Former Chief of Defense Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, Brigadier-General (Rtd.) Joseph Nunoo-Mensah has called for steps to be taken to address the current economic crunch.
According to him, the country’s reliance on foreign assistance and credit agencies such as the International Monetary Fund, IMF, for solutions will not resolve the challenges.
In an August 11 interview on Accra-based Joy News, Nunoo-Mensah said the country ought to wake up and tackle its own problems.
He lamented how cost of living is now beyond the reach of many ordinary people who are doing hard and honest work to survive.
He maintains that nobody can survive in the economy with a level of honesty.
Nunoo-Mensah further lamented the lack of investment in the youth of the country warning that failure to do so will lead to an uprising akin to what happened in Sri Lanka.
“You might say we don’t have crisis [but] I am saying if I compare my life today…look, the house I’m sitting in and talking to you from at Cantonments, Acheampong built the house…It cost me GH₵2.50... I built additional ones which I lived in as Chief of Defense staff [and] it cost me 50pesewas...of course, helped by my friends Kwame Asante and others with few things here and there.
“But the cost of living today is out of reach of ordinary people. [It is] why people are becoming rogues, they are becoming thieves. If you are an honest person today you won’t survive. Nobody is honest. So I am saying let’s look inward, look at this country. Look at our youths, invests in their future because their numbers are increasing. We have maybe 35 million something people and people are leaving school,” he said.
“I’m saying that you can't just say we are building factories but the is nothing there on the ground. Let’s be serious and invest in the youth of this country otherwise what happened in Sri Lanka might happen here,” Nunoo-Mensah added.
The economy has in recent times witnessed a downturn following what government says is a result of the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Economists have pointed to fuel price hikes, galloping inflation rate, and general increased cost of living as basis for the claim.
The Ghana Statistical Service has pegged July’s inflation at over 31% - the highest double-digit inflation in years.
