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NPP’s “Won
Gbo” Demo February 18, 2015
Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen of the
Press,
We thank you all for honouring this
invitation.
At the beginning of the year, we pledged to
the good people of Ghana that, we shall be
holding the Mahama led government
accountable, by ensuring that, our country’s
scarce resources are utilized in a manner
that will benefit all and bring relief to
Ghanaians.
This morning, we caused a letter to be sent
to the Minister of Transport, requesting for
the full details of the Kumasi Airport
rehabilitation project. I am sure most of
you know all about that project.
Exactly a week ago today, the NPP expressed
our deepest disappointment with the lukewarm
response of the government to the power
crisis. Ghanaians have watched in horror as
their social economic lives continue to
deteriorate. Our currency, the Cedi, has
depreciated almost 300% since 2009 when the
NDC took over the reins of government. Cost
of borrowing has rocketed to over 30%with
extremely negative impact on the major
sectors of the economy like manufacturing
and agriculture.
In addition, Ghanaians today are paying one
of the highest pump prices for petrol in the
world despite the fact that the world market
price has plummeted to below $50. The
government continues to show their inability
to deal with the energy crisis. When we were
leaving in 2009, we bequeathed them with
enough generating capacity. So the question
cannot be that of generating capacity. It is
more of poor management of our power sector.
This situation becomes all the more mind
boggling when we consider the massive amount
of resources that has been available to this
administration over the last 6yrs.
We want to re-echo some of the data our
party’s running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia,
put out in Tamale recently.
Between 2009 and 2014, The NDC government
borrowed the equivalent of some $27 billion,
which is more than four (4) times the amount
of money the NPP borrowed during its 8yrs in
power.
The NDC government collected GHC62billion as
tax revenue in the last six years, which is
in contrast to the NPP’s GHC15.2 billion
between 2001 and 2008.
A similar comparison can be made with
regards to Gold and Cocoa export. In the
same period (6yrs), the NDC has exported
$14.5billion worth of cocoa as against
$8.7billion in the 8yrs period of the NPP.
The export of Gold in the 8years of the NPP
amounted to $9billion, whereas, in the
6years of the NDC, Gold export amounted to
$25billion.
Moreover, no government in our history has
had the benefit of oil revenue, except the
current NDC administration. The total amount
of revenue accruing from this source is
something they (NDC) are uncomfortable to
clarify. However, it is estimated that Ghana
has exported some $13.7billion in the last
4years.
Despite these significant inflows, the
Mahama led government continues to default
in statutory payments like the NHIS, GETFUND,
and the DISTRICT ASSSEMBLY COMMON FUND,
which are all several months in arrears.
And to cap it all, we have an energy crisis
of monumental proportions with no end in
sight despite countless assurances from
President Mahama since 2012.
The businesses artisanal Ghanaians,
seamstress, tailors, vulcanizers, welders,
sprayers, barbers, printing presses and many
others have been hit extremely hard. At our
health facilities the situation is extremely
precarious with several death attributed to
the frequent outages.
Ladies and Gentlemen, as a responsible
political stakeholder, the NPP considers it
a national duty to bring the deep suffering
of the Ghanaian people and the intolerable
state of affairs today to the attention of
this government, which is obviously
incompetent, insensitive and uncaring.
We commence that struggle with a street
protest on next Wednesday 18th of February
in Accra.
We call on all Ghanaians of different shades
of opinion including our NDC brothers, civil
societies, labour unions, market women,
unemployed youth, barbers, tailors,
hairdressers etc. to join us on that day in
order to send a clear message to the
government that indeed, “won gbo”, we are
dying.
Thank You
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