Even in their attempt to lie, they demonstrate crass incompetence.”
He stressed that while the NDC acknowledges the impact of global events on Ghana’s economy, they reject attempts by the NPP to use them as the sole scapegoat for the country’s economic downturn.
“For the purposes of emphasis, I want to be very clear: we have never said that those two incidents never had an effect somewhat on the global economy and that of Ghana,” he stated. “What we refused to accept was when they desperately attempted to blame the entirety of the mess they created on COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war.”
Murtala Mohammed further argued that other countries, particularly Ghana’s neighbours, faced similar challenges yet managed their economies better.
“Perhaps, the current trade war between America, China, and Europe, which I referred to, was also there. These dudes are not learning at all,” he added.
