Ghana 'finished' under Akufo-Addo – Ayariga

The founder and leader of the All People’s Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga, has asked Ghanaians to brace themselves for worse times under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

According to him, the president does not have the country at heart but only thinks of his family and cronies in the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

“Fellow Ghanaians, please, please, brace yourselves for very difficult and hard times ahead because President Nana Addo is not working for Ghana but for his family and NPP. Nana is not in control of the government but people have taken over the nation trying to sort themselves out.

“Ghana is finished, I tell you, Ghana is finished. We urgently need a vibrant third force in order to salvage our country and give our people the liberty to control our nation’s resources and restore hope for our poor people”, he said on Thursday, 31 May 2018, at a press conference in Accra to assess the 16-month-old Akufo-Addo government.

Below is Mr Hassan Ayariga’s full statement

PRESS STATEMENT BY ALL PEOPLE’S CONGRESS (APC) FOUNDER/LEADER, DR. HASSAN AYARIGA ON THE AKUFFO ADDO ADMINISTRATIONS PERFORMANCE SO FAR, ON 31st MAY 2018.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, you are welcome to yet again another press conference. Let me, first of all, thank you again sincerely for honoring our previous conferences and propagating our concerns for the attention of Ghanaians and the world. Today we are appraising the Nana Akufo-Addo administrations performance so far. This is in line with the president’s own directive to us to be citizens and not spectators.

It is almost half the tenure of his regime and APC haven't judged him. APC gave him enough time to put up his government so we can assess his style of leadership and governance. In our assessment of the country’s governance under President Akufo-Addo, today we see a government which;

1. is unable to complete even a quarter of the numerous promises NPP made in the 2016 campaign;

2. is a government of friends, family, business associates, Baby Mamas and concubines;

3. A government of corruption, as if in a contest to win the 'coveted ' title of the most corrupt appointee, the Jubilee House itself down to the least government department now reeks, on a daily basis of graft and sleaze;

4. A government of Insecurity;

5. A Government of failed promises and further promising;

6. A Government of Lies, Hopelessness, and Deceit;

7. A Government of arrogance, bluff, ignorance and threats.

8. A Government of Unprecedented hardship and anguish for the masses;

9. A Government of inconsistency and gross incompetence

10. A Government of autopilot, no direction and no policy plans. Anything goes!

One would have thought that with Nana Akufo-Addo level of experience in politics, law, education, exposure and understanding coupled with his maturity, he will be the expected hope of the Ghanaian people. But what Ghanaians are now seeing is that leadership is not measured by these much talked about qualities.

The Ghanaian people hitherto had lots of hope in him, that he would be the Messiah of our time as he promised in 2016 as compared to former President John Dramani Mahama who was tried and tested. But now Ghanaians can confidently say that a book must not be judged by its cover.

Ghana is worse than before and sorry the baton is in President Akufo-Addo’s hand. He has virtually collapsed our Economy. With the rest of his tenure, what else can he do? Even within his party (NPP) he has lost control and popularity, they have lost hope in him which is evident in his regional tours, his supporters are unwilling to come out in their numbers to welcome him. Party aspirants he sponsored lost miserably in his party's just ended Constituencies and Regional elections except for the few he was able to force their opponents to withdraw from the contest. I can confidently say that the rest of his favourites will lose the NPP's upcoming National Congress.

Corruption

Recently, while on a tour of the Brong Ahafo region the president stated that corruption is on the decline under his administration, I want to know, which corruption was he talking about? Is it the corruption within the Jubilee House or the one within the NPP? As far as Ghanaians are concerned, corruption has rather leapfrogged without Dr. Bawumia arresting it. I ask myself is Nana Addo in this country or he is in someone’s pocket. The most recent figures from an anticorruption agency, Transparency International indicated that we have dropped some 5 points to now be at 81. Ghana is now the 5th destination of doing business in the sub-region as compared to 4th two years ago

Since NPP took over power 15 months ago, Ghana has recorded more than 15 corruption scandals within their government, it's almost like we record more than one scandal every month. So far it's been “one month-one-corruption scandal” we are experiencing. So which one is reducing?

1. The $2.25Billion dubious Ken Bond? 2. The Fraudulent $2.5million GhanaPost GPS app? 3. The numerous acts of Fuel contamination at BOST? 4. The GHS 20million Ghana @60 ‘chop chop’? 5. The Jubilee House $20,000 gate fees? 6. $100,000 Presidential dinner fees? 7. GHS 800, 000 Website design by the Minister of Special Initiatives? 8. $179million Kelni GVG Communications Ministry scandal? 9. $5million Presidential business transaction fees? 10. $3million Vice-presidential business transaction fees? 11. $1million Sports Minister's business transaction fees? 12. $500,000 Asenso-Boakye's Presidential reminder fees? 13. MASLOC Fiat Panda Scandal? 14. The NSS-MIT scandal? 15. Gh3.3m NHIS ‘chop chop’ money

Ladies and gentlemen, there is something fishy happening at the NIA, Professor Ken Attefuah intends to actualise our dream of registering Ghanaian citizens and that is good to hear but the conditions attached is very provoking. Only Ghanaian passports and birth certificates are the only acceptable means of identifying a Ghanaian, and that is a recipe for chaos. How many Ghanaians have access to Ghanaian passports and birth certificates in this country? Are we not going to deny many Ghanaians from registering which will in turn disenfranchise them? Are we now denying our citizens living in the Zongos and Slums who most likely don't have access to these requirements their rights?



Fellow Ghanaians, listen to the biggest corruption scandal ever in our history, Ken Attefuah is doing the Ghana card registration at a cost of $1.2billion with our tax money. Intriguing, isn’t it? $1.2billion for Ghana card registration for only 27 million Ghanaian citizens? How did we get here? Mr. President, is this how you are protecting our public purse? President Akufo-Addo and his NPP biggies are really milking this country!

India recently did a similar registration of their 1.3 billion citizens with only $1.7billion, so how come it is costing Ghana $1.2billion to register only 27 million citizens? In the erstwhile regime, the cost of acquiring a fast track Ghanaian passport was GHS 100.00 and GHS20: 00 for a birth certificate. Today, per their budget we are paying Ghs200. 00 for an ordinary National Identification Card! How ridiculous! No country in the world pays that much for an ordinary ID card. Under the NPP government today, an ordinary Ghanaian ID card is more expensive than that of a Ghanaian passport and birth certificate put together. Interesting.

This is corruption at its highest level! Really, this is unacceptable! The corruption under this government stinks too much, it is our worse since independence and we must arise as citizens before this government sell us all. That NIA contract is an embarrassment, it must be abrogated immediately, no wonder it has failed.

ANAS EXPOSÉ

Indeed, the intolerance of our president was exhibited in the case of Anas’s exposé. A privilege accorded him as the first gentleman of the land to first view just a portion of the investigative piece before it premiere and he couldn’t contain the fact that his name came up in the documentary.

There are however more questions to be answered;

1. The president wants to be seen as fighting corruption so when news broke of an alleged involvement of his Deputy Sports Minister, Pius Enam Hadzide in visa racketeering, he was immediately asked to step aside to allow for a fair and objective investigation. Why won’t the president and his Veep, my brother Bawumia who have been named in the said tape also step aside to allow for fair and objective investigation?

2. Ghanaians are gradually under the impression that this whole Nyantakyi arrest, etc., is a well-rehearsed stagecraft just to take the wind out of the storm of Ghanaians’ anger when the video airs on June 6

3. On what basis will Nyantakyi, a lawyer and president of Ghana’s Football Association just mention the president’s involvement in crime if he didn’t mean it

4. Had Nyantakyi not bribed the president before would he have mentioned his name, and what is the relationship between the president and Nyantakyi

5. If president Akufo-Addo thinks this is the way to fight corruption, then I am sorry he is rather endorsing corruption by each day and his government smells of nothing but corruption, with two years in government

6. How many foreign investors has Kwesi Nyantakyi been successful at bringing into the country, if any have we invited them for questioning and so on.

And I want to know: Is Mr. Kennedy Agyapong fighting Anas as an individual not to premiere the video or is a directive of the NPP? But let me reiterate Ghanaians would lose confidence in Anas if Number 12 video is not premiered.

Insecurity

There is growing insecurity in the system. Government is not in control. The Security of the country has deteriorated beyond reasonable doubts! Criminals are protected by nolle prosequi, miscreants are encouraged, and criminality has been entrenched by subtle executive order. Our courts are threatened and the masses are DOOMED.

The indiscriminate shooting of unarmed galamseyers who are fighting for their economic freedom by Operation Vanguard is unacceptable. Why kill galamseyers instead of arresting them? Which of our existing laws permits such a barbaric act?

There are numerous cases of armed robbery in the country and we all know what happened a few months back, the 1-day-1-robbery phenomenon that claimed the life of the Lebanese business man at Spintex road and several others. My condolences to the bereaved families.

The NPP's acts of vigilantism if not checked will give birth to terrorism in this country. The President should ask his Nigerian counterpart how Boko Haram started, and they have been battling their terrorism since.

Let me also add that there is loot and share at the Ghana Police Service currently. Government’s decision to procure vehicles for the Ghana Police Service to combat crime has turned into a ‘chop chop’. 2015 model Toyota Salon Police Vehicles are currently being converted into 2018 model Vehicles in Dubai. The result is a price hike to fool us to doll out hefty sums into NPP pockets to enjoy free. Very soon you will see the cars in Ghana, and even why Saloon Cars?

Economy

The cost of doing business is going up too high. What is happening today? The Bank of Ghana has tried unsuccessfully to massage figures to paint the government white. The country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is almost 70% but the central bank mischievously wanted every Ghanaian to believe all is well by putting out a false figure of 60%.

Banks are being distressed and being compelled to collapse. The so-called one district one factory has become a Kweku Ananse story. There is nothing to boast about it. The rhetoric now is it will be done by 2020. This is a clear admission that the government has no tangible scheme to implement this abstract program. There are many investors who are complaining the government itself does not understand the policy judging from the frustrations they are going through in trying to access it. As a result no bank is even ready to commit any financial resources to any business plan submitted under the project.

Fuel prices are on the rise unstoppable. We all know how high fuel prices catalyse the hike in commodity prices. Yesterday transport unions have threatened to increase transport fares by 10%. The result is an adverse effect on the poor masses who bought into the deception of fuel price reduction when the NPP assumes power. It is the poor countryside dwellers who cannot afford fares to market let alone purchase any stuff who will be hard hit. It is a pathetic development especially when the people at the helm of affairs are looting state resources haphazardly.

The Deputy Minister of Finance, Kweku Kwarteng, recently indicated new taxes are going to be rolled out in the mid-year budget review. This is a warning of more nuisance taxes to come. Already the ports are becoming no go areas for importers. Freight forwarders are agitating against the introduction of a third single window company, Afripas. How sensible is it to operate three single window company in the same port? What is wrong with us? Is the president thinking about the poor people who will suffer from the excessive charges being passed unto them? Government should stop its fixation on figures and solve the real economic challenges confronting the average Ghanaian; lorry fare, petrol price, rent, electricity and water tariff, etc.

Agriculture

During the president’s recent tour of the Brong Ahafo region, I heard a farmer complaining cocoa trees are being felled for rubber plantations. A major foreign currency earner is being destroyed yet we are quiet as if it portends good omen.

Our indefatigable Minister of Food and Agriculture has managed to engage 745,000 army worms and mistakenly claimed it was employment for human beings. He told us he has dealt with the army worms invasions only for his outfit to admit they were not successful after wasting over GHc600million of our tax money. Now food prices are going high. Prices of Maize is going too high while tomato becomes scarce. We are importing tomato from Burkina Faso. I want to believe the Burkinabes are benefitting from the so-called planting for food and jobs more than Ghanaians. We cannot see any impact of this program that was generously funded by the Canadian government. Strangely another 20% of the DACF is being pushed there to be siphoned away.

We cannot farm all year round, we have no approach to mechanised farming and our 1 village 1 dam policy still remains a mirage. We were told by Dr. Bawumia during the 2017 raining season that the much-touted dams can't be constructed because of the rain, dry season came and the same Dr. Bawumia said the dams can't be constructed in the dry season and that we should wait for the rains to start again. My brothers and sisters, is this how we joke in this country? Government must get serious.

Unemployment

Ladies and gentlemen, unemployment is rather high inexplicably. The jobs being promised have turned into a mystic program that has neither legal basis nor funding sources. I am talking about the much touted Nation Builders Corp (NaBCo). I heard the government boasting so far 130,000 citizens applied for the program. Good! But you are going to employ 100,000. This number you have budgeted only GHS 600m while saying you will pay each of them GHS700.00. Even a music student at a glance will easily tell you this is mathematically nonsensical!

In any case by what calculation was the illegal 20% of district assemblies common fund deduction for NaBCo arrived at? What are the assemblies going to survive on? How sustainable is it going to be when the DACF have always been in arrears for years? Does it mean this poor citizens are going to be working without pay for months? With the fluctuations in the state revenue, what is going to be used to pluck the gap in case there is a shortfall in revenue collection? The government have not been able to operationalise the hurriedly created new district assemblies. Most of them are without infrastructure. They will also be factored into the sharing of the DACF. Where is their survival?

Let me also warn that there is an impending danger if a second look is not given to the Heal Ghana module of NABCO. Trained Nurses are professionals and inadequate in our system. The Nurse to Patient ratio is nothing good to talk about. Government has scrapped Bonding system where trained nurses can be automatically absorbed and is rather now seeking to convert trained nurses into 'zoom' nurses. That's deadly and I will tell you why; Trained Nurses under NABCO will work with their colleagues trained nurses from Ghana Health Services for the same number of hours and perform similar duties but receive different salaries. This will in turn create dissatisfaction and breed anger, an angry nurse is a potential killer and we all know that, besides, which of our existing laws permits such a policy? Let's take another look at Heal Ghana again.

The jobs the NPP promised our unemployed graduates isn't forthcoming. No employment has been created so far, except the secret 'sack and replace' wicked policy of the government. If you sack employees and recruit new ones have you created employment? Well that's what government is doing and wants us to believe they're creating employment. Besides, you must have a certain name to qualify for employment in this country today. The family and friends policy of employing unemployed graduates only guarantees the 'Akuffos' and the 'Ofori Attas'. The most nepotistic government ever in our history. Very sad.

Infrastructure

Just yesterday the students in the University of Ghana have begun an Operationalise UGMC campaign to compel Akufo-Addo to put the ultra-modern National Asset to use. It beats all sensible reasoning that a health facility of that magnitude is being left to rot while many trained nurses and doctors are sitting home watching citizens die daily. Is this witchcraft or just a political wickedness because it will give credit to the predecessor who built it? Is former President John Mahama going to sleep in the Medical Centre? Why are we so thoughtless about our national development? Similarly I am aware that the Bank of Ghana Hospital has also been abandoned. Oh what wise men we have now! Mr President, please with the greatest respect, OPEN ALL MEDICAL FACILITIES THAT ARE READY FOR USE NOW, to save lives.

It is again sad that the Akuffo addo administration has left the eastern corridor project. This is a road that connects the entire vertical stretch of this country; a very critical link for economic activities to flourish. Again just because it began under their main rivals, it must be left to rot. Governance is a continuous business, these reckless behaviours are horrible; they should be checked.

Again, the NPP has borrowed over GHC 40billion so far, and there is absolutely nothing to show for it. No new road has been constructed, no school has been constructed, no Hospital has been constructed, no toilet has been constructed with the money borrowed. So I ask and you must also ask, where is the money? Was it used for consumption? Hmmmmm interesting times ahead.

Sanitation

The president promised he will make Accra the cleanest city. A whole ministry has, therefore, been dedicated to this but what do we see? Filth everywhere. Recently the Kwame Nkrumah circle lorry station was reported to be home of maggot infested garbage trucks that have nowhere to dump their contents and parked there with stench in the heart of the city. A whopping GHc1.5billion cedis was set aside to be used by the government to dredge the Odaw lagoon. This was the same project Mr. Ibrahim Mahama was doing for free with state machinery. We were made to believe that he was stealing state property.

In many other parts of the country refuse disposal has become an albatross. I am imagining there is no clue available for the minister of sanitation. The lack of reshuffling has kept him dormant on the job much to the delight of his equally incompetent boss. We are prone to all manner of diseases now as a result. Only God can help us now.

President Nana Addo is not thinking of the suffering Ghanaians, our president is busy settling campaign debts, campaign financiers and NPP party financiers , he is trying as much as possible to settle financiers From 2008 campaign, 2012 campaign and 2016 campaign, it’s a surprise for Ghanaians not to witness any reshuffle from this government after almost two years in power despite massive corruption tag His Ministers and appointees.

Fellow Ghanaians please brace your belts for very difficult and hard times ahead, because President Nana Addo is not working for Ghana but for his family and NPP party. Nana is not in control of the government but people have taken over the Nation trying to sort themselves out. Ghana is finished. We urgently need a vibrant Third force in order to salvage our country and give our people the liberty to control our nation and restore hope for our Poor peoples

I’m told Ghana’s finance minister has been awarded Finance Minister of the year. Congratulations! Well we have taken our level of corruption beyond Ghana. The Government of Ghana has borrowed in recent times than any other government and country in our history, yet he is awarded the best minister. If awards are being given based on the amount a nation borrows then yes our Minister deserves to be the best minister.

Let me take this opportunity to remind President Nana Akufo-Addo, the entire NPP machinery and Ghanaians that, we are still paying;

1. Higher Electricity bills 2. Higher Rents 3. Higher water bills 4. Higher health care services 5. Higher Fuel prices 6. Higher cost of living 7. Higher exchange rates 8. Higher spare parts prices 9. Higher food prices.

Mr. President since you took over the leadership of our nation, nothing good has changed. Abosokai spare parts dealers are still waiting to enjoy your reforms. Graduate unemployment is on the rise, market women and men are suffering to make ends meet. All our roads are at a deplorable state including the road leading to my house.

The issues so far are;

Worse Economic situation

Food insecurity

High unemployment

One District One Factory, a puzzle

National identification schemes, a disaster and a complete failure.

One constituency One million Dollars, a mystery.

It is my hope that with all these failures, President Akufo-Addo should strive hard to alleviate the troubles he and his appointees have imposed on us. We do not deserve this hardship at all. It is enough. Mr President please do something better. We are crying and suffering.

Thank you.

Dr. Hassan Ayariga Founder/Leader; APC.