Akufo-Addo accused of “plagiarism”

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has described the so-called “Real State of the Nation Address” presented by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as “nothing but a cacophonous rendition of criticism bereft of real solutions.”

“The New Patriotic Party failed to tell Ghanaians how they will tackle corruption when elected into power. They failed to proffer real solutions to the many problems that the NDC have bedevilled Ghanaians with.”

PPP asserted in a statement issued yesterday.

Signed by its National Secretary, Murtala Mohammed, the PPP said the NPP flag-bearer during his address eloquently described the precarious nature of joblessness among the teeming youth, but failed as usual to “proffer practical or real solutions to reverse that trend.”

The PPP also accused Nana Addo of plagiarizing its Ten-point Agenda and presenting same as his.

Nana Addo last Monday told Ghanaians that “the time has come to bring accountability to local government through competitive politics.

The election of DCEs at the local level can no longer be delayed.”

He promised that “an Independent Special Prosecutor with a legislative mandate to deal with corruption will be appointed and empowered to tackle corruption in a non-partisan manner.”

He also promised to ensure the issuance of the National ID cards in the first year of an NPP government as part of his plan towards the formalisation of the Ghanaian economy.

But the PPP insisted that these “solutions offered were all copied or culled from the ten (10) point agenda of the Progressive People’s Party such as the Election of MMDCEs, Separation of the Attorney-General’s Department from the Ministry of Justice and Fixing the National Identification Authority.”

The party therefore, welcomed the NPP’s decision to associate itself with some of PPP’s key policy positions.

“However, as long as they are copying from us, we wish to suggest their adoption of other important policies,” it added.

These policies include “providing quality education for every Ghanaian child,

standardise school facilities from kindergarten to Senior High School with libraries, toilets, classrooms, kitchen, housing for teachers, playground, etc., and ensure free and compulsory education in public schools from kindergarten to Senior High School (including computer training).”

The PPP further promised to deploy an “Education Police” to enforce the compulsory aspect of its policy.

It said “an integral part of this objective will be an objective to significantly increase vocational training so that all school leavers gain employable skills. This will include a comprehensive sports programme to instil discipline and promote better health.”

The PPP further pledged to strengthen Parliament to perform its legislative duties effectively as well as sponsor changing the Constitution to abolish the provision that allows ministers of state to also serve as Members of Parliament.

“We believe that this move will make available for governance a large pool of qualified, experienced Ghanaian talent whose expertise is currently unused and therefore lost to Ghana. This we will aim to complete in one term of office. Concurrent with this objective will be a solid determination to give Parliament the facilities and resources needed to pass good laws and scrutinise the proposals submitted by the Executive effectively.”

The PPP therefore, invited Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP to join the PPP for a real crusade to rid Parliament of elected members who are “masquerading as legislators but in reality using the chamber as a waiting period for appointment into the executive.”

It averred that the poor state of Ghana was partly due to successive administrations' refusal to give power back to the people to elect their own district chief executives (DCEs) for effective decentralisation and grassroots development.

“The over concentration of power in the hands of the executive has been a huge problem facing this country and the NPP cannot pretend not to be aware that that is the cause of gargantuan corruption and gross mismanagement that has manifested in the failures of President Mahama’s administration today.”

The PPP maintained, saying it “remains the only political party in Ghana with real solutions to our problems. Ghanaians must be awake and choose the PPP in November 2016.”