Jake Asks Mills: Where Is The Action Year?

President Mills’ christening of this year as “Action Year”, a year when Ghanaians will witness the execution and implementation of most of the promises he made in the run up to the 2008 general elections, has been described by Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey as being a farce as “absolutely nothing has happened and will happen to transform the lives of Ghanaians in this year or the next.”

The NPP chairman, in an interview with the New Statesman, says the series of events that have taken place in the country since Professor JEA Mills took office continues to show how grand the act of deception put out by Mills and the National democratic Congress was to get Ghanaians to vote for him in 2008, after 8 years of trying.

Jake cited the litany of broken promises since the NDC assumed the reins of office as proof of the government’s, and indeed President Mills’, proven inability to deliver on the promises outlined in the “Action Year”.

“This ‘Action Year’ has seen the STX housing project fail, $1.8 billion Eastern Corridor road project fail, the abandoning of major road and infrastructural projects across the country, the rationing of electricity, water and migration of workers onto the Single Spine Salary Structure, stalling of SADA....... the list is endless,” the NPP chairman noted.

“However, in this ‘Action Year’ corruption has double doubled, prices of goods and services have double doubled, utility tariffs have double doubled and petroleum prices, which candidate Mills promised to reduce drastically, have double doubled. Virtually the prices of everything have double doubled under Mills,” Jake explained.

It is recalled that President Mills made this famous declaration in December 2010 when he addressed a delegation from China led by the Mr. Fan Bing, Managing Director of Standard Bank, the biggest bank in the world.

President Mills said at the meeting that, “Time is not on our side and we want the year 2011 to be a year of action. Our people are very expectant and justifiably so because we have made them aware of the generosity of our brothers and sisters from China. They know that there are a lot of things in the pipeline and they are itching to see what is going to be on the ground.”

According to Jake, “Koku Anyidoho in giving meaning to President Mills’ declaration stated this year we will see, the Volta University, the Brong Ahafo University, the Kotokraba market, the Cape Coast Stadium, the Eastern Corridor, major rehabilitation works at our ports, more schools, more hospitals as well as massive housing projects coming alive”.

“This is a President Ghanaians cannot afford to trust anymore”, Jake opined, a clear rebuttal of Koku Anyidoho’s assertion that “you will see for yourselves that President Atta Mills is not a man of cheap political talk; he is a man of his words.”

Taking President Mills to task on some of his promises, Jake said the stalled nature of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority, a campaign promise by Prof Mills and also contained in the 2008 manifesto, goes to prove how the people the three Northern regions have been deceived by President Mills.

“Almost three years into the administration of the NDC, the government is unsure about the amount of money that should be allocated to SADA and no effective programmes have been set up in connection with this. SADA should have realised GH¢500 million, however, the NDC has only given GH¢25 million so far”, Jake said.

The rushed nature of the $3 billion dollar Chinese loan, which has been vetoed by the International Monetary Fund, also came under scrutiny from the NPP chairman.

According to Jake, all the NPP sought to do, as a responsibly opposition and minority in Parliament, was to ensure Transparency, probity and accountability in the loan facility agreement. However, the NDC sought to portray the NPP as a party against the development of the Western Region.

“From what I hear, the IMF says there’s a violation of the Government of Ghana’s commitment to limit non-concessional loans in 2011 to $500 million. The limits will have to be negotiated for 2012 but until then, the $3 billion loan agreement for this year is a no go. Once again the Mills has deceived Ghanaians as the projects, contained in the loan agreement, outlined for this year will certainly not happen,” Jake said.

The “I care for you Mantra” used by President Mills in the 2008 campaign, according to Jake, had been nothing but a lie as he has demonstrated his love and care only for those who sing his praises.

“Ghanaians are getting poorer and poorer under President Mills’ ‘Better Ghana’. Mills has shown he is hypocrite who came to lie to Ghanaians and delivered misery and 2012 is a time for the NPP to bring back hope to all Ghanaians”, he stated.