A former presidential aspirant of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwabena Agyepong, has expressed disappointment in President Akufo-Addo for allowing his cousin, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to keep his position after taking Ghana to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Finance Minister had vowed that the government was in control of the economic situation and was never choosing the IMF as a recovery path insisting home-grown solutions were the best alternative.

Shortly after that however, the government announced the decision to seek a bailout of $3 billion.

As a result, many called for the Minister's resignation or removal from office, including some members of the governing party. Nonetheless, that did not happen.

Speaking to Accra-based Starr FM, the one-time General Secretary of the NPP said it was important for the Finance Minister to demonstrate humility by stepping down in the face of obvious failure.

Mr Agyepong posited that in a well-functioning democracy, such actions should have led to a resignation.

He disagreed with the President's decision not to take action and dismiss the Finance Minister.

“He [Ofori-Atta] had stood in front of all Ghanaians and said that we were not going to the IMF and did a full U-turn in a couple of weeks. And I said, in any decent democracy you stand down as a person. He chose not to go, and I disagree with the President for not taking the action to let him go.”

“Months down the line the MPs, how many of them 88 [MPs called for his resignation] so I wasn’t wrong. I was just having that foresight, months down the line. So these are difficult things that as Ghanaians and as party people we have to deal with,” Mr Agyepong said.