Kennedy Agyapong, Member of Parliament for Assin Central, has come under fire over recent comments calling out the Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia, over the country’s economic woes.
Agyapong is in a race with Bawumia and eight others for the flagbearership race of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Bawumia, seen as the main frontrunner has the support of scores of MPs, a number of whom have been accompanying him on his campaigns across the country.
Four of such pro-Bawumia MPs have hit back at Kennedy Agyapong explaining that his attack on the Vice President was untenable and unwarranted given that the economic woes were brought on by external factors.
Ghana is currently under an International Monetary Fund programme that is meant to bring in US$3 billion at the end of three years. The first tranche of US$600 million was released ealier this year with other tranches set to be released.
Four MPs who have hit back at Agyapong are:
1. Andrew Egyapa Mercer, MP for Sekondi
Egyapa-Mercer said, “If you are measuring him you need to start from 2017 and 2018 to date.”
He stated that the Vice President had no hand in global economic factors that led to the crash of the economy.
“Dr Bawumia was superintending over an economy that was growing 7 percent on average in 2017, 2018, and 2019 and so in 2020 what happened? They recognize the issues that have taken us to where we are that are not attributed to Bawumia, that is not to say that he is reneging on his duties.
“He did not bring covid and if you think covid did not have an impact on the economy, that is your beef. He stands tall and he is the one to help us break the 8,” the Deputy Energy Minister said.
2. Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, MP for Takoradi
Darko-Mensah insisted that the economic slump was brought about by COVID and that fact has been established by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which is currently giving Ghana a bailout.
“..we were all in the country when COVID broke. Were you the one who manufactured COVID? Even the IMF who are giving us a bailout said we (NPP) did not create the problem, as our economic challenges are as a result of COVID,” he stressed.
He also identified take-or-pay energy-sector contracts signed by the former government as one of the major factors for the econimic malaise, asking: “what has that got to do with either Dr Bawumia or myself or Ken Ofori-Atta taking us to the IMF?”
3. Kofi Amankwa-Manu, Atwima-Kwanwoma Constituency
He said all New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs who voted for different revenue measures aimed at securing the bailout deal cannot turn around to blame Bawumia who is not an MP.
Specifically addressing MP for Assin Central Kennedy Agyapong’s critique to Bawumia’s handling of the economy, Amankwa-Manu said in an interview with Oyerepa TV: “If you opposed our IMF approach, you would have voted against it, is that not the case?
“But if you were part of the decision and you claim that because of an internal election (NPP flagbearership race), now that we have voted and agreed on the issue, it is now that some people want to walk back their steps? Are we in Parliament with Bawumia?” he quizzed.
“I don’t belong to that school of thought, what is not good for me, I will strictly state so from the onset. He cannot absolve himself now having voted for the E-Levy, an IMF conditionality. He has no moral right to absolve himself having gone with the team to agree on the issue,” he added.