The persistent complaints emanating from the opposition New Patriotic Party, especially its Members of Parliament, about piling debt is not because they are concerned about Ghana, but rather they are worried their chances of coming back to power are becoming slimmer by the day as the government uses the loans to embark on massive infrastructural development, Mr Fifi Kwetey has said. The Deputy Finance and Economic Planning Minister said this in reaction to renewed concerns raised by a former Deputy Finance Minister under the Kufuor regime, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu about the rate at which the government is borrowing. Mr Agyeman-Manu claims the NDC government had in less than three years borrowed more than the debt accumulated over the entire eight-year period of former president John Kufuor. “Madam [Speaker], I’ve taken pains to go through parliamentary approvals for loans that we have approved between 2009 and 2011. Madam I’ll give just a summary, the STX and all those things are inside here. Madam in 2009 we approved [loan agreements] of $1.9 billion, 2010 we approved $4.08 billion, 2011 to the end of March, we have approved $2.8 billion. That excludes the ones that we are considering even before we rise tomorrow,” he emphasized. By his calculation, the government has so far contracted $8.9 billion which he thinks is not a sustainable path to trek. “Madam [Speaker], by close of 2008 this country owed – both domestic and foreign debt - $8 billion; from Kwame Nkrumah’s time, 54 years of independence, the total debt stock that we had was $8.0 billion as at December 2008. In two-and-a-half years, Madam, we have approved for government to take $8.9 billion and we haven’t even finished,” he noted. The NPP MP for Dormaa West believes the nation is being overburdened with debt because of the government’s insatiable thirst for loans. But his current opposite, Fifi Kwetey disagrees, saying the NPP’s motives are clear; “Their real worry is not about the quantum of loans at all; their real worry actually has more to do with the fear that these loans that are being contracted – that are specifically designed largely for the transformation of this nation’s infrastructure – is going to be a nail in their political coffin.” “All this talk about, they are worried about debt, they are worried about the quantum,” he added, “is simply red herring.” He argued the actual motivation of the NPP was to attempt to frighten the people of Ghana to reject the loans and their attendant infrastructural development in order to pave way for the NPP to come back to power. Story by Malik Abass Daabu/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana