On Tuesday, several hundred opposition protestors gathered in Ghana’s capital Accra to decry the nation’s protracted economic crisis and place the blame on the head of the central bank.
The opposition leadership, known as “OccupyBoGProtest,” demands that Bank of Ghana governor Ernest Addison step down because he is in charge of a country where inflation has reached 40%.
“If the entire nation need $1 billion from the IMF year for three years to solve our issue, Addison (note: Ernest Addison, Governor of the Bank of Ghana) can oversee the loss of $5 billion in a single year. Who’s our issue? The Ningo- Prampram MP Samuel Nartey George makes this claim.
This administration is aware of their waning influence. They stand to gain nothing. They don’t care if Ghana is destroyed by the BOG. They don’t care if Ghana gets injured by Addison. Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, MP representing the Madina Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, continues, “But we, the people, must care.
The minority leader of the opposition National Democratic Congress, or NDC, Cassiel Ato Forson, led the chanting of patriotic songs by the demonstrators, who also blew vuvuzeles, beat drums, and danced close to rows of highly armed police.
“If the NDC is a government in the making, it must be interested in any demonstration that aims to advance the rights of the typical Ghanaian. Therefore, the NDC must not only seize the opportunity but also show up and lead the demonstration.
And that is why we, the minority MPs, we are the people here leading the protest,” noted Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, MP for Madina Constituency, Greater Accra Region.
As Ghana prepares for elections and President Nana Akufo-Addo steps aside after serving the maximum two terms permitted by the constitution, the country’s economic prospects will be a prominent topic.
To choose its candidate for the December 2024 presidential election, the ruling New Patriotic Party, or NPP, will hold primaries next month.
The former deputy governor of the central bank and vice president Mahamudu Bawumia is widely seen as the favorite to secure the NPP nomination in that primary.
John Dramani Mahama, a former president of Ghana, has been chosen by the NDC as its candidate for the 2024 presidential election. Akufo-Addo defeated Mahama in the 2016 and 2020 elections.