Government scolds CDG for concocting disdainful claims
Government Spokesperson on Governance & Legal Affairs, Herbert Krapa has poured scorn on claims by political think tank, the Centre for Democratic Governance (CDG), that President Akufo-Addo has spent a fortune of state funds to renovate his private residence.
The Chief Convener of CDG, Dr Ebenezer K. Hayford in a statement last week said the President had spent GH¢9.5 million to renovate his private residence, as well as breaching moral and spiritual obligations for failing to create jobs for the jobless masses.
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But in a rejoinder to the article posted on Graphic Online, Mr. Krapa says while the government welcomes genuine criticisms aimed at getting it to better its performance and improve on the lives of the people, there is need for honesty in the exercise particularly from persons claiming neutrality.
He said CDG’s statement was without recourse to data or empirical research and was “full of inaccuracies and outright fabrications” that aimed at courting public disdain for President Akufo-Addo and his government.
According to Herbert Krapa, President Akufo-Addo has not renovated his house ever since he became President on January 7, 2017 and for a think tank to allege same and proceed to concoct an amount that was used for such phantom renovation is the height of academic and political dishonesty.
On CDG’s claims that the government is not creating jobs but is instead worsening the joblessness situation in the country, the Government Spokesperson on Governance & Legal Affairs said the evidence on the ground points to the contrary and questioned the motivation of the convenor.
Below is the full rejoinder
RE: AKUFO-ADDO’S ADMINISTRATION WILL CREATE 2.4 MILLION JOBLESS PEOPLE- CDG
You carried a story on your online portal with the above heading on Monday 7th May 2018. We wish to react to the story and say as follows:
The story and attached press statement are full of inaccuracies and outright fabrications, aimed at courting public disdain for the President and his government. It is mind boggling, that a think-tank will release a statement that makes such huge allegations without recourse to data or empirical research.
1. President Akufo-Addo has not renovated his house ever since he became President on January 7th 2017. For a think tank to allege same and proceed to concoct an amount that was used for such phantom renovation is the height of academic and political dishonesty.
2. The Chief Convener of the CDG is laughable when he suggests that President Akufo-Addo should emulate President Mahama. Who bequeathed the unemployment situation that he alludes to in the first place? How can he in one breath argue that there is massive unemployment and at the same time say that President Mahama resolved the unemployment challenges? He means that all unemployed people in our country only became unemployed from 2017? Amazing! When the NPP came to power, there was a backlog of unemployed nurses from 2012-2016. Over 16,000 of them have been employed. President Akufo-Addo’s government has engaged over 33,160 teaching and non-teaching staff in the GES since last year.
3. The political colouration of the Convener of the CDG becomes obvious when he credits President Mahama with the creation of the National Youth Employment Programme, a programme every Ghanaian knows was created and established by the NPP under President Kufuor. His dishonesty is further betrayed when he states that “sixteen months down the lane, there is no concept for jobs.” Perhaps he never saw and never read the NPP manifesto. But it is important to remind him that the NPP manifesto is titled “An Agenda for Jobs” precisely because his icon, President Mahama left a huge legacy of joblessness and which is why the Ghanaian people bought into the NPP manifesto. Every programme that the NPP manifesto designed is meant to create jobs, including the Nation Builders Corps, which is set to engage 100,000 Diploma and Degree holders. Indeed, in just three days of registration, more than 40,000 graduates have signed up.
4. It is clear that the Convener of the CDG has not traveled beyond Accra and so regurgitates NDC propaganda as fact. There is no Eastern Corridor road and it is the commitment of the Akufo-Addo government to fix that road. Again there are no cocoa roads that were constructed by President Mahama and we challenge the convener of the CDG to name the cocoa roads that were built by his mentor.
5. It is ironic that it is President Mahama’s admirer who talks about children who fall out from JHS to SHS. Because of the Free SHS programme, 100,000 more students have been able to enter SHS than when his mentor was President.
6. Perhaps what is even amazing and mind boggling, is that a think-tank re-produces blog material, which has since been discredited, and presents it as fact. He alludes to the fake blog that put out fake news to the effect that the Vice President had been to London and denied that the NPP promised one million dollars per constituency. That piece has since been exposed for what it is- fake news. Honing in on the substantive allegation made with respect to this issue, it must be emphasized that contracts have been awarded around the country under the one million dollars per constituency programme. And these contracts have created employment opportunities to various categories of artisans.
7. A cursory observation of the statement from Dr. Hayford and his team clearly indicates that either he was far removed from reality when President Mahama was in office so could not witness the paralytic leadership he exhibited or he is relying heavily on President Mahama’s famous allusion to the point that Ghanaians lack retentive memories so they forget easily, and for that matter, we all have forgotten the crass incompetence central to his reign, so we can be swayed by these fairy tales being presented as the gospel truth. Ghanaians know better, and therefore, cannot be hoodwinked into swallowing these massaged figures and palpable falsehoods. No think-tank worth its salt would engage in such deviant and aberrant fabrications and insinuations just to score cheap political points for the opposition NDC.
While government welcomes genuine criticisms aimed at getting it to better its performance and improve on the lives of the people, we entreat especially, people who wear the coat of “neutrality” to show finesse and honesty and follow the rules of academic neutrality when they purport to do an academic exercise of criticizing government.
