Former president and leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Dramani Mahama has accused President Akufo-Addo of being insensitive towards the misery of Ghanaians.
He further stated that the President’s continuous use of luxurious jets on his international travels is a slap in the face of suffering Ghanaians.
“The misuse of scarce resources on the avoidable creature comforts of the President and other leading officials must come to an end…it is an unpardonable show of disrespect and insensitivity to the plight of the suffering masses for millions of Ghana cedis to be spent renting luxurious aircraft for Presidential travels at a time when the state of Ghana has a fully fitted and airworthy Presidential aircraft that can ferry the President anywhere in this world”.
“The staggering GH¢68 million spent on Presidential trips for the first nine months of 2019 alone constituted an unconscionable waste of very limited public resources at a time that the population was being asked to tighten their belts”, the 2020 flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress said on Wednesday, 10 November 2021 in a thank-you address to Ghanaians for the support they showed him in the last election.
He added that “resources entrusted into their care must be used judiciously for the public good, not for the excessive comfort of leaders. If this kind of waste was avoided, significant resources could be saved to address some of the more pressing concerns of the people.
“There are indications that government prefers to impose more hardship and suffering on Ghanaians, by introducing very painful fiscal measures in the 2022 budget to be read next week as a way of avoiding an IMF programme. This government must realise that there is only so much that the already over-burdened Ghanaian people can bear” and, thus, “piling more taxes and levies on them will have devastating consequences on households. The very high cost of living will go through the roof leading to severe suffering for millions of people”.
“This is not the time for more taxes. The people are reeling under the heavyweight of existing taxes. This is the time for efficiency, and the modest use of the taxes collected”.
The former Ghana president made these remarks at a public lecture in Accra to mark the end of a nationwide ‘Thank You’ tour.
Source: Daily Mail GH
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