First Cousin of Finance disinherited from Cabinet
Ken will finally have to stop borrowing everyone’s stuff.
Marian Ansah
President Nana Akufo-Addo has bowed to pressure and sacked his finance minister (and cousin) Ken Ofori-Atta – interrupting a multi-generation tradition of nepotism among the Akufo-Addo/Ofori-Atta families.
Ofori-Atta’s father, Jones Ofori-Atta, a brother to Akufo-Addo’s mother, served as deputy finance minister during the presidency of Edward Akufo-Addo, Nana’s father.
Ofori-Atta Junior has struggled to steer an economy unmoored by the Covid pandemic. He introduced unpopular taxes, such as a 1.5% tax on electronic transactions and bank transfers, and took a $3-billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund, among other loans.
The rise in national debt saw Ghana’s international credit rating tank and at one point the cedi became the world’s worst performing currency.
The fallout from these disasters reverberated through the public, Parliament and even the governing party.
In November, 98 legislators from the ruling New Patriotic Party threatened to boycott Ofori-Atta’s 2023 budget reading.
A month later, Parliament attempted to censure him, while on the streets and online, Ghanaians were calling for his sacking, using the hashtag #KenMustGo.
Taking his seat will be his former deputy, Mohammed Amin Adam, who will have to negotiate with Ghana’s creditors to restructure some of the debt.
Akufo-Addo also dropped his roads and health ministers, and 11 other cabinet members who were either fired or shuffled to different posts. But that has not quieted calls for his own resignation.
“The best way to end the suffering and hardships of Ghanaians would have been for both President Akufo-Addo and Vice-President Alhaji Bawumia to resign,” said the leader of opposition in Parliament, Cassiel Ato Forson. “This government has been characterised by excessive borrowing, unsustainable debt, an economic crisis, high appetite for taxes, poor governance, reckless wasteful expenditures, syphoning of state resources... as well as state capture by family and friends of the president and his vice.”
