A Sudanese-British mobile communications entrepreneur and billionaire, Dr Mo Ibrahim, has urged Ghana to reduce the level of political temperature as the country gears up for the polls in December.
Describing Ghana as a wonderful country and one of his favourites, he said there was the tendency to take politics to some extreme as if the lives of Ghanaians depended only on politics.
Speaking to some selected journalists from West, East, Central and Southern Africa via a teleconference, Dr Ibrahim called for cool heads in the debate of issues as the country prepared for the December 7, polls.
The teleconference was beamed from the United Kingdom (UK) for him to interact with journalists and also throw more light on the 2016 Mo Ibrahim Index that was released last Monday.
On the economic front, he said some mistakes were committed that resulted in a financial crunch in Ghana.
Ghana’s economy
“I think you try to spend the oil money before the oil actually comes out,” he said.
Dr Ibrahim posited that the fundamentals of the Ghanaian economy were in place but there was the need for “a better fiscal management.”
He said the annual reports by his foundation were not aimed at naming or shaming any government but to showcase the strengths and weaknesses of African countries for the appropriate interventions to be taken.
While some countries were doing better, he said others were not doing well and that it was important that countries learned from the experiences of each other.
Credibility
There was the need, he said, for governments to be evaluated by their delivery and added that that would help governments to rule better and the citizenry would also feel included in the governance process.
Answering a question on the credibility of the foundation’s annual reports, Dr Ibrahim said credibility for the foundation was very crucial and for which reason it ensured that every data it placed in the public domain was arrived at through authentic and undisputed means.
“Every number or data that we put out there is very credible. We cannot lie. We must let the world know that we are credible and would not want to cut corners,” he added.
South Sudan
Commenting on the situation in South Sudan where he comes from, he said the current situation in that country was of very serious concern to him.
“And it is extremely sad to see the leadership of that country fighting and dividing the country along ethnic lines. Tens of thousands have been killed, tens of thousands of women have been raped and this is totally unacceptable,” he said.
The fighting in that country, he said, was not about ideology but about “people who can steal and kill. I believe those guys all should end up at the Criminal Court in the Hague. They are all criminals.”
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