Contrary to propaganda reality on ground is different — Nana Akufo-Addo
The Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said that contrary to the propaganda being churned out by the President Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government that it has undertaken unprecedented infrastructural development, the reality on the ground is different.
Advertisement
That, he said, was not surprising considering the fact that rather than moving on the ground to ascertain the truth or otherwise of what he claimed to be unprecedented infrastructural development, President Mahama had resorted to the use of helicopters for rallies.
On the other hand, he (Nana Akufo-Addo) had been moving from one constituency to another using the road and had seen at first hand the deplorable conditions of the country’s roads, as well as other huge infrastructural challenges.
Addressing a press conference in lieu of a regional rally, he said after touring the 275 constituencies of the country, a common request that the chiefs and opinion leaders had made on a regular basis was the poor conditions of their roads and the need for schools.
Nana Akufo-Addo was unable to hold a rally in Kumasi because of the passing away of the mother of the Asantehene for which reason there had been a ban on noisemaking.
President Mahama has lost touch
He said it was clear that President Mahama had lost total touch with reality because rather than moving on the ground and touching base with Ghanaians, he had detached himself and was always using a helicopter to every part of the country where the NDC held rallies.
Yet when he (Nana) experienced the difficulties that Ghanaians were facing on the ground and commented on them, President Mahama accused him of sleeping while travelling around.
He said when the NPP mentioned infrastructure, they were not referring to infrastructure as captured in green books but that which “is visible, viable and working for the people.”
He announced the completion of an eastern and western corridor rail system that would open the country up and make sure people and goods could easily connect from Accra through Kumasi to Paga.
“It is a major infrastructural initiative that we are going to take when we are given the opportunity of office in the days to come,” he added.
He made a passionate appeal to the people that on Election Day, no matter what engagements they had, they should endeavour to sacrifice, turn out in their numbers and cast their votes.
Let’s correct our mistake
He said the present state of affairs under which Ghanaians were suffering was because of the failure of many to cast votes for a credible government of the NPP and added that the time had come for that mistake to be corrected.
“Every year, since Mahama became President, the economy of the country keeps shrinking and we need to vote in the NPP to save the economy from total collapse,” he said.
He said the Ashanti Region was the biggest support base of the party and that if all the popular votes in the region were properly harnessed, nothing could stand in the way of a decisive victory in the December 7 polls.
He stated that practical policies would be initiated to revamp the private sector to spearhead the development agenda of the country.
As part of plans to strengthen the private sector, he announced the waiver of taxes on the importation of machinery for the processing of raw materials, reduction in the volume of taxes being paid by businesses and also the institution of measures towards ensuring that the cocoa sector upped its tonnage.
Revamping the agric sector
“Our target within the next four years is to reach 1.6 million tonnes of cocoa export in Ghana,” he stressed.
Under the Kufuor regime, he recounted, four per cent of the annual budget was devoted to the agricultural sector but that had been reduced to less than one per cent under the current government.
He, therefore, pledged to restore the allocation of the four per cent to the agricultural sector “so that we can have the funds to spearhead public interventions in the agricultural sector.”
He said the policies that the NPP had in mind were those that would inure greatly to the benefit of the people of the region for which reason the people should vote massively for the party.