COVID/Ukraine War Excuse Bogus-TUC Jabs Gov’t For Economic Collapse

General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Yaw Baah, has pooh-poohed the Akufo-Addo government’s blame of the bad state of the economy on the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian/Ukraine war.

Speaking at the Organized Labour pre-May Day Forum recently, Dr. Baah pointed out that the economy was already in a mess before the pandemic broke in 2019 and subsequently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“… Before Ukraine and Covid in Ghana was not too good, especially with employment, therefore nobody should hide behind Covid and Ukraine to say that Ghana is in this his state because of these two events, we will not accept that this year, therefore, what is due us will come to us,” he said.

The Akufo-Addo government has been explaining itself away that the poor state of Ghana’s economy, with fast depreciating cedi and high prices, is due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But excuse has long been debunked by the World Bank which has pointed out that the economy was already on a downhill before COVID happened in 2020.

Recently, the Russian embassy has also warned the government to stop dragging their country’s name in their blame game.

The root of the economic crisis is the huge public debt, low investment in social infrastructure and a shortage of foreign exchange due to investors refusing to lend to Ghana due to fear that because of the country’s high debt, Ghana is not likely to be able to pay if they lend to it.

Meanwhile, the TUC General Secretary pointed out that the wildly depreciating local currency and runaway inflation are rendering Ghanaians poor and worsening the plight of Ghanaian workers.

“If (the) exchange rate is behaving the way we are seeing it, it shows very much in our pocket and nobody should tell us…because just go to the pharmacy you will see that prices go up every day and these are medicines,” Dr. Baah stated.

“… go to the market the food prices are going up every day and these are the conditions we have found ourselves in and you know it is very easy to blame the Covid and Ukraine war for this,” he said.

Meanwhile, members of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association Ghana (CLOGSAG) have been on strike since Thursday, April 21, over the inability of the government to pay their neutrality allowance.

In a statement it issued, CLOGSAG directed all its members at the Ministries Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) as well as the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to stop going to work because the government had failed to honour an agreement they had with them, on January 20, 2022, to pay the allowance.