Stop shifting your position on borrowing – Mahama to NPP

Former President John Dramani Mahama has urged the Akufo-Addo government not to run away from the views it championed on borrowing when it was in opposition.

He said, in opposition, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) made it looked like borrowing was evil, and that they could administer the country without borrowing money.

But after coming into office, the former President noted the NPP is not only running away from all they said about borrowing but they are also denying their own quotations on the issue.

Addressing NDC delegates at Dodowa in the Shai Osu-Doku constituency of the Greater Accra Region on Thursday, Mr Mahama singled out Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia for saying that “borrowing is a lazy man’s way of development”, and that as a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank he knew Ghana is not constrained by money because “the money is here”.

Former President Mahama is therefore asking the Akufo-Addo government to eat a humble pie and apologise to Ghanaians for doing the reverse of what its position was on financing government programmes through loans, especially as it borrowed about GH¢40 billion in its first 18 months in government.

Mr Mahama said the NDC borrowed to develop social infrastructure across the country, including building hospitals, roads, schools, expanding electricity and water, among others, adding that same cannot be said of the NPP.