Razak Kojo Opoku
By Razak Kojo Opoku
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has listed a number of fake promises which shall not make John Dramani Mahama President again in Ghana. The promises articulated by inexperienced Sammy Gyamfi are very empty, poor in thoughts, and lack quantitative and qualitative understanding.
Firstly, John Mahama lacks the trustworthiness, integrity and credibility to pay all customers of the collapsed financial institutions and restore indigenous Ghanaian participation in the financial Sector.
It is important to state that the collapse of all financial institutions were caused by the mismanagement, wasteful and incompetent leadership of the Mahama administration. It took the bold intervention of President Akufo-Addo’s government to safeguard the funds of depositors, as well as save indigenous banks such as UMB, Prudential Bank, CBG, Agricultural Development Bank, National Investment Bank, among others.
Mr Mahama miserably failed to pay customers of DKM and others which collapsed in 2015. It took a trustworthy Akufo-Addo to address the concerns of the customers of DKM and others.
Size of government
What NDC failed to appreciate and understand is that it is not about the size of a government that matters, but rather the ability to sustain value for money, avoidance of wastage and the ability to minimize corruption related practices. You can run a government with only two people and still collapse the productive sectors of the economy, to the detriment of Ghanaians.
It is very important to remind NDC that former President Mills declared on campaign platforms around the country to work with a smaller government in a bid to cut down on protocol spending. Interestingly, he ended up having a very large government than his predecessor, John Agyekum Kufuor, but with little achievements to boast of before his sad demise. When John Mahama took over from Professor Mills, he even escalated the size of Government. Categorically, the wastage of resources and misplaced political appointments under John Mahama surpassed all his predecessors.
Free TVET
This is the same political party that was, and still is, against the Free Senior High School policy. How can they be promising free Technical and Vocational Education (TVET)? Where and how are they going to fund the free TVET? Why and when do they intend to implement free the TVET?
Mr Mahama should note that President Akufo-Addo has already included TVET as part of his topnotch agenda to run concurrently with the Free SHS policy.
The promise to institute a National Apprenticeship Programme is just a political jargon without any sense of commitment. How many jobs and industries NDC established during their 27 years in power?
The proposed National Apprenticeship Programme by the NDC is a plagiarized version of the Presidential Pitch Programme and the Business Resource Centre (BRC).
The BRC is mandated to promote and support the national industrialization agenda of the Akufo-Addo government, and serve as a one-stop shop for business development, job creation and investment.
The Presidential Pitch Programme by Akufo-Addo’s government is aimed at creating and raising indigenous entrepreneurs for the country, thereby expanding job opportunities for the youth.
Taxes and health
When and where did the NDC suddenly obtain the wisdom to scrap taxes? When and how did NDC and John Mahama suddenly realize that killer taxes affect the cost of living and the cost of doing business in Ghana? As a matter of fact, John Mahama’s administration has no moral right and justification to talk about taxes when he introduced the worst killer taxes ever seen in the 4th Republic without value for money. The Communication Service Tax (CST) is contributing positively to sustainability of the major projects and programmes of Akufo-Addo’s administration.
Akufo-Addo’s government has already assured the good people of Ghana the construction of regional hospitals in the six newly created regions and regions without a proper regional hospital.
The government has already announced the construction of hospitals in every district of Ghana, beginning with the construction of 88 across the country.
The proposed “Onipa Nua” hospital ship by the NDC is a very big scam just like the NHIS one-time premium policy promised by the NDC in 2008. NDC wasted eight years in office without any commitment to the NHIS one-time premium policy.
John Mahama’s government wasted 5.5million dollars to procure “Onuador” mobile ambulances without any consideration for the medical needs and emergency needs of the National Ambulance Service.
The current government has already commenced the construction of international standard Infectious Disease Isolation and Treatment Facility, funded by the Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund. More of such facilities are going to be constructed across the country to even serve other African countries who lack the capacity to construct such facilities.
Plans are also far advanced to begin the construction of more medical research centres to complement the efforts of Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR).
Weak ideas
Abolishing of the double-track system of secondary education is one of the laziest and dumb approaches in the midst of COVID-19.
The coronavirus pandemic has taught us to utilize the virtual model of teaching and learning. Every sensible government is planning on how best to utilize technological solutions to help students as a result of the unexpected pandemic.
Moreover, it is important to point out to the NDC that there are massive infrastructural drives taking place in the various senior high schools under President Akufo-Addo. The double-track was a short term solution to the overwhelming rise in enrollments as the result of the Free SHS policy.
The government has already committed to the establishment of university campuses in each of the six newly created regions.
It is only a shallow mind who thinks that national service to the state, and professional license exams for teachers are not good policies. Who cancelled allowance for teacher trainees?
In all humility, NDC under John Mahama is gradually becoming a very useless organisation which easily forget their own atrocities. Who cancelled allowance for trainee-nurses? It took President Akufo-Addo to employ about 70, 000 nurses who were jobless under the incompetent Mahama.
Cocoa farmers are already enjoying free quality cocoa fertilizer and chemicals under President Akufo-Addo. This year, cocoa farmers would be enjoying unprecedented rise in cocoa price. The Eastern corridor roads, Aflao, Cape Coast and Kumasi roads are already receiving attention under the ‘Year of Roads’ policy of President Akufo-Addo.
The NDC wasted eight years without completion of Eastern Corridor roads, with no interchange in Volta Region, with no dual roads in Aflao, and finally completion of Kumasi-Accra Road.
When it comes to corruption and nepotism, I will not waste time to even list the number of gargantuan corrupt and nepotistic cases under John Mahama’s administration.
NDC wasted eight years without resourcing the Births and Death Registry, not to even talk about National Identification Authority which are critical institutions of improving the national population register.
In conclusion, John Mahama and NDC totally lack the track record, credibility, integrity, commitment, dignity and honesty to implement any of the campaign promises articulated by inexperienced Sammy Gyamfi, NDC National Communications Officer.
