Senior lecturer and President of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), University of Ghana chapter, Professor Ransford Edward Van Gyampo, has responded to the governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Kwamina Yedu Addison, for his reaction to the demonstration organised by the Minority in Parliament and other groups.
The Minority and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), together with the Arise Ghana group and the public staged a protest Tuesday, October 3, against Dr. Addison and his deputies’ continuous stay in office as administrators of Ghana’s central bank after running the institution at a loss of GHC60.8billion and a negative equity of GHC55.1billion for the 2022 financial year.
The governor who failed to accept the petition calling for his resignation had responded to the protest in an interview with international business website, Central Banking, describing the protest as “completely unnecessary”, saying they had channels to channel their grievances rather than demonstrating as hooligans.
He says neither him nor his deputies would step down as being demanded by the group after saying the bank’s losses were due to the government’s domestic debt exchange programme and the high depreciation of the Cedi against the major trading currencies at the period in review.
“The Minority in parliament have many channels to channel their grievances in civilised societies, not through demonstrations in the streets as hooligans,” Addison added in reference to the #OccupyBoG protest.
Professor Gyampo in an open letter has responded to the governor as follows:
Dear BoG Governor,
- Your response to the tax payers and demonstrators is unprecedented. You want to determine how they voice their dissatisfaction about your abysmal performance? You described them as hooligans for demonstrating against you? Please who are you? Are you a demi-god or some deified ancestor-incarnate? It appears you have a very infinitesimal understanding of the system of government we have decided to operate and I strongly recommend that you take lessons in the tenets of democracy, that creates the kind of environment conducive for your work and for all us to thrive. Otherwise, your attitude is going to be the cause of many demonstrations that would peak our political temperature and create unnecessary tension.
- Isn’t it under your watch that the BoG has negative equity? If my understanding of negative equity is correct, it means the BoG has no money to operate, and if so, where are you getting money for the construction of your new Headquarters? Borrowing to soak us into more debt or printing more money?
- The BoG is currently insolvent under your watch and it doesn’t lie in your mouth to offer your own definition of what insolvency is. It is an insult to our intelligence to get us into this quagmire, and still marshal the audacity to tell us that the BoG is technically not insolvent because, it is a state entity. If there’s no money, there’s no money.
- You spent about 137 million on vehicle maintenance; collapsed over 400 banks and micro-finance companies; printed over 700 trillion within 2 years; and depleted our foreign reserves. Yet you still want to determine how the tax payer reacts to your decision to choose excessive partisanship over competence? Your attitude and response epitomizes what my father referred to as IMPUNITY PERSONIFIED. The President of the land has received several calls for his resignation and your boss, Ken Ofori Atta is still being asked to resign or be sacked. None of these have responded arrogantly like the way you have.
- Please Governor, printing money does not make you owner of human life and human rights and respectfully, sir, you portray a certain high level poverty, if all you have, is the money you have printed, which makes you arrogant in insulting tax payers who are unhappy with your abysmal performance. This isn’t how Governors G.K Agamah, K. Dufuor, P. Acquah, and N. Ishahakku handled the BoG. These chaps were simply sober and competent.
- Whether you resign or not, you would by all means, account one day, for your stewardship either in heaven or in hell or in prison or in your home. One thing is certain to me and must be clear in the minds of all, if we survive 2024, the conduct of governance, politics and the management of our economy wouldn’t be business as usual. Things would change to the glory of God, for the betterment of lives of Ghanaians, and to the shame of wicked and incompetent leadership.
Yaw Gyampo
A31, Prabiw
PAV Ansah Street
Saltpond &
Suro Nipa House
Behind Old Post Office
Larteh-Akuapim
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