Sophia Akuffo, former Chief Justice has bemoaned the inclusion of pensioners in the government debt exchange programme (DDEP).
She said that the Akufo-Addo government was very tactless when it came to including the elderly in the program.
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She said that the Akufo-Addo government was very tactless when it came to including the elderly in the program.
She said: “I find this wicked; I find it disrespectful; I find it unlawful; I find it totally wrong. Period. Because you don’t solve your problems by sacrificing your aged. That’s the last thing you should do especially when we don’t have any services that are specially geared at the comfort and the relief of the aged”.
“There are quite a number of people here today, who retired last year, last two years. When they retired, they put everything into government bonds and now all of a sudden, you virtually want to, at gunpoint, force them to agree with you that the repayment of their investment or yields of their investments should be as you dictate it. Why?
“Why are we in the mess we are in, nobody has fully explained it to us, yes debts, we took debts, what was it used for? Where is the accountability? You are not telling us about how you are going to make things better but just ‘help me and I’ll help you’ no, you help yourself first.
“Let me see you doing something serious because we’ve seen these sorts of things for a very long time. I’m over 70 now, and I’m no longer a government employee. My mouth has been ungagged and I’m talking and I’m saying what I feel and it is important that, the elderly in this nation,” she explained.
She said that while she will not be affected by the government’s DDEP, she finds it wrong that the government is sacrificing the interests of pensioners – who have sacrificed for Ghana, just to government can deal with government welfare problems. economy.
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“This is just by God’s grace that I’m not included and it’s very heart-breaking to see people of, particularly, this age group – some are a bit older than me, some are somewhat a bit younger than me, but these are all people who have worked, worked very hard. They could have left the country when others were leaving, they left, they stayed, they worked for the nation and we’ve had our ups and downs and everything but bit by bit.
“A lot of us are from the generation where you were encouraged to save for tomorrow. We’ve been through times when all your savings become nonsense because of some government policy. Then over the years, bit by bit, people have become more confident in the economy, in investments and all that,” she added.
She pointed out that it is illegal for the government to promote the scheme, including for the benefit of retirees already invested in bonds.
