Dr. Gideon Boako, the Economic Advisor and Spokesperson at the Office of the Vice President, has indicated that Felix Kwakye Ofosu, a former Deputy Communications Minister under the Mahama administration is losing sight because of what he describes as “Bawumia phobia.”
According to him, if one is not careful, “Bawumia phobia” will cause people including the failed NDC Parliamentary Candidate for Abura Asebu Kwamankese Constituency to behave as if they never went to school.
Felix Kwakye Ofosu in a Facebook post wrote that he was compelled to dispel a total fabrication by the Vice President that his government had recruited 750,000 public sector workers including nurses, doctors, security personnel among others.
But this was totally contradictory as the 2022 budget presented to Parliament by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta said, almost 300,000 public sector workers had been employed.
“A couple of months ago, I was compelled to dispel a total fabrication by the Vice President that his government had recruited “750,000” public sector workers including nurses, doctors, security personnel among others.
“I adduced evidence from the budget and other sources which showed that those claims were completely false.
“Paragraph 32 on page 13 of the 2022 budget has put the final nail in the Vice President’s coffin of lies about public sector employment. The Finance Minister clearly states that “almost 300,000” public sector workers had been employed. Of course, he includes projected figures for 2021 which can only be verified in next year’s budget,” Kwakye Ofosu’s post read.
In a reaction, Dr. Boako said, Felix Kwakye Ofosu is getting the whole thing wrong because “key essential services sector” cannot be the same as the entire public sector.
"This Bawumia phobia eerr, if you are not careful it will cause you to behave as if you never went to school. See how a hasty attempt to malign Vice President Bawumia has caused Felix Kwakye Ofosu to lose sight of the fact that ‘key essential services sector’ cannot be same as the entire public sector."
He explained in a series of posts on his Facebook timeline that, “the said paragraph he refers to in the budget talks about 300,000 jobs in the key essential services sector and you are here saying the claim by the Vice President that nearly 750,000 jobs have been created in the public sector is false.”
Dr. Boako questioned, “How can he not know that the key essential services sector is just a part of the total public sector and that the latter would have a composite number higher than the former?
“Does this response address the fact that you missed the point on the difference in total public sector jobs and key essentials services sector jobs?”
He noted that, since the NPP government came into office, the government has consistently talked about the creation of 750,000 jobs in the public sector.
“Out of this, paragraph 32 of the budget highlights how many of them are in the key essentials services sector and puts the number at 300,000. The two cannot be forced to be the same. Just get this,” he stressed.
