'You don’t run an economy from textbooks' – Mahama jabs Bawumia

Flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress, John Mahama, has reminded Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia of the series of lectures he gave on how to appropriately manage the economy in a run-up to the 2016 elections.

At most of the lectures, Dr. Bawumia accused John Mahama of failing to understand the basics of running an economy.

“I would have hoped that Bawumia will give another lecture at Central University and say some of the same theoretical things he used to say. You don’t run an economy from textbooks. You don’t run an economy with economic lectures,” the former President said.

John Mahama, in a live online interaction on Thursday, described the current Nana Akufo-Addo government as being naive and thus, his inauguration of a committee to investigate the depreciation of the cedi was a task that could be performed by University graduates.

“It takes innovation and smart thinking to be able to do all these. They have not been in government before. They were very naïve, asked 170 theoretical questions and later set up 40 man committee to understand why the currency is depreciating. Something that our own university students can do,” he said.

“I said to my brother Dr. Bawumia and the President, Nana Akufo Addo, that they have never run a country before and they had never been president before and so they don’t know the challenges of managing that position. I’m sure today, they see the reality now,” John Mahama added.

The leader of the NDC further stated that “running an economy requires practical work, determination, and prioritization.”

“Public Finance is a completely different thing, you need to work at it. You need to understand it. You need to see where public resources should be channelled to give you the best.”