NPP accuses Prez Mahama of phantom, failed promises
The Policy Advisor and Chairman of the Manifesto Committee of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Boakye K. Agyarko, has described President John Dramani Mahama’s achievements as outlined in the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC’s) Green Book and manifesto as a litany of “phantom” and “broken promises”.
Advertisement
He said as an incumbent government that was approaching the end of its second term in office, the expectation would have been for it to make the bid for re-election based on the performance of the past years.
“Instead, we see the NDC making very grandiose promises to Ghanaians of what they would do if re-elected, while staying silent on how their performance in the past is an indicator of how well they will do if re-elected,” he said.
He described the 2016 manifesto of the NDC as “promises made, promises broken and promises repeated”.
Addressing a press conference in Accra in reaction to matters that came up at the launch of the NDC’s manifesto in Sunyani last weekend, Mr Agyarko said the event in Sunyani was an opportunity to make another “avalanche of promises”.
‘A future of more broken promises’
He said a litany of broken promises littered the NDC’s path to Sunyani and that one could only predict the future under another Mahama government by judging from what featured in his recent past performance, saying it would be “a future of promises, lies, excuses and more broken promises”.
Mr Agyarko pointed out to President Mahama that there was no greater fraud than a promise not kept and that “if you succeed in deceiving the electorate, do not take them for fools. Realise that the people of Ghana trusted you more than you deserved”.
In the past four years, he said, Ghanaians had found out the hard way that elections had consequences that might not be pleasant.
“The choices we make on Election Day will not only determine the direction Ghana will be led on for the next four years but also the impact of this stewardship on our country long after the four-year term has ended,” he said.
Bread and butter issues
The NDC, he said, was going all out in the attempt to dumb down the debate towards the December polls by getting the electorate to focus less on bread and butter issues but the NPP, he said, understood politics to be nothing but a competition of innovative ideas to propel the country forward.
“And these ideas can only be successfully executed with the right mix of competence, conviction, discipline and integrity,” values, he added, were alien to President Mahama and the NDC.
What Ghanaians had in President Mahama, he said, was a President who was so out of touch with the problems of the average Ghanaian that he saw his non-performance in all the sectors of the economy as success.
“And, yet, when you speak at random to people around Ghana, it appears their concerns, problems and anxieties are the same. Unemployment, bad roads, the lack of decent and affordable accommodation and the high cost, as well as the falling standards in education and health,” he maintained.
Mr Agyarko said the President would want Ghanaians to believe that if re-elected, he would “ensure equitable development for all our citizens” but the reality was starkly different in that even members of the President’s own party recognised that his better Ghana agenda had been for the benefit of only his family and friends.
A vehicle for amassing wealth
The Presidency, he said, had become a vehicle for amassing wealth for family and friends rather than for looking after the welfare of the masses and that Ghanaians ought to think about the fact that if that had been the attitude of President Mahama in his first four years, then his actions would be worse if he was mistakenly re-elected for his last and final term.
“What then would restrain President John Mahama and his family of corrupt cronies in his last term from pillaging the national coffers? We want to highlight this because it is extremely scary. Let us not make any mistake about it. John Mahama for another four years, unchecked by the threat of losing another presidential election, is an exceptionally frightening prospect,” he maintained.
Having poorly managed the economy and blatantly misused public funds, he said, there was evidence that the NDC government would have no money to fund its new catalogue of promises, adding: “Ghana is broke.”
“What an interesting state of affairs! You campaign with a set of promises. You are voted into office. You borrow billions of dollars. You spend these billions recklessly. You cannot fulfil your promises. Money becomes tight.
“In spite of this, you go on making more grandiose promises to Ghanaians. And behind their backs, you tell those who execute these promises to try and work within a small budget. Only John Mahama, for whom making promises is a way of life, can govern Ghana this way,” he posited.
The only alternative
He said the decision in December would revolve essentially around whether Ghanaians should give President Mahama and the NDC another four years, making a total of 12 straight years in office, or whether Ghanaians would vote for change and bring back the NPP, under the new leadership of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Mr Agyarko assured Ghanaians that in Nana Akufo-Addo, they would have a competent, incorruptible, selfless, honest and compassionate leader and a disciplined team to deliver on the solutions to the nation’s problems.
“Change is coming. Yes we can! Yes we must! But it is up to you and I to make that change happen,” he stressed.