National Youth Organizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Samuel Awuku, has called on the Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzi, to immediately prove his claims the Vice President promised that a NPP government would not borrow.
The Minority in Parliament claims that Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia promised that a NPP government would not borrow in office.
Dr. Bawumia recently said the Akufo-Addo administration would continue to borrow to help grow the Ghanaian economy, but in a responsible fashion, Mr. Avedzi accused the Vice President making a U-turn on the issue of borrowing by government because he [Dr. Bawumia] had criticized the Mahama government for having an appetite for borrowing.
The Vice President assured that Akufo-Addo government would adopt fiscal discipline to ensure that the economy is not thrown off track by the borrowing.
“A lot of people misunderstand when we say we are going to be responsible, it doesn’t mean that we are not going to borrow money, it only means that we are going to borrow responsibly and not recklessly,” Dr. Bawumia at the closing ceremony of the two-day National Policy Summit on August 16.
The Minority, however, still called Dr. Bawumia’s perceived U-Turn shameful.
Mr. Avedzi, said: “it is shameful for Bawumia to say in the past that we don’t need to borrow because we have all the resources here and now saying that we need to borrow and borrow responsibly, that is the problem I have with him.”
However, the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s office has issued a statement denying that the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana ever said during the 2016 campaigns that a future government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will not borrow.
The clarification from Dr Bawumia’s Director of Communications, Frank Agyei-Twum, comes after Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzi, accused Dr Bawumia of making a U-turn on his earlier comments.
But responding to the issue, Sammy Awuku noted that the NPP especially Dr Bawumia is waiting for more documentary evidence from Mr. Avedzi on the claims of borrowing.
According to him, claims by the minority is just a way of creating disaffection for the Nana Addo-Bawumia government.
“Avedzi and his cohorts should come out provide evidence where Dr Bawumia said they will not borrow. They should just shut up if they have nothing better to say about this government. It’s just a way of creating disaffection for the government” he said.
He therefore urged Ghanaians not to pay attention to what he describes as ‘lies’ from the Minority about the NPP government.