Sophia Akuffo, a retired Chief Justice has hit back at Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta over what she says is a forceful inclusion of pension bondholders in the Domestic Debt Exchange Program.
According to her, calls by the finance minister to pension bondholders and others to sacrifice are misplaced as she argues that the minister and government have failed to demonstrate that they are sacrificing to merit sacrifices from the people.
“He [Ken Ofori Atta] should show us his sacrifices, he should show us the State’s sacrifices. In any case, I don’t think anyone has a right to demand sacrifice from anybody. Sacrifice is a voluntary thing that you choose to do. Even with our relationship with God, he doesn’t force us to sacrifice, we are to go willingly. I haven’t seen any sacrifice to merit my sacrifice or to encourage anybody to make this sacrifice, Madam Sophia Akuffo told journalists.
Having joined other pension bondholders to picket the finance ministry, the former CJ stressed that the current economic situation in the country was avoidable if the government had good plans on how to repay the loans that have been procured since the assumption of office of the government.
“The Economy will not collapse and if it collapses he will be the one who caused it. When it was happening, he didn’t see? I know that when you go for a loan you would have planned how you were going to pay that loan. You shouldn’t enjoy being in debt, those who go borrowing go as sorrowing but I’m not going to join that sorrowing,” she added.
Notwithstanding the strong calls by the pension bondholders to be exempted from the DDEP, Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta insists they cannot be excluded as the deadline for signing up for the program expired Tuesday, February 7, 2023.
The government in a late-night press statement said some of the bondholders faced technical glitches as they tried to complete the online tender process hence there was a window to enable such persons to complete the process. A three-day extension also expired on Friday February 10, 2023.
