Parliament allowed Akufo-Addo’s excessive borrowing – Haruna Iddrisu

Minister of Education and Member of Parliament for Tamale South, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, has blamed Ghana’s debt crisis on Parliament’s failure to restrain excessive borrowing under former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, 22nd October,2025, the former Minority Leader said Parliament’s weak oversight had contributed to the country’s economic woes by allowing the Executive to accumulate unsustainable levels of debt.

“The day the Parliament of Ghana will sit right, the Ghanaian people will smile,” Mr. Iddrisu declared. “A lot of the wrongs in this country exist because Parliament sits and allows it.”

He stressed the need for institutional reforms to strengthen Parliament’s independence and give greater voice to the opposition.

“I kept telling them to declare a ‘Minority Day’ in the standing orders of this House and that that day must be solely reserved as a Minority Day,” he said. “The best way to enrich democracy is to have the views of the other side, the opposite side of the aisle.”

Mr. Iddrisu said the country’s debt troubles were a direct result of Parliament’s failure to impose borrowing limits on the Executive.

“Forgive me, Mr. Speaker, I heard former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in Brussels lamenting about excessive borrowing and what debt exchange has done to him—the ‘darkest hour’,” he stated. “How did the darkest hour happen? It is because Parliament failed to limit him—that yes, you have the power, but don’t borrow excessively.”

At the AU-EU High-Level Seminar in Brussels earlier this month, Akufo-Addo described Ghana’s debt restructuring under the G20 Common Framework as “my darkest and most painful hour.”

He said the process inflicted severe hardship on citizens, particularly pensioners and small investors, and exposed the economy’s overreliance on debt.

Mr. Iddrisu reiterated his support for empowering backbench MPs to strengthen legislative scrutiny.

“I wholeheartedly support that we give backbenchers an opportunity,” he said, arguing that only a vigilant Parliament can prevent future fiscal mismanagement.