In the high-stakes theater of Ghana’s economic management, the latest act is nothing short of a “political comedy” with a very expensive price tag. While the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and its supporters are busy popping champagne over a $1.3 billion profit from gold sales, a leading voice from the Institute of Economic and Reforming Public Policies (IERPP), Dr. Kwasi Okyere Baafi, has thrown a massive spanner in the works.
His message is simple, blunt, and hits like a sledgehammer: The Governor must apologize to Ghanaians and pack his bags.
The Great Deception
The recent Adomonline report highlighting the $1.3 billion gain has been used by the current NDC administration as a shield to hide a much darker reality. Dr. Baafi, an economist who clearly has no time for “sugar-coated” statistics, points out that these gains are being used to “plaster” the unprecedented and record-breaking losses the central bank has suffered under this leadership.
The irony, as Baafi notes, is that the very gold being sold today was accumulated through the visionary “Gold Purchase Program” and the “Gold for Oil” (G4O) initiative—policies birthed and nurtured by the NPP administration.
From “Scam” to “Saviour”
The Ghanaian memory is not as short as the NDC thinks. It was not too long ago that the then-opposition NDC described the Gold for Oil policy as a “scam” and a “fraudulent” move that defied economic textbooks. They fought it in Parliament and ridiculed it on every airwave.
Fast forward to today, and the NDC government has become the “chief beneficiary” of this so-called scam. Dr. Baafi rightfully asks: if the NPP had not shown the balls to build these reserves against all odds, what would the NDC be selling today to cover the Governor’s mismanagement? They are effectively feasting on the harvest of a farm they tried to burn down.
Accountability is Not Negotiable
Dr. Baafi’s call for the Governor’s removal stems from a place of fiscal discipline. He argues that you cannot record such monumental losses and then try to “balance the books” by selling off the nation’s heritage (gold) and expect a pat on the back. It is the equivalent of a man crashing the family car and then selling the house to buy a new one while claiming he is a “genius” for having transport.
The IERPP economist is demanding that the BoG leadership stops the “media PR” and admits that without the NPP’s strategic buffers, the bank would be in a state of total collapse.
The Bottom Line
The facts are glaring. The NPP built the stock; the NDC is selling the stock to hide the rot. While the NDC administration continues its “u-turn” on the benefits of gold reserves, the credibility of the NPP as the true architects of Ghana’s economic resilience has never been clearer.
Dr. Baafi has set the record straight. The Governor’s position is tenable no more, and the NDC’s “opportunistic” celebration of gold profits is a slap in the face of every Ghanaian who remembers their “scam” slogans from 2023. The gold has spoken, and it speaks in favor of NPP’s foresight and NDC’s failure.
