PPP rates state of nation, poor, without leadership
The Progressive People’s Party, PPP, has said that Ghana is still one of the nations made poor by clueless and mediocre leadership.
According to the PPP, the country’s current leaders are
unprepared to meet the challenges of the day with the use of forward looking
vision and self-determination, to overcome the challenges facing the nation.
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The PPP said “Our nation is divided along ethnic lines and
by politics of hate and winner takes all. Ghana is locked in a death struggle
between the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party and which
struggle defined every problem and opportunity in the land.”
In a statement signed by Mr Kofi Asamoah-Siaw, National
Secretary of the PPP, it said the State of the Nation was one where the
leadership was disputed through an election that was discredited and the
results contested in the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court.
It said when the President sidesteps that and said, “Mr
Speaker, our recent Presidential and Parliamentary elections have been adjudged
by both domestic and international observers as by far the most credible,
transparent, free and fair since 1992.
This shows that each step of our democratic journey has been marked by
improvements. As Ghanaians, we must be
proud of this achievement.”, then he wanted to play games with the people and
one that was dangerous.
According to the PPP, there is political tension in the land
and as a result, many business and economic interests are on hold pending the
outcome of the disputed presidential election.
“Whatever the outcome, these four years will not provide the
confidence the presidency needs to push through the kind of agenda needed to
make Ghana a high performing economy,” it stated.
It argued that, the State of the Nation was one coming from
a prior year 2012, where the country inched closer once again to unsustainable
foreign and domestic debt fueled by election spending ostensibly to “buy”
votes.
It further stated that this had made the economy vulnerable
saying Ghana in 2012 had worse-than-expected deficit outturn that triggered a
40 per cent increase in the stock of public debt, which went up from GHC 24
billion (42.6 per cent of GDP) in 2011 to GHC 33.5 billion (46.7 per cent GDP)
in 2012.
“The President John D. Mahama presented a State of the
Nation address that denied this situation and pretended that all is well”, the
PPP stated.
In the view of the party, the State of the Nation was one of high petroleum
prices, unstable power supply and water supply that was at its unreliable
best.
Yet according to the PPP,
the President’s address ignored this situation by not providing a
solution to be relied upon.
It said petroleum pricing was completely ignored by the
President contending that “obviously, he does not have a solution or is
unwilling to confront the impact and effect of the recent rise in petroleum
prices that has imposed hardship of all types on the working poor in Ghana.”
“During the 2012 elections, the PPP promised to implement
national solutions with a sense of urgency.
Now President Mahama has discovered the need for urgency. He talked about adding kindergarten to the
public school system; the election of district chief executives at the local
level; implementing the compulsory element in FCUBE; building a sports facility
in every district; and using the purchasing power of government to support
local enterprises. But we are not buying
any of this. There is no doubt about the
need for fundamental change on all fronts to change our fortunes in Ghana,” the
PPP stated.
In the PPP’s view, the President did not present us the
sincerity that would enable us to believe that he would or could implement
those initiatives and added that a look at the NDC manifesto presented for the
2012 elections showed clearly that the President lacked the foundation strong
enough to compel him to implement those PPP promoted initiatives “with a sense
of urgency”.
The PPP also said the President and the NDC blamed the
difficulties they were facing in managing the economy on the implementation of
the Single Spine Salary Scheme and asked “When in Ghana especially since 1993
did the wage bill not present a challenge to the ruling administration?
“We should say to the NDC, enough of the excuses! Single
Spine did not just happen. Election
spending to buy votes is what has made the economy become precarious and has
put our future in danger despite record levels of government revenue including
the contribution from oil and gas. The
budgetary challenge is gross mismanagement not as the President puts it,” the
PPP stated.
It added that the challenge facing us now was a
misalignment of the expenditure categories in the budget namely,
emoluments (i.e.,wages,salaries and allowances), goods and services
(including debt service),and investment or capital expenditure.
“Empty promises and an ungodly approach to push our hopes
and problems to “divine” and unforeseen circumstances will not help President
Mahama or the NDC. These are empty
promises with no road map, deadlines or words that show appreciation for what
it will take for implementation to happen”, the PPP declared in the statement.
