Ghana's opposition slams Mahama's State of the Nation

DW: In his State of the Nation address to parliament, Ghana's President John Mahama has said he will fix the country's worsening energy crisis and has promised to add additional capacity to the electricity grid. Paul Afoko, you're chairman of the opposition party, NPP, and your party has been protesting against power shortages in Ghana. What do you make of President Mahama's promise to solve the problem?

Paul Afoko: What I would say is that the energy problems that we face in the country today are just a symptom of a deeper malaise. And that deeper malaise has more to do with proper management of our economy, good governance and corruption. It is not only the energy sector that is in trouble. It is almost every sector you can think of.

I was more interested in the other measures [Mahama] was talking about in terms of reviving the economy and fighting corruption. Energy problems, how corruption harms infrastructure – all of these are just symptoms of a deeper malaise.

Having said that, he outlined the stop-gap measures that he's going to put in place. I welcome it. As a member of the opposition, as the chairman of the largest party, I welcome it. ButI am doing this with a view to making sure that my compatriots are spared the hardship we are going through at the moment.

Ghana has reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a three year one-billion-dollar aid package to help it return to fiscal stability. Final approval of the package is not expected until April, but what do you make of this deal as it stands at the moment?

I don't know the details, but everybody knows that IMF packages come with conditionalities. I don't know what these conditionalities are. But we all know that these one billion dollars are not the solution to our problems. After all, we are in the seventh year of an National Democratic Congress (NDC) government. For seven years they have borrowed tens of billions of dollars and we are where we are. Therefore, I would say that the benefit of the one billion dollars may lie in the fact that the IMF and World Bank will be exercising supervision over the way the economy is run. Maybe that is where the solution lies and not in the one billion itself.

So what needs to be done to restore health to Ghana's economy?

As I said, management of our economy - proper, efficient, effective management – uprooting corruption as far as possible and good governance. These are the things that will bring our economy into shape and keep it in shape, as opposed to the boom and bust, boom and bust.

Paul Afoko is chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Ghana.

Interview: Mark Caldwell