<<Print>>

The office of former President Kufuor has rubbished comments of Agric Minister, Fiifi Kwetey on the assessment of President John Mahama�s two years as president. Fiifi Kwetey said President Mahama�s two years in office as President of Ghana was more transformational one than that of the Kufuor-led administration. According to him, Ghana has seen more development under the two-year-old Mahama-led administration than it did under the eight-year rule of former President John Kufuor. The minister made these comments on an Accra based radio station, Radio Gold on Saturday. Reacting to the Agric Minister�s comments, spokesperson for former President Kufuor, Frank Agyekum said the comments are baseless and very insincere. He described it as �the biggest joke I�ve ever heard and I think it�s very insincere,� stressing that �there is no way you can compare John Mahama�s two years to that of President Kufuor�s eight years.� Mr. Agyekum recalled that Ghana received worldwide acknowledgement as a Highly Indebted and Poor Country (HIPC) under President Kufuor �but by the time he was leaving office, Ghana was a middle income earning country.� He asked: �How then do you come and compare that within the two years, President Mahama had done better that President Kufuor? Is he saying that Ghana has been moved up the ranks to middle income status since President Mahama came?� An angry Agyekum added that President Kufuor worked hard to move Ghana out of International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme and all other countries receiving support from the IMF have successfully weaned themselves by growing their economies. But in comparison, he said Ghana�s ongoing talks with the IMF for a bailout under the Mahama administration is indicative that the economy is being mismanaged. �When President Mahama came, we run back to the IMF and that is to tell you that Ghana is not doing well and we had to go to the IMF to fix the economy.� �When the economy is failing, that is when we go to the IMF to seek help I disagree with him, it�s not true, it has no basis and facts at all,� he remarked.