Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has yet again fired salvos at President John Mahama, describing him as a leader “who doesn’t read” and keeps “embarrassing” himself in public.
Mahama threw a challenge Tuesday on a campaign platform, asking the New Patriotic Party (NPP) vice presidential candidate to disclose the cost of the Cedi redenomination when he was the deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana under the Kufuor administration.
“Do we remember the Cedi redenomination under President Kufuor? During that time, someone [Bawumia] was the Deputy Bank of Ghana Governor and up till now, even I as a President do not know the cost of the redenomination exercise.
“Up till today, no Ghanaian knows the cost of the redenomination exercise and the same people come and say someone is incompetent. When you redenominated the cedi, how much did it cost us? Simple things like these you cannot tell us and you have the nerve to come and talk about corruption. Look in the mirror and look at yourselves,” Mahama said.
In a swift Facebook response, Dr. Bawumia opined President Mahama is only “embarrassing himself” as a leader who is “poorly briefed.”
According to him, the cost of the redenomination was made public as far back as 2007 and for Mahama to dare him to disclose the cost is “another demonstration of incompetence” on his part.
Below is Bawumia’s full response on his official Facebook wall:
“Mr. President, care to read?
“Today’s request for disclosure on the 2007 redenomination is another demonstration of incompetence. Apart from the fact that the Governor disclosed the cost as far back as 2007, if the President really wanted to find out the cost of the redenomination, he could simply have asked his VEEP who was Bank of Ghana Governor, especially when the President was Head of the Economic Management Team.
“Such petty propaganda should be beneath someone of the stature of a President. It is clear he is very poorly briefed, but when a President decides to join the bandwagon of propaganda , he only ends up embarrassing himself.
“Moving on, can the President (with the same zeal) and his Economic Management Team respond to the 170 statements contained in my last lecture?”
Meanwhile, a Daily Graphic report on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 quoted a former Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Paul Acquah, to have said at a press conference that the Central Bank spent a total of $66.2 million – about GH¢62.188 million on the redenomination exercise.
He said the figure represented a saving of $28 million, if compared with the $94.8 million spent in 2003 and 2006 to replace worn out notes and coins and top up the existing currency in circulation.
Answering questions from journalists at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, Dr Acquah said the expenditure covered the total cost of the re-denomination exercise, including the printing and minting of Ghana cedi notes and coins and the multimedia campaign, among others.
“I prefer to call it savings because we now have to spend less to annually top up or replace currency in circulation,” Dr Acquah explained in the report.
