Former Vice President and NPP flagbearer aspirant Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has accused President John Mahama of double standards regarding Ghana’s post-COVID economic challenges.
During his campaign tour in the Eastern Region, Dr. Bawumia reminded Ghanaians that the NPP government had attributed the 2022 economic downturn to the global COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. However, during the 2024 elections, President Mahama rejected this explanation, instead blaming economic mismanagement for the crisis.
At the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Mahama acknowledged that the pandemic had severely impacted Ghana’s economy. Dr. Bawumia argues that this admission confirms the President was aware of the true causes all along.
The accusation adds to the heated political discourse as both major parties vie to claim credit for the country’s economic direction.
Meanwhile, the World Bank has rejected the Akufo-Addo government’s claim that global shocks caused Ghana’s 2022 economic collapse, concluding that the crisis was primarily the result of domestic policy failures. In its 2025 Policy Notes on Ghana, the Bank said the pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine war only exposed deep structural weaknesses and fragile macroeconomic conditions already present in the economy.
It highlighted weak governance, fiscal indiscipline, and delayed reforms as the main drivers, noting that overreliance on external borrowing and expectations of natural resource windfalls encouraged short-term political decisions that eroded accountability and undermined the social contract.
Story by: Elikplim Awuku
