I’ll expose one ‘Bawumia lie’ every venue – Veep Amissah Arthur

Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur has vowed to expose Dr. Mahamud Bawumia, presidential running mate of the New Patriotic Party, (NPP) for what he says are blatant lies the latter had told at a recent public lecture.

And he intends to do this by exposing one lie per every venue he has opportunity to speak henceforth.

Vice President Arthur threw the challenge Saturday during the 2016 campaign manifesto launch of the ruling National Democratic Congress in Sunyani, and said nearly every line of Dr. Bawumia’s lecture address contained a lie.

Calling Dr Bawumia names like “Some Doctor”, “Dr. B” and “Opana’s Younger Brother”, the Vice President said the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana does not appear to know that the same amount five years ago, cannot hold the same value today, but goes about using nominal figures as basis for comparison of economic performance.

He drew the analogy of a house owner who had sold his house at GH¢25,000. When five years later and as a result of new developments in the area another house owner sold his own in the same area for GH¢100,000, the first owner became furious and went to the man who had bought his house with the GH¢25,000 to take his house back because he felt cheated.

A section of the crowds at the Sunyani Coronation Park who witnessedf the manifesto launch. Photo by Emmanuel Baah

“It became a big quarrel between the two families. Now that is what “Some Doctor”, “Dr. B” and “Opana’s Younger Brother”, that’s what he is saying. He doesn’t know that 25,000 cedis today cannot buy that house that cost 25,000 cedis 15 years ago, so he comes back and tells us that today’s cedis is equal to the cedis last ten years, eight years ago and so you compare them, as I said, in nominal terms. All of us who studied economics know that nominal and real are different things, that one cedi today will buy less than one cedi bought ten years ago. So you can’t say one cedi then is equivalent to one cedi today.” 

Vice President Amissah Arthur called Dr. Bawumia’s analysis a ‘spurious analysis’ and questioned how he came to the conclusion that in the eight years of the New Patriotic Party administration under President John Agyekum Kufuor, there was 459 per cent increase in Ghana’s GDP.

“If even the economy improves by eight per cent a year, you only double that GDP in nine years, ask anybody to calculate it. If the GDP grows by eight per cent per annum, the economy will double in nine years. How is it possible that the economy that was not growing at eight per cent (but) at three per cent, four per cent and so on, that in eight years some doctor is saying that it grew by almost 500 per cent? It is not possible, he is using figures to deceive us.”

The usually composed, non-abrasive Vice President Amissah Arthur said when he first hinted at responding to Dr. Bawumia’s comments, a former colleague of his at the University of Ghana called to advise him take Dr. Bawumia on on a political platform because he was not engaged in an economics exercise but was doing politics that needed a political response. 

“So I have decided that everywhere we go I’ll take one of his lies and explain to you why they are lies. So don’t believe what you read, because I got a copy of the things he read three days ago. When I read it, every line there is a lie there, I can destroy that lie.”

Listen to the Vice President in the attached audio

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