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Press Release
NPP
No: NPP00400
January 13, 2016
PRESIDENT MAHAMA ENGAGES
IN REHASH OF OLD ISSUES AND UNCONVINCING NEW ISSUES
The New Patriotic Party listened with interest to President
Mahama's press address on Tuesday, 12th January 2016.
The address is a rehash of old issues and unconvincing new
issues.
POLICE
He talked about improvements in the Ghana Police Service. We
commend our police for the work that they do to provide
security for all of us. We also note that the Police service
over the years
have gone through steady improvements in terms of tooling,
equipment, training and numbers,across political
administrations.
GUANTANAMO DETAINEES
The President sought to assure Ghanaians that there has been
no cash inducement. That, the basis for the decision to
accept these former Guantanamo detainees included
humanitarian grounds, Ghana’s friendship with the USA, the
two former detainees were never tried , never convicted and
were set to have been released six years ago, and that Ghana
is not the only country to take in the detainees etc.
But there is still major worry about this decision of
President Mahama. The President himself alluded to the
hysteria and phobia in the Ghanaian public. Ghana takes in
foreigners all the time we have established a whole
community for Liberian refugees, Fulani herdsmen roam our
countryside with abandon, Nigerien/Chadian refugees still
beg on our streets corners and road intersections
unmolested. So the widespread " hysteria and phobia"( the
words of the president) over the former Guantanamo detainees
must be founded on genuine apprehension, especially since it
does not seem their own country, Yemen, was prepared to take
them in.
We note that the President said after two (2) years, the
former detainees will be free to go settle wherever they
liked. So what informs their being "quarantined" in Ghana in
these two (2) years? Miriam Makeba and Fela Anikulapo Kuti
would be turning in their graves at the attempt by President
John Mahama to equate them with these ex-Guantanamo
detainees.
YOUTH EMPLOYMENT
The President mentioned that Ghana does not have the
capacity to generate statistics on youth unemployment. The
collaboration with the World Bank that the president is
relying on for this
capacity started way back in 2007. It is a shame that in
2015, that collaboration has not beenfinished for the system
and capacity to be in place for Ghana to be able to generate
labour
statistics.
More importantly, the Mahama government’s attitude to youth
employment is extremely disappointing. It is only in 2015,
six years into this NDC administration that President Mahama
launched a National Employment Policy, and even that with no
implementation/ action plan.
Youth employment has been left to chance. No wonder the
greatest danger facing this country is the ever worsening
youth unemployment situation
TEACHER/NURSING TRAINEES
The President wants us to believe that the regular enrolment
of nurses trained in public institutions have suffered
because of a mix up with privately trained nurses.
Question is how this mix-up has persisted for two years,
leading up to nurses picketing at the Office of the
President just two days ago?
Nana Akufo-Addo’s pledge to restore training allowance was
described by the President as mere political talk. President
Mahama has cancelled a policy. Another politician says he
will restore the policy and the President says that is a
"political talk"?
If that is so, President Mahama is most guilty of political
talk. We remember his pooh-poohing of Nana Addo’s idea of
Northern Development Fund, only to set up the corruption
riddled SADA.
He also pooh-poohed the LEAP programme, describing it as
just a political gimmick to win votes, now he touts it
everywhere as a major government intervention. Ghanaians all
too well will remember his pooh-poohing of the free SHS and
his turn around on this matter.
Nana Akufo-Addo has promised to restore teacher allowances.
It can easily be done when leakages of the public purse,
such as branding of public buses with the president’s
picture is stopped.
MICROFINANCE
The President seems to believe that the anguish over the
micro finance issue particularly in the Brong Ahafo is as a
result of opposition propaganda and incitement.
The President is burying his head in the sand. The anguish
and deep sorrow of the thousands of
Ghanaians whose monies have been endangered by these micro
finance institutions is real. The people genuinely believe
that public institutions under the Executive authority of
the president, particularly the Bank of Ghana, have failed
them.
There is no opposition incitement of the people in this
matter. It is an unnecessary insult for the President to
imply that the pain and anguish of Ghanaians who are in
danger of losing their saving is a manipulation and
incitement by some political party.
DUMSOR
What does the President mean by his predecessors didn’t "fix
it”? It is an insult for the President to imply that his
predecessors didn’t provide permanent additions to
generation capacity of the
country. The Aboadze Plant facilitated by former President
Rawlings is a permanent addition to national generation
capacity. Former President Kufuor’s retrofit of Akosombo
added at least 100MW to Akosombo’s capacity permanently.
The West Africa Gas pipeline project, Sunon Asogli, Bui dam,
etc all added hundreds of megawatts permanently to Ghana’s
generation capacity.
The issue with DUMSOR is not whether a solution was
permanent or not permanent. The real issue is that DUMSOR
has persisted throughout John Mahama’s presidency, and that
despite his numerous promises, he has failed to resolve it
up to date.
UNBEARABLE TARIFFS OF PETROL
The average Ghanaian consumer pays for his electricity on a
prepaid basis. Tariff increases of up to 80% in 2013 were
all borne stoically by the Ghanaian consumer. It is the
government of Ghana,
as the president admitted, that does not pay its bills.
But the real truth of the matter is that whatever Bills that
we pay, the value is quickly eroded by the ever eroding
value of the Cedi, (gross failure of macro-economic policy
of the John Mahama government.)
CORRUPTION
President Mahama seems to be proud of his record on
corruption. There is no bigger instance of him burying his
head in the sand than this. Ghana has been tagged on the
cover page of an international magazine as “The Republic
ofCorruption”. Surveys by Afrobarometer, IEA, etc,
consistently posit the office of the president as highly
corrupt. This perception cannot be due merely to increased
media coverage as the president seems to imply. The issues
of mind boggling corruption that made possible the WOYOME
affair, the Waterville affair, GYEEDA, SADA, SUBAH, Bus
Branding, etc, are real. It looks like the President
believes that mere retrievals of corruptly paid public
monies, without prosecution, is actually an achievement.
Even here, the record is hollow. Only a fraction of GYEEDA
money, for example, has been retrieved. Nothing has been
retrieved from WOYOME nor Waterville nor SUBAH nor SADA etc.
The President admits that Civil/Public Servants are also
engaged in corruption. But he seems to forget that the
Civil/Public Service is under the executive authority of the
president. It is the president who is mandated to ensure the
judicious use of public resources. Is not the President’s
worried that there are too many cases of retrievals of
corruptly paid out monies?
Despite what President Mahama says, Sole Sourcing is really
causing major losses of tax payers’ monies. In November
2015, a six (6) block was awarded by the Kpone Kantamanso
District Assemply at 510,000 cedis (GNA report November 8,
2015). That same November, the MTN Foundation constructed a
fully furnished six (6) unit classroom block, office and
store in the Upper West Akyem District for 170,000cedis (GNA
report November 28th 2015).
TOLERANCE
In his closing remarks, the President called for tolerance
for opposing viewpoints, and the need to bring people
together, etc as hallmarks of competent leadership. What a
joke! Is it not the same President Mahama who recently told
Ghanaians that he would not tolerate criticism unless it was
from a President, and actually named former Presidents
Kufuor and Rawlings as the only two people qualified to
criticize him? Is this tolerance?
Did President Mahama not look on while the NDC prevented a
party member from contesting him? In conclusion, we
reiterate that the address is a rehash of old issues and
uninspiring new issues. We remind Ghanaians that the NDC
government's performance, in its eight year, falls short not
only of the expectations of Ghanaians, but falls short even
by President Mahama’s own expectations as he had outlined in
his first address to the nation on 18th August 2012.
…Signed…
Nana Akomea
(Director of Communications)
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