By: Edzorna Francis Mensah
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority in Parliament has officially invited the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to participate in the debate of the Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the 2024 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government of Ghana in Chamber as the house comment debates on Thursday, 25th July, 2024 at 10 O’clock in the forenoon.
The NDC Minority has lined up what they described as “a crack team of highly knowledgeable and competent members” in the persons of George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, Isaac Adongo, Thomas Ampem Nyarko, John Abdulai Jinapor, Eric Opoku, Laadi Ayii Ayamba and Joseph Bukari Nikpe on its side to debate Vice President Bawumia and “further expose the abysmal economic performance of his government”.
The Minority announced the public invitation to the Vice President at the news conference addressed by the Ibrahim Ahmed – First Deputy Minority Whip and MP for BANDA given his role as Chairman of the Economic Management Team of the government.
He argued that, parliamentary rules permit a sitting Vice President to participate in debates on the floor of the House and “pursuant to the Vice President’s recent call for a debate on the economy, this invitation presents Alhaji Bawumia an excellent opportunity and forum to debate and account for his stewardship over the last seven and a half years (7.5 years) as Chairman of the Economic Management Team”.
He further submitted that, “for a government that has completely destroyed Ghana’s economy, rendered 33.3% of Ghana’s population extremely poor, and about two million Ghanaians facing acute food and nutrition insecurity, according to the World Bank, and about 35% of Ghana’s youth unemployed (the highest in the Fourth Republic), the Minority finds it bewildering that Alhaji Bawumia still has the audacity to call for a debate on the economy”.
The Minority however, called on the general public to prevail on Vice President Alhaji Bawumia to avail himself of this invitation, “if he is proud of his record, or he should forever keep his silence”.
