Ghanaians are boiling with anger and will soon run amok against the government should President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his administration fail to change from their poor governance of the country, private legal practitioner, Martin Akpebu has warned.
Mr. Akpebu said the president and his government have misruled the country and tumbled upon the rights of the ordinary Ghanaian for far too long and will soon reap the fruits of this bad governance.
“People see me every day and they tell me ‘look, Martin, you are not angry. We are angrier than you. Just wait, when we show our anger, you will understand’. That’s the Arab Spring coming and President Akufo-Addo will flee without his sandals then he will see that he has really messed up with us for nothing,” he warned.
The human rights activist and legal practitioner made these comments while reacting to the failure of government to pay mature bonds of individual bondholders as promised.
Government had committed to resume payment of matured bonds and outstanding coupons on Monday, March 13, 2023. It, however, failed to resume payments on the said date triggering a reaction from the bondholders.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Coalition of Individual Bondholders demanded the payment of yields due its members within 48 hours.
Later in the evening, the Ministry of Finance released a statement indicating thhat it will pay principals and coupons which matured on the 6th and 13th of February within 48 hours. However, subsequent matured coupons and principals will be paid on a date it didn’t not specified.
But speaking in an interview on Joy FM in Accra in reaction, Mr. Martin described this as a slap on the face of the bondholders.
He said it was unacceptable that government continues to disregard the payment plan and aggravate the hardships it has brought upon the bondholders through its mismanagement of the affairs of the country.
“That sounds a death knell for our members, those in that category because then it means that their plans already having being ruined, they can’t make any readjustment, they can’t plan for the future. So we are just left in the dark”.
He continued, “And that’s not how to run a bond programme. That’s not how to do it. And government has money to pay except that they are not prioritizing bondholders because they think we will always be quiet. But they’re mistaken, the Arab Spring will come”.
