‘Ghana has never come close to a beggar nation as we are today’ – John Mahama on Nana Addo

Former President John Dramani Mahama has described President Akufo-Addo’s call on African leaders to desist from “begging” the west for support as humiliating.

To Mr Mahama, Nana Addo’s message to his contemporaries was a contradiction, having just sealed a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

President Akufo-Addo, during the opening of the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington DC, urged his co-African leaders to take initiatives that will earn them respect from the west.

Speaking at the event on Wednesday, December 14, 2022, he mentioned self-reliance through intra-trading among nations of the continent as one of the ways to achieve that.

“If we stop being beggars and spend African money inside the continent, Africa will not need to ask for respect from anyone, we will get the respect we deserve. If we make it prosperous as it should be, respect will follow,” said the President.

He also observed that “Africans are more resilient outside the continent than inside” and therefore reminded them that “we must bear in mind that to the outside world, [there’s] nothing like Nigeria, Ghana or Kenya, we are simply Africans” adding that “our destiny as people depends on each other”.

Nana Addo made the call a day after his government led by the Minster of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, concluded a staff-level agreement with the IMF for a USD3 billion facility to help recover the economy from its downturn.

However, reacting to the comments of the head of state, Mr Mahama considered it shameful, adding that the country has never come close to being a beggar nation as Nana Addo has made it become.

“Our dear country Ghana that has been a poster boy of democracy, good governance and economic progress stands on the brink of bankruptcy and economic ruin. Yet we have a president who enjoys spouting the rhetoric of self-respect and restraint from begging western nations for support, and yet he has spent the last several weeks on telephone with western leaders asking them to beg the IMF to grant Ghana the recently announced staff-level agreement for an extended credit facility.

“Our dear nation has never been so put to shame and come close to being a beggar nation as we are today. and yet this is the same person who only yesterday said, ‘Ghana enye ohia woman; ye te sika so nanso ekom de yen’,” to wit “Ghana is not a poor country; we sit on money yet we are hungry.”