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| Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of NDC |
At a press conference in Accra Tuesday, General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketsia accused the leader of the largest opposition party of dabbling in "anti-government propaganda of the most revulting kind", instead of providing "a direct evidence-based disagreement" over what the President said last Thursday.
"Regrettably, expectation gave way to consternation when instead of a concise and quality critique of the President’s address, we were served with the same generic, stale, hollow, hackneyed and pedestrian propaganda that has become the most noticeable attribute of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), second only to violence and disorganisation, since their Flagbearer Mr Akufo Addo took over the party.
Instead of a direct evidence-based disagreement over what the President said last Thursday, Nana Akufo Addo dabbled in anti-government propaganda of the most revulting kind. He joined his party followers and bigwigs to ridicule the citizens of Ghana who were invited to the State of the Nation Address in parliament as having engaged in “concert party theatrics,” he said.
Less than a week after President Mahama presented his last SoTN in his first term, touting his achievements and introducing a new approach by showcasing direct beneficiaries of his administration’s social intervention programmes, the NPP delivered its version dubbed "The Real State Of The Nation".
Shooting down the president's "evidence-based" address as an "embarrassing display of a few vulnerable Ghanaians", Nana Addo said it offered no hope and "bore very little resemblance to the reality of today's Ghana".
But barely 24 hours after the NPP's rebuttal, the governing NDC's Chief Scribe fired back, indicting the opposition party of demonstrating that "they are chronically bereft of credible and measurable alternatives" and "remain in tatters and choked with serious allegations of corruption and underhand dealings."
"One would have expected Nana Akufo Addo and the NPP to have contested the truth about these citizens of Ghana who were a representation of the broad mass of our people who are beneficiaries of these interventions....
"....The NPP has also succeeded in demonstrating;
1. That they are chronically bereft of credible and measurable alternatives to the policies and programmes of President Mahama and the NDC; and
2. That they remain in tatters and choked with serious allegations of corruption and underhand dealings which renders them incapable to govern," Asiedu Nketiah said.
Read the full statement below
STATEMENT READ BY GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS IN RESPONSE TO CLAIMS BY THE NPP’S FLAGBEARER ON 1ST MARCH 2016
Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media.
I wish to thank you on for responding to our invitation.
President John Dramani Mahama presented The State of the Nation Address in accordance with Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution on last week Thursday, 25th February, 2016, just a day after the commemoration of 50 years of the overthrow of the CPP Government led by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah,.
In that address, President Mahama, through an evidence-based approach set out clearly what he has done to enhance the welfare and wellbeing of the people of Ghana. Through this approach he demonstrated that the mandate bestowed on him in 2012 by the sovereign people of Ghana has been well utilised to bring significant improvements in almost all aspects of our national life.
President Mahama offered incontrovertible proof that in sectors such as education, health, economy, power, water, housing, roads, transport, communications and governance, tremendous progress had been made; since he assumed office as the elected President of Ghana on January 7, 2013.
The President in accounting to the people of Ghana on his first term stewardship also touched on existing challenges. He indicated clearly that more remains to be done to achieve the ultimate objective of attaining full development for our country. He never claimed to have turned Ghana into Paradise.
To the NPP, President Mahama has all the resources and ‘more than 24 hours in a day’ to have resolved all the challenges of our great republic., This mindset, Ladies and Gentlemen can best be described as “making perfect the enemy of better.”
As should be the case in any thriving democracy where the issues that matter to the people dominate national discourse, it was expected that the opposition would seize the opportunity opened by the President’s address to indicate clearly areas where they differ and point to credible, unmistakable and measurable alternatives they wish to put on the table for consideration by the people.
It must therefore have come as refreshing news to all well-meaning Ghanaians when the New Patriotic Party announced last week that they would be holding a public event to discuss the State of the Nation.
Regrettably, expectation gave way to consternation when instead of a concise and quality critique of the President’s address, we were served with the same generic, stale, hollow, hackneyed and pedestrian propaganda that has become the most noticeable attribute of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), second only to violence and disorganisation, since their Flagbearer Mr Akufo Addo took over the party.
Instead of a direct evidence-based disagreement over what the President said last Thursday, Nana Akufo Addo dabbled in anti-government propaganda of the most revulting kind. He joined his party followers and bigwigs to ridicule the citizens of Ghana who were invited to the State of the Nation Address in parliament as having engaged in “concert party theatrics.”
One would have expected Nana Akufo Addo and the NPP to have contested the truth about these citizens of Ghana who were a representation of the broad mass of our people who are beneficiaries of these interventions.
Again one would have expected the NPP to have contradicted President Mahama in the stories that he told about Mercy Pomaa; Regina Haku; Umar Mahmud Mogtar; Naomi Appiah Korang; Mohammed Hissan; Gertrude Ahyia Yeboah; David Aminayire; Mohammed Awabu; Dzidzor Kwamuar; Apim Shulamite; Samuel Amo Tobbin; Zenabu Sumaila; James Appiah-Berko; Emmanuel Aboagye; Shiraz Issaku; Awenini Apogyanga who were in the public gallery in parliament on 25th February, 2016.
His inability to do so further exposes NPP’s long held mantra that nothing is happening.
Consequently, the NPP and its flagbearer failed to show at the event;
1. that they have a track record in all sectors of our national life which is superior to the output of President Mahama.
2. that based on this record, they are capable of putting forward clear and believable policy alternatives in which any measurable confidence can be placed.
3. that they had learnt any useful lessons from their unprecedented failed promises as contained in their 2000 and 2004 manifestos.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The NPP also succeeded in demonstrating;
1. That they are chronically bereft of credible and measurable alternatives to the policies and programmes of President Mahama and the NDC; and
2. That they remain in tatters and choked with serious allegations of corruption and underhand dealings which renders them incapable to govern.
Let us now proceed to discuss the main issues in order to dispel the many false notions that the NPP attempted to foist on Ghanaians.
1. LEADERSHIP
At the level of leadership, a cursory assessment of President Mahama’s approach to governance and the leadership or rather the lack of it by Mr Akufo Addo to the NPP reveals which of the two has capacity to lead this peaceful nation.
Whereas President Mahama has taken responsibility for long-standing national problems some of which preceded his ascension to the Presidency and striven to resolve same, Mr Akufo Addo takes responsibility for nothing that happens in the party he purports to lead.
President Mahama took responsibility for the power challenges that we witnessed some time ago and acted to address it and the results are there for all to see.
In a shocking twist Nana Akufo Addo claims to be unaware that President Mahama took responsibility to fix the power shortages. He appears to be the only stranger in Jerusalem despite having been firmly ensconced in the public gallery for the entire duration of the President’s State of the Nation Address in 2015 in which the following words were uttered to the hearing of all and sundry- “I John Dramani Mahama will fix this power crisis”.
This behaviour would appear to confirm speculation and pictures making the rounds in sections of the media that he dozed off at some point during that important address by the President.
It is curious that Nana Akufo Addo would speak about taking responsibility when he has failed to take such responsibility for his party’s rapid spiral into gruesome killings, chaos, anarchy, violence and lawlessness.
Even when the violence claimed the lives of first, the NPP Upper East Regional Chairman, may his soul rest in perfect peace, and a supporter of the NPP Party at Asawase, no leadership emanated from him, save for a vendetta waged against persons believed to be opposed to him..
Nana Akufo Addo will go down as the NPP flagbearer under whose tenure the party sank to its lowest ebb. Indeed we dare say that he is the worst leader that tradition has produced having lowered considerably, the standard set by the likes of K.A. Busia, Victor Owusu, Adu Boahen and J. A. Kufour.
2. EDUCATION
President Mahama demonstrated how the NDC Government is changing lives and emphasised education as “the single most effective way not only to change a single life, but other lives that surround it.”
He further stated that “education can break cycles of poverty and abuse. Education is the key that can unlock, for children, worlds into which their parents could not enter; worlds they never even knew existed.”
At the basic education level, the President among others captured
The Compulsory Basic Education (CBE) programme of the Ministry of Education which has ensured that a total of 54,800 out-of-school children have been enrolled into schools.
Distribution of over 100 million exercise books
Distribution of free school uniforms
Distribution of 12.5 million textbooks, which has reversed the textbook to pupil ratio from three pupils to one textbook under the NPP to one pupil to four texbooks under the NDC.
Distribution of 10,000 sandals so far to very needy pupils
Teacher Professional Development Initiative.
Nana Akufo Addo’s contrived ignorance about social interventions programmes initiated by the NDC Government is exposed by the list above. .
At the Secondary level President Mahama gave an update on the party’s programme to establish 200 Senior High Schools. He reported that 123 are currently being implemented and that some have been completed and are in use.
Nana Akufo Addo claimed to be aware of only four schools commissioned by President Mahama hence those are the only schools worked on. To conclude that only the 4 schools that have been commissioned are the only ones built is a reflection of poor reasoning.
Nana Akufo Addo of course was unable to recount the NPP’s horrible record of the NPP in this regard. In all their 8 years in power, they did not build a single new Senior High School.
They promised to upgrade one senior high school in every district to the status of a model school. Out of 160 Districts in Ghana then only 23 of such schools were upgraded by the time they left office,. Their contribution to access at secondary education therefore is at best negligible and the poorest in the fourth Republic if not in our history.
Nana Akufo Addo sought to distort the facts surrounding the Free SHS debate. It would be recalled that his poorly-conceived Free SHS mantra was resoundingly rejected by the electorate in favour of President Mahama’s pragmatic access, quality and affordability proposal.
Having worked on these and achieved significant gains, President Mahama introduced progressively free SHS education in accordance with Article 25 of the 1992 Constitution.
The President’s position is clear and has not changed. It is markedly more substantive that the hollow, propagandist mantra Nana Akufo Addo recited in 2012, which the Ghanaian electorate rightly rejection.
Ladies and Gentlemen
President Mahama has demonstrated that, enrolment in tertiary institutions increased by 6.3% for Universities and 8.9% for Polytechnics. The University for Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) at Ho, which was once ridiculed as a reptile infested forest by the NPP has been completed and inaugurated and in just three years of its establishment, has enrolled 2,300 students.
Construction of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development in Donkorkrom in the Afram Plains and Somanya all in the Eastern Region will begin this year. As you are aware the Bill for the establishment of the University has been passed. Here too we note that the NPP’s tribal politicking has reared its ugly head. They are asking for the people of Somanya to be deprived of this University for no reason other than tribal considerations.
President Mahama once again demonstrated his commitment to technical education by reporting on the progress made on the policy to convert polytechnics to technical universities. According to the President, the Kumasi, Accra, Koforidua, Ho, Sunyani, and Takoradi Polytechnics have met the 16-point criteria and have been recommended for immediate conversion. He further assured that the remaining four polytechnics will be assisted by a special arrangement to support them with infrastructure, equipment and strengthening of their governance structure to enable them meet the conversion criteria in the shortest possible time.
President Mahama once again reiterated his pro-teacher approach to the execution of his mandate by indicating that more Ghanaians have gained admission to Colleges of Education and that enrolment has increased by 63 per cent. In absolute terms they now enrol 12,000 students compared to 9,000 students prior to the new policy. This follows bold reforms initiated in the colleges of education including the replacement of the teacher training allowance with the Student Loan to restore parity among all teacher training tertiary institutions.
In taking this decision, President Mahama was mindful of temporary difficulties that will be faced by some students. He was also aware that some parties will seek political advantage.
We note that Nana Akufo Addo once again without recourse to hard facts or sound reasoning sought to take political advantage of this bold initiative which is yielding tangible results.
3. HEALTH
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Contrary to Nana Akufo Addo’s propaganda, the reality is that our healthcare system is in much better shape than it was under his NPP. Life expectancy in Ghana has increased to 63 years from 54 years under the NPP.
In the latest United Nations Human Development Index ranking, Ghana is presently ahead of its peers in West Africa in virtually all Human development indicators.
According to the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, there has been a drastic decrease in the rates of infant mortality and under-five mortality which were alarmingly-pervasive under the NPP. Under-five mortality has dropped from 111 to 60 per 1,000 live births. Infant mortality also dropped by almost 30% from 64 to 41 per 1,000 live births during the same period.
Children and their mothers are now surviving birth more than ever before as a result of better antenatal, delivery services and postnatal care.
President Mahama also outlined impressive and unprecedented investment of over US$2billion in health infrastructure, equipment and human resource. He projected that this will add 6,000 more beds to Ghana’s existing stock by the end of 2018 when the programme is completed.
This is very significant in the sense that as at 2014, total hospital beds available in public hospitals was 11,689. This means that President Mahama’s NDC Government would have increased the number of total available hospital beds in Ghana to 28,632 and increased the ratio of hospital beds to population from 0.9 to 1.1 beds per 1000 people.
Thus making Ghana the country with the highest ratio of hospital beds to population in West Africa and among the top five in Africa. This is real progress.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Among others;
The University of Ghana Teaching Hospital at Legon
The Ridge Hospital
Tamale Teaching Hospital and
The Kumasi Military Hospital are all on-going with some nearing completion.
We note that Nana Akufo Addo also repeated his party’s lies about the Ridge Project. He claimed that the Ridge Hospital has been inflated by US$142 million and the basis for this is a supposed Crown Agent report.
What he showed was a shocking lack of thoroughness and attention to detail. If he had applied himself to a diligent search for information he would have been aware that the Crown Agent report he relied on has long since been repudiated following incontrovertible proof offered by the Ministry of Health and the contractor to the effect that the initial claims were unfounded.
This blunder is reminiscent of his embarrassing gaffe on the Kasoa Interchange project which he claimed had been inflated without basis. Because of his trademark lack of thoroughness, he did not seek the advice of his own Parliamentarians before making this astounding claim. It had to take his own Ranking member on the Roads and Transport Committee in Parliament to correct this falsehood.
That a flagbearer chooses to be so uncritical as to rely on inaccurate information to make such spurious claims is a matter of some amusement. A visit to the site of the Ridge hospital project would show an imposing, ultra-modern hospital that is nearing completion.
It is a monument to the hardwork, foresight and commitment of our President, Leader and flagbearer Comrade John Dramani Mahama to improving the health of our people.
President Mahama also mentioned other Regional hospitals the NDC Government is working on including;
The 160bed -Upper West Regional Hospital at Wa
The 386 bed Upper East Regional Hospital at Bolgatanga and the
The 250 bed Ashanti Regional Hospital at Sewua
Mention was also made of on-going work on a number of District Hospitals including;
120-bed District hospitals at Dodowa, Kumawu, Abetifi and Fomena
60-bed District Hospital in Salaga
60-bed District Hospital in Tepa
60-bed District Hospital in Nsawkaw
60-bed District Hospital in Konongo-Odumasi
100-bed Municipal Hospital in Atomic-Accra.
Here too the NPP flagbearer attempted to discount these achievements when disputing the work on the Salaga District Hospital. He seemed once again to display a lack of thoroughness by relying on his social media propagandists who posted pictures they claimed showed a non-existent hospital.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On the NHIS the NPP flagbearer displayed a noticeable lack of clarity in thought when he mistook the relevance and interpretation of untilization for enrolment. The assessment of a scheme of this nature ought to be done on the basis of scientific evidence.
At the IEA event in 2012, he claimed that the NHIS was dead. After 2012 he and his party members started speaking about a “collapsing” NHIS. Now he speaks about cash and carry. We would like to know what exactly the NPP flagbearer’s position is on the status of the NHIS.
The President was clear when he disclosed that the scheme has grown in leaps and bounds. Out-patient utilization and claims payments have witnessed astronomical increase which shows a robust scheme. The President did not hide the challenges that confront the scheme and spoke about the initiatives to address these challenges.
4. Social Interventions
Ladies and Gentlemen of the media,
Not surprisingly, yesterday Nana Akufo Addo repeated the NPP’s pedestrian claims on the state of a number of social intervention programmes. He blanketly claimed that such programmes as LEAP, School feeding, Capitation Grant, NYEP among others have been mismanaged.
Consistent with their ideology of property owning democracy, the scope and manner of implementation of social intervention programmes exposed the NPP’s lack of genuine commitment to the welfare of the broad masses.
For example despite the noise made about the school feeding program, a measly 9% of Ghanaian school children benefitted from the intervention under the NPP. Currently as many as 1.7million school children representing about 30% of Ghanaian school children are enrolled on the programme.
As far as LEAP is concerned, only 1,654 households were given monthly stipends after 8 long years in power. Today a massive 144,000 households receive monthly payments under President Mahama.
Regarding the Capitation grant, the NDC Governmengt increased it by 50% as far back as 2010 in keeping with our 2008 promise to do so.
This certainly cannot represent and does not represent mismanagement.
We have also introduced other interventions for some vulnerable groups. The Eban card that targets the elderly for priority services has been launched and is currently benefitting 9,000 people. It will be expanded to cover 25,000 people in the coming months.
5. Economy and Jobs
On the economy, Nana Akufo Addo proved to be a tame student of Mahamadu Bawumia’s flawed and misleading claims. He displayed a lack of grasp of the most important issues.
He showed that if he has any strength at all in the management of national affairs then it does not lie in the economy.
His presentation yesterday contained the sprinkling of every conceivable fund from Zongo Development fund to an infinite number of funds.
He dabbled in a selective recitation of macro-economic indices to make a claim of mismanagement against government. It is an indisputable fact that the most prosperous economic period witnessed in over four decades have occurred under the NDC not the NPP.
The highest growth rates, the longest sustained period of single digit inflation and many other indices have been recorded under the NDC government.
Despite the ugly noises and lofty rhetoric, the NPP was never able to match the NDC’s record in their 8 year tenure.
Therefore if any party stands in good stead to steer the economy into calm waters then it is this government led by President Mahama. The signs already point to stability in the economy leading to increased growth over the next few years.
President Mahama remains focused on transforming the structure of the economy with an emphasis on manufacturing and value addition and his address to Parliament demonstrated real progress in this regard.
Akufo Addo dabbled in untruth when he claimed that the only interventions the President spoke about on the economy were the Exim Bank and Ghana Infrastructure and Investment Fund.
It is unclear what SONA he listened to.
President Mahama spoke about increasing support for the private sector especially the manufacturing sector. Between 2013 and 2015, GHc 250 million was been put directly into local firms. Pharmaceutical companies have benefitted immensely from this package which has boosted their capacity to manufacture drugs for the treatment of common ailments locally.
Another GHc 150 million has been disbursed to over 500 Ghanaian institutions under the Skills Development Fund.
Last year, President Mahama instructed the Ministry of Education to ensure all textbooks are printed in Ghana. This is on course and is creating thousands of jobs.
Under the NPP textbooks were imported from abroad sometimes under shady and corrupt circumstances.
The President spoke about the Kumasi shoe factory and the Komenda sugar factory among other interventions, which did not exist at the time that the NPP ruled between 2001 to 2008.
He disclosed that the first sheanut processing plant was established and commissioned under the NDC government at Buipe in the Northern Region. Plans are underway to establish similar plants in the Upper East and Upper West Regions.
The President showed that Rice importation which sky rocketed under the NPP has reduced substantially.
President Mahama also indicated that 650,000 birds were produced last year as part of the 20 million broiler project launched to revive the poultry sector which collapsed under the NPP.
The President also revealed new interventions in coffee production under which 100,000 metric tonnes is expected to be produced by 2020. Already 5 million seedlings are being nursed for cultivation by farmers.
A similar programme to promote cultivation of Oil Palm was announced.
In Agriculture, Akufo Addo conveniently touted the growth of 0.04% recorded in 2015 as proof of a struggling sector. He probably is unaware that under the NPP in 2007 Agric recorded -1.7%.
There is every indication that further investment in the sector will lead to growth going forward.
As far as jobs are concerned, one has to admire Akufo Addo’s misplaced bravado when even broaching the subject. For the flagbearer of a party that has the most appalling and shambolic record when it comes to job creation it is something of an irony that Nana Akufo Addo would presume to discuss the subject.
We remember page 5 of the NPP’s 2000 manifesto where they promised to “Create jobs for all persons able and willing to work and to reward each of them appropriately”.
Let Nana Akufo Addo indicate to the people of Ghana the jobs they created for ALL Ghanaians after making this promise. It would be recalled that the NPP staged the most shocking gambit when they asked unemployed Ghanaians to register for jobs. Over 1 million Ghanaians cued up to register only to be let down by a boatsful but flat-footed government.
President Mahama’s address to Parliament was littered with evidence and figures of jobs created by his government. The book “Accounting to the People” also gives evidence and a breakdown of thousands of jobs created by this government in several sectors.
We will continue to provide more opportunities in the economy for employment.
6. Infrastructure
Ladies and Gentlemen of the media,
Yesterday, the NPP flagbearer sought refuge under a contrived Bawumia yardstick for assessing capital investment or simply put infrastructure. He claims that capex/GDP ratio under the NPP was higher than under the NDC.
He also repeated the gratuitous lie that we have borrowed US$37 billion in the last 8 years and spent only US$ 7 billion in development.
These are meaningless contrivances designed to mask his party’s miserable performance when it comes to the provision of critical infrastructure for the people.
The NPP’s narrative of President Mahama’s investments in infrastructure is characterised by a dark, malicious lie that all projects undertaken by the NDC have been inflated. This often-repeated lie is only intended to undermine public confidence in government and shift the focus away from the benefits accruing from these projects.
It is a pitiful concoction brewed by mediocre minds whose under-performance when given the opportunity for 8 years leads them to want to undermine the superior performance of others.
This can be better appreciated when one looks at the NPP’s laughable record in infrastructure.
As the President indicated in his address to Parliament, the NDC government has undertaken the largest ever investment in the country’s history with regards to infrastructure.
Incontrovertible proof exists to buttress this.
7. Water
The NPP holds the most abysmal record in water provision by any government. In all their 8 years in office, they increased water coverage by a paltry 2%.
Since the NDC came to power water coverage has increased from 58.5% in 2009 to 76% in 2015.This is set to increase to 85% by close of this year when an additional 20 water projects are completed around the country. In absolute terms the NDC Government has provided 77.5 million gallons of water per (MGD) day for an additional 4.2 million Ghanaians as of the end of 2015. By the end of 2016 this will increase to 110million gallons of water per day for a total of another 7 million Ghanaians. In all 52 years preceding the NDC in 2009, available water capacity could only serve 14 million people.
Akufo Addo sought to take undue advantage of the isolated challenges in certain areas due to both natural and human causes to dispute this sterling performance in water provision to the extent of ignoring how millions living in areas like Adenta, Teshie and his own home town Kyebi now have water running through their taps.
8. Housing
The NPP holds the worst record when it comes to housing. In all their eight years in power they did not complete a single affordable housing unit. Despite not completing any, they shared these uncompleted houses among their cronies in the most corrupt and morally-bankrupt manner.
Under President Mahama 12,500 housing units have been under construction with over 3,000 completed which are currently occupied by Ghanaians.
9. Roads
NPP claims to have constructed 30,000km of roads between 2001-2008. Ordinarily this should come as a major relief because we need more roads.
I will crave the indulgence of the press to follow me in my search of these invincible roads
Ladies and Gentlemen, some roads are missing. Either they squandered the money and constructed 30,000km of roads on paper or they are confusing network size with actual investments into network.
Does the NPP appreciate the magnitude of the lie they are telling about 30,000kilometers of roads in 8 years, the equivalent of travelling from Accra to London six times? To further illustrate it within the context of local travels, NPP’s lie translate into traveling by road from Accra to Paga as many as 45 times. Ladies and gentlemen where are the NPP roads?
If it is investment into the road network, I repeat, where is the physical evidence of the 30,000kilometers of roads that were rehabilitated or worked on?
Let Nana Akufo Addo simply publish the full list of roads they constructed and their lengths.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A cursory review of the 2001 and 2008 budget statements presented by the NPP reveal this fraudulent conduct when it comes to roads.
Let me take the construction of the Accra-Kumasi Road as an example:
Paragraph 203 of the NPP’s 2004 budget claimed that works on the Anyinam –Konongo section was 28% complete. The same road was reported at paragraph 231 as being 94% complete in the 2005 budget. The 2006 budget also stated that the same road was 48% complete. Hear is the absurdity. It is only under the NPP that as the years progressed, the rate of completion of the same project reduced from 94% to 48% within a span of one year per their own record.
The Ofankor-Nsawam road also exposes the NPP’s duplicity when it comes to roads.
Paragraph 231 of the 2005 budget said that road was 71% complete only for it to be stated in paragraph 575 of the 2006 budget that the same road is 57% complete.
Akufo Addo’s claims about the cost of roads have been thoroughly disproved by his own ranking member on the Roads and Transport committee hence there is no need to comment further on his newly-acquired skill in Political quantity surveying. He clearly has no knowledge of the sector and feeds on the lies fed him by his team of propagandists.
Corruption
On the subject of corruption, Akufo Addo who has hounded people out of his party because they sought to expose corruption mounted the moral high ground. For a man whose party ate, slept and drunk corruption when in power despite their zero tolerance for corruption mantra, it is strange that he would presume to lecture the President on same.
He repeated the NPP’s pedestrian propaganda on corruption without any evidence of a superior record. He peddled a blatant lie when he said that no investigation into acts of corruption has been done on government’s own volition.
The investigation into the National Service Scheme was done on the express instructions of the President without any media expose or prompting. Same was done with the investigations into the NHIS.
Nana Akufo Addo also asked why the President did not invite persons alleged to have engaged in judgement debt controversies. On the matter of judgment debts, Akufo Addo behaves like a man who says he does not eat pork but eats pig feet.
This is a man who made a passionate appeal for payment of judgment debt to the Great Cape Company despite the non-availability of documentation.
How can a man be opposed to judgment debt payment and plead for it to be paid at the same time? Such hypocrisy is unbecoming of someone seeking the High office of the President.
Akufo Addo is also on record to have caused substantial loss to the state in the Drill Ship Judgment debt case through his legendary incompetence when he failed as Attorney General to defend the state against a suit in the matter. Needless to say that the drill ship was subsequently sold in London like the way tomatoes are sold at the Malata market.
It may interest Akufo Addo to note that the many land looters who held sway in his NPP government were not present in Parliament with the notable exception of his imposed acting national chairman whose complicity in the looting of the international student’s hostel land is a matter of public record.
Election 2016
Ladies and gentlemen, the NPP appears hell-burnt on creating unnecessary rumpus over the voters’ register hence the effusions of Nana Akufo Addo; and lay a basis for the rejection of the results of an election which they know they are about to lose. Let me state hear that President Mahama remains an obedient servant of the Constitution of Ghana which enjoins all to respect the independence of the Electoral Commission.
He has charged the NDC to at all times use lawful procedure and peaceful means to protect its interest in the electoral process.
He is unwilling to share in the wanton effort to undermine the credibility of every state institution through vicious lies and fabrications like Akufo Addo and the NPP are doing.
Let Akufo Addo continue to hanker after political power through his violent, all-die-be-die philosophy.
As for President Mahama he will continue to respect the will of the electorate at all times and he will carry out their mandate in accordance with decent standards and lawful dictates.
CONCLUSION
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We began this press conference by indicating that in any thriving democracy where the issues that matter to the people should dominate national discourse, it was expected that the opposition would seize the opportunity provided by the President to indicate clearly areas where they differ and point to credible, unmistakable and measurable alternatives they wish to put on the table for consideration by the people.
Regrettably, expectation has given way to consternation. Once again the NPP Flagbearer has failed to redeem his sunken image which has been accentuated by a cascade of gaffes over the period.
Today more and more of our citizens are being lifted from poverty and many are entering the middle class bracket.
Today an impressive 36% of our population, representing nearly all who should be in school, is in school due to exponential increases in investments in the education sector.
Almost all those outside the bracket will be roped in, in a matter of a few years.
Today Ghanaians have greater access to health care even in the most remote parts of our country. A child born today and his or her mother are more likely to survive than at any other time in our history. This is joy to many families.
Today Maternal, Infant, Child and under five mortalities continue to drop. Malnutrition has also reduced drastically. Guinea worm infestation and Buruli Ulcer are now distant memories.
Today as a result of massive and unprecedented retooling of our security services, the crime rate in Ghana has been on the decline and the presence of police (men and women) at strategic locations in our communities is providing the needed reassurance that we are safer in Ghana now than was under the NPP.
Today 20 million or 80.5% of our population have access to electricity, the highest after South Africa in the entire Sub-Sarahan Region and this is growing.
By the close of this year, nearly 22 million Ghanaians representing 85% of our population will have access to potable water.
Today Ghana has over 33 million mobile and fixed telephony subscriptions.
Our impressive roads and transport, ICT and Telecommunication infrastructure continue to improve dramatically with each passing month.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Perhaps our most distinguishing attribute yet, is the stable and strong democracy that we have sustained over the last two decades. This singular feat has made us the yardstick by which many other nations in Africa and beyond are measured. We have been beneficiaries of the democratic dividend that comes with an embrace and entrenchment of democratic practice.
These gains notwithstanding, the undesirable and distasteful behaviour and practices of the NPP has sought to sink Ghana’s image as a peaceful and democratic nation. Their taste for intra-party violence and unconventional methods as the preferred means of settling disagreements is seen as the major threat to our democratic practice.
It is under Akufo Addo’s supervision that the NPP Headquarters has been turned into an outpost of chaos and lawlessness where sporadic brawls take place. Their duly elected National Chairman and the General Secretary have been violently chased out of office and their positions usurped.
To mask this negative image, the NPP has resorted to bastardising, criminalising and distorting the true intentions behind government programmes and projects. Through this they hope to erode trust and confidence in the NDC government led by President Mahama. This attempt has failed! The people of Ghana are wide awake.
Let us remember that criminalising or bastardising a road project does not or will not erode the asphaltic concrete which the people are enjoying or will enjoy in the near future.
The contrived cynicism and deliberate instigation of the citizenry against government has failed and shall continue to fail. President Mahama and the NDC Government is delivering on the transformational agenda.
We shall relentlessly pursue the programmes and projects that are inuring to the benefits of Ghanaians. The NDC government under our visionary leader, President Mahama is changing lives and transforming Ghana. Come November 2016, the sovereign people of Ghana will speak. We are confident they will vote massively for President Mahama for a second term.
Thank you.
Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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