Mo Ibrahim's Survey On Governance 'Very Unfair' To Ghana - Bawa

The NDC Parliamentary Candidate for Bongo, Edward Bawa has expressed his reservations over the recent Mo Ibrahim Index on Governance. According to him, the survey was an "unfair" one about Ghana and failed to depict the true state of the country's economy. A summary of the report said that "even if Ghana and South Africa feature in the top ten performing countries in overall governance in 2015, they are also the eighth and tenth most deteriorated over the decade". Ghana retained the previous rank of 7th in the 2015 Mo Ibrahim Index but slipped on three of four indicators over the last 10 years. The Index seeks to measure the performance of countries by assessing how countries provide the needs of citizens regarding their political, economic, and social desires. The foundation, owned by Sudanese multi-millionaire businessman Mo Ibrahim revealed the latest rankings on Monday, October 3, rating Ghana 7th on overall governance. Even though Ghana scored 63.9 out of 100 for the year under review, the trend for the past decade saw a decline of 2.1. According to the detailed report released by the foundation, Ghana recorded an increase in the participation and human rights indicator with a score of 72.1 and a rank of 4th out of 54 countries. A look at the trend for the past decade shows an increase of 0.1. For sustainable economic opportunity, Ghana ranked 15th and scored 39.1 with the decade trend showing a decline of 4.2. Under the human development category, Ghana ranked 11th, scoring 64.2. The country also recorded a decline of 1.6 over the past decade. Ghana recorded 70.0 and ranked sixth in the area of safety and rule of law but recorded a decline of 2.6 for the past decade. Speaking on Peace FM's Kokrokoo, Edward Bawa noted that the economic indicator factors by the government show that the economy is booming under the Mahama administration. He cited that Ghana's poverty rate has seen a gradual reduction under the current administration. He further added that the country's literacy rate has also improved and these are all factors that culminate in the growth of the economy. “From 2008 to 2015, we have made progress in that area. When you take 2008, our adult literacy rate was 50.7. In 2015, it is 76.6%...I wouldn’t be expecting Mo Ibrahim to tell me that it’s something different. And these are things that are verifiable. So, when someone tells me that you’re retrogressing and I see these figures; I have a different opinion about it.” Mr. Bawa also noted, among other factors, that Ghana's per capita income has hiked up which is indicative that country is progressing, contrary to the facts given by Mo Ibrahim. "...the figures have improved by 5.9% in terms of our per capita income. If you take a country like Senegal; if you take a country like Cote D’Ivoire, we’re ahead of them in terms of per capita income.” He therefore held strongly that “generally, their (Mo Ibrahim) primary source of information they got may have been very misleading. So, it was not fair to Ghana in the face of other factors that we have achieved."

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana