|
FUEL PRICE
INCREASES AND DUMSOR MARKS OF MAHAMA’S
INSENSITIVITY
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has described
the decision by the John Mahama-led National
Democratic Congress government to increase
the prices of petroleum products, in the
midst of the ongoing, crippling energy
crisis, as marks of an insensitive
government.
According to him, at a time when Ghanaians
are reeling from the effects of 3 years of
‘dumsor’ and resorting to the use of
generators to produce power, a responsible
government would rather ensure that the fuel
which aids citizens and businesses to
generate power would not receive an upward
adjustment in its price.
However, as has been the mark of the
flailing 6-year NDC administration, this
latest development, according to the NPP’s
2016 presidential candidate, “means there is
no end to the difficulties for the ordinary
Ghanaian.”
Nana Akufo-Addo made this known on Saturday,
May 16, 2015, when he addressed a packed
meeting of Ghanaians, NPP members and
sympathisers in Köln, Germany, on the first
day of his 16-day tour of some European
countries.
Ghanaians, Akufo-Addo said, have had the
opportunity to witness at first hand the
governance and leadership styles of the NPP
and NDC, and its resultant impact on their
standard of living.
“When President Kufuor left office, people
were speaking of our country as Africa’s
success story, possessing a stable democracy
and an economy on the rise. Within six years
of his leaving office, Ghana has
retrogressed. Ghanaians are suffering and
experiencing difficulties never witnessed in
our history,” Nana Addo said.
He stated that no single government in
Ghana’s history has had the resources and
monies that the Mahama administration has
been blessed with.
Between 2001 and 2008, the total tax revenue
collected by the NPP amounted to GH¢15.2
billion. In contrast, the NDC government,
under John Mahama, has collected a total of
GH¢62 billion in the last six years
(2009-2014). Exports of gold and cocoa
between 2001 and 2008 earned Ghana $16.4
billion. However under six years of NDC,
these exports have earned the country $39.5
billion, in addition to the $3 billion in
oil revenues and the GH¢78.7 billion worth
of new loans contracted by the NDC
government. Kufuor’s government received no
oil revenues.
“But today, Ghana is broke and back to the
IMF looking for a bailout of $1 billion.
Ghanaians want change, they want to go back
to the Kufuor era of progress and
development. Despite all the difficulties
they are facing, they have hope in the NPP,”
Nana Addo said.
In recent times, however, this hope in the
NPP, Nana Addo said, may somewhat have been
questioned because of the internal
wranglings in the NPP, which have become a
source of worry to Ghanaians.
“However, I want to assure all of you, and
Ghanaians back home, that all these internal
wranglings will soon come to an end. We will
elect our parliamentary candidates on June
13, and thereafter we will announce our
campaign team. We will then have one
objective after that, which is to win the
election of 2016,” he said, to spontaneous
applause and cheers from the gathering.
Nana Akufo-Addo urged Ghanaians to continue
to have faith in the NPP, adding that
Ghana’s predicament can be turned around,
citing the case of Cote d’Ivoire – a country
that was ravaged by civil war and yet has
managed to turn its fortunes around.
“Because they got a strong and competent
leader, they have turned everything around,
and today Cote d’Ivoire is rediscovering
itself. It is again the engine of growth of
Francophone West Africa, because they have
found a competent, strong leader,” he said.
He continued, “If a man, Alassane Ouatarra,
who is three whole years older than me, has
been able to change the destiny of Cote
d’Ivoire, all I am asking God and Ghanaians
is to give me that same opportunity to bring
back our country onto the path of progress
and prosperity.”
Nana Akufo-Addo asked for the full support
of the membership of the NPP towards
ensuring victory in the election of 2016,
and by that “build the free, democratic and
prosperous Ghana that our founding fathers
dreamed about. That dream is very much alive
in me. I have the hope and confidence that
we can be the beacon and the Black Star of
Africa.”
The NPP Presidential Candidate will move to
Berlin on Monday, where he will participate
in a series of events organised in his
honour by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the
development foundation associated with the
German governing CDU party, a sister party
of the NPP.
|
