Asking me to resign is like ‘telling a father to abandon his children’ – Finance Minister, Ofori-Atta

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has responded to critics calling for his head after government made a U-turn by resorting to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In an exclusive interview with JoyNews during the National Delegates Conference of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), he said he will not resign as others have suggested.

Mr. Ofori-Atta explained that asking him to resign is like “telling a father to resign from his children because he changed his mind.”

According to him, although he earlier felt no need for Ghana to seek IMF support, the impact of the Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war compelled the government to “change his mind” about an IMF bailout.

In the last few days, many Ghanaians, including the Minority in Parliament and Former President John Mahama, have called for the resignation of the Finance Minister.

John Dramani Mahama urgently charged President Akufo-Addo to replace his Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.

In a Facebook post on July 2, John Mahama said Mr Ofori-Atta has already lost his credibility, trust and confidence after he supervised “the disastrous collapse of the economy.”

He added that the Finance Minister should not be added to the team of negotiators engaging the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for economic support.

“In addition, given his obvious failures, the Vice President must be relieved of his responsibility as Chair of the Economic Management Team to enable the President to reconstitute the team.

“We must draw useful lessons from this episode and avoid cheap politicking with the economy that can only yield the disastrous outcomes that have brought us here,” he said.

Also, former Chief of Staff under the Kufour administration, Kwadwo Mpiani believes Ken Ofori-Atta must take a personal decision to resign.

Kwadwo Mpiani is firm in his conviction the utterances of the Finance Minister before the government decided to seek the intervention of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) make him unfit to continue in the role.

“Honestly, if I were the Finance Minister, from my utterances and then what has been happening, I will just go and say Mr President, thank you so much. I think it best for me to sit back for another person to take over’. That will be my personal decision.

“But I am not going to tell any President to drop the Finance Minister or any Minister. That should be left to the President,” he said on Thursday, July 14.