A former Deputy Finance Minister and Member of Parliament for Obuasi West in the Ashanti Region, Kwaku Kwarteng, has said that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) must bear part of the responsibility for Ghana's current economic challenges.

According to him, although the economic problems did not start with the NPP, the party missed opportunities for reforms that could have helped reset the nation's economy, and admitting its role is one sure way to better engage with the electorate and to assure of its readiness to right the wrongs.

He said doing so affords the party a better opportunity to win the December elections.

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Kwaku Kwarteng therefore urged his party to be honest and admit their role in contributing to the current situation.

Speaking on Joy FM Super Morning Show, Mr. Kwarteng said that “It is also important that if we are going to solve this problem well, we put it in context, that it is an economic management culture we have lived with for so long, and that it is not just changing a government or a political party that would change it. It calls for a certain new mindset in the way the political classes relate to the resources of the country, and that is the kind of discussion I want us to have.”

Mr. Kwarteng said that despite raising this concern as the elections approach, he wants the NPP to evaluate their actions over the past decades.

He emphasised that the political class has failed in their responsibility to provide the quality leadership needed to bring prosperity to Ghanaians.

“If the NPP would recognise that, and that is not to say it is just the NPP, the previous government, and all, if we can make them acknowledge it, then we can now say, ‘Going forward, things would be different.”

“If we do that and we sell the message in a credible, honest, transparent way, there is no way we would not win the next elections, he said.”