MONARH DISCREDITS TWO RUNNING MATES; SAYS THEY ARE "UNECONOMIC ECONOMISTS"

General Secretary of the People’s National Convention, Bernard Monarh has discredited running mates who have been touted as economist in the two major political parties in Ghana; blaming them for the decline in the cedi and gradual collapse of the Ghanaian economy.

According to him, “those who are economists simply are doing something that is uneconomic and therefore harming this nation and denying us of resources that we could have put at the disposal of the poor in the society.”

Mr Monarh expressed these sentiments when he made an appearance on e.tv Ghana’s Breakfast TV.

His comments come in the wake of the selection of a running mate for the party’s flagbearer, Mahama Ayariga.

Although it is already known in the media that the PNC flagbearer was likely to settle on a female running mate, Mr Mornah disclosed that at the moment there were two contenders; “one is a woman and the other a man and at the end of the day we will see whether it is the woman from Greater Accra or the man from the Volta Region.”

According to him, the endorsement of the running mate by the National Executive Council would be based on his or her ability to complement the weaknesses of the flagbearer as well as support and bring out his positives.

The issue of choosing someone with an economic background came up when host of the show, Bismark Brown asked that,  “If you look at the trend now, it looks like running mates must have some economic background. Is that a factor in the multitude of factors you are considering?”

In his opinion, Mr Monarh stated that, “I think that it is that that has capitulated the economy.”

He noted that, “Remember that when we took a running mate who was an economist is 2008 for the NPP he was Deputy Governor of Bank of Ghana and at his time, the currency was increased. The denomination was increased from five thousand to ten thousand and in less than three years we had to sacrifice all the investments that we made to re-denominate our currency. Denying rural people the opportunity of saving and that was a disincentive for rural savings.”

He further went on to say that the re-denomination of the cedi which came with a tagline that the value is the same was a self deception.

“I have said the value has never been the same. A currency that was 0.92 pesewas to the dollar after its redenomination has now jumped to what. And you say that the value is the same? We have lost money. We have lost huge money in the process of the redenomination because we fictitiously and artificially claimed that the currency was stronger than the dollar. Where?” he fumed.

Host Bismark Brown further probed, “but the redenomination brought some advantages as well; such as it reduced the bulky nature of our money.”

Swiftly, Mr Monarh contradicted Bismark’s statement noting that, “Master, it is not in a country where you were introducing a cashless or an attempt to introduce a cashless society. A country where you wanted e-card to be the order of the day; where ezwich and others were supposed to have mopped up the system. Except that we don’t get the economics right.”

“If we were getting the economics right and you wanted to rely on the use of the electronic way of banking, internet banking and what have you, you need not re-denominate your currency. What you needed to be carrying along was your plastic card,” he added.

“If our government as it was said at that time was that we are trying to introduce the ezwich and other things that became a giant failure, then clearly, it was not the way to go.”

He also questioned the economic benefits that came with the introduction of the two Ghana cedi note by the Bank of Ghana t the time when now Vice-President Amissah Arthur was then Governor of the central bank.

Mr Monarh went on to express his disappointment in the manner in which previous administrations was “trumpeting their success that don’t exist instead of owing up to their failures.”

According to him, his party would not settle on an economist as has been done by the NPP and NDC.

He noted that, “We will look for an all round person. Not just an economist, we will look for somebody who will be able to bring in ideas that will ensure that we do not engage in the importation of food that we can produce in Ghana. And when we are importing them, we must also ensure that the import duty is so high to serve as a disincentive to those importing but serve as an incentive to those producing similar goods in our country.”

“We will look for somebody whose ideas will ensure that domestic industry is encouraged to grow,” Mr Monarh added.

The PNC is set to launch its campaign on October 6 at Gowlu in the Upper West Region.