Lies can’t win Akufo-Addo elections – Asiedu Nketia

Opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been warned to desist from campaigning on falsehood if he has ambitions of winning any election in the country.

The advice came from the General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, during an interview on Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM’s morning show, on Tuesday May 17, 2016.

Mr Asiedu Nketia, known more commonly as General Mosquito, said the NPP was pushing an agenda of lies actuated by its flagbearer, using the party’s media outlets, mainly allied radio stations and newspapers.

“He thinks lies can win elections,” General Mosquito said in reference to Mr Akufo-Addo, adding: “But let me tell the NPP that untruths do not win elections anymore in this country.”

He touched on corruption, which he said was one subject Mr Akufo-Addo and his party had tried to ride on to propagate untruths about the NDC government. He said Mr Akufo-Addo and the NPP were desperately creating the perception that corruption had worsened under the current administration, though the facts available revealed otherwise.

He told host C.J. Forson: “This issue of corruption he’s harped on, he’s been shown records by those who assess corruption in this country. The figures show that ever since Ghana ranked 54th globally on the corruption table, something which happened under the rule of Jerry Rawlings, no Ghanaian government had been able to perform better.

"I have not heard Nana Akufo-Addo’s comments on this grading, because if you compare it to an assessment somewhere around 2003, when the NPP was in power, from our 54th position under [President] Rawlings, we slumped to 73rd. But in the latest rankings for 2015, Ghana has moved back up to 56th and is one of the countries tackling corruption. So, throughout the eight years of President Kufuor, they came nowhere near the 50s; Ghana has moved up to 56 under President Mahama.”

He explained that corrupt acts had come to light because of the president’s fight against the vice, but “has been misinterpreted by Akufo-Addo as rising corruption”.