The former President, John Dramani Mahama has once again taken a swipe at President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his management of the economy which he says has brought “hardship in the country.”

Mr. Mahama is of the view that the COVID-19 pandemic has become the convenient excuse for President Akufo-Addo and the NPP government for their mismanagement of the economy.

The 2020 Presidential Candidate for the NDC, speaking at the NDC Professionals Forum on Monday, September 6, 2021, at the Cedi Conference Centre of the University of Ghana, said even though the pandemic has affected the economy, it is not the main reason for the hardships Ghanaians are currently facing.

He insisted that reckless spending in the 2020 polls by the president and the government is the cause of the difficulties Ghanaians have been plunged into.

According to him, spending in the 2020 polls produced the largest-ever budget deficit in the recent economic history of Ghana last year.

“COVID-19 has become the convenient whipping boy and has been cited as the reason for the crisis we face now and the attendant economic hardships. Yes, COVID-19 affected the economy, and no one can dispute that. It is however not the main reason why we are in the current hole we find ourselves.”

“COVID-19 only became a pretext for reckless election-related spending, which produced the largest-ever budget deficit in the recent economic history of Ghana last year.”

He has thus charged the government to accept that it is their mismanagement of the economy and thirst for consumption expenditure is what has plunged the nation into the current crisis.

“This government must accept that it is their mismanagement of the economy, their thirst for consumption expenditure, and the desire to spend beyond our means in order to win elections that have plunged us into the current crisis, not necessarily COVID-19.”

This is not the first time Mr. Mahama is accusing President Akufo-Addo of mismanaging the economy, leading to what he calls unprecedented levels of hardship in the country.

Mr. Mahama thus slammed the governing New Patriotic Party for suggesting that he’s the one fueling a perception of hardship in the country.

He thus charged the government to admit the difficulties Ghanaians are currently facing and find ways of alleviating those hardships.

“Times are hard even though, the New Patriotic Party, NPP still insists times are not hard and that I am the one giving Ghanaians the impression that times are hard. This makes me wonder what kind of logic they have that Ghanaians cannot feel hardship unless I come and tell them.”