NDC provided free sandals – Omane Boamah replies Bawumia

Former Minister of Communications under the erstwhile John Mahama government, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, has responded to Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s call on the NDC to showcase any of its social intervention projects when it was in office from January 2009 to January 2017.

He said the NDC provided uniforms and sandals for selected pupils for free.

It would be recalled that in a recent address at the 2018 Annual Dinner Dance of the United Kingdom Branch of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Bawumia had challenged the opposition NDC to pinpoint a single social intervention programme it implemented which brought relief to Ghanaians during its two terms in office.

The Vice-President had portrayed the NDC as a party that is making unnecessary noise about the sufferings of Ghanaians under the Akufo-Addo government.

He was emphatic that the NDC in spite of the noise it is making in opposition about the sufferings of Ghanaians under the current administration, it cannot point out a single social intervention programme it introduced in its eight-year rule that was characterized by erratic power supply (dumsor), economic meltdown and high youth unemployment.

But in a statement directly responding to the Vice President’s call on the NDC to showcase any of its social intervention projects, Dr. Omane Boamah wondered why Dr. Bawumia decided to travel on such a path.

That, for him, was because the NDC during its tenure of office succeeded in rolling out many social interventions and infrastructural projects which Dr. Bawumia should have seen, saying that “also, the NDC deems social infrastructure as critical to the overall wellbeing of Ghanaians.”

Projects

The former communications minister went on to list the Ridge Hospital expansion project, the construction of University of Health and Allied Sciences, the Community Day Senior High Schools, expansion of facilities on several campuses, the University of Ghana Medical Centre, the Bank of Ghana Hospital, the Maritime Hospital, the Dodowa District Hospital, as some of the projects the NDC undertook whilst in office.

“In the water sector, if today the market for the yellow Kufuor gallons has diminished, then it is to the credit of the NDC. Dr. Bawumia, do not ignore the long distances that women and children have walked in the past in search of potable drinking water and do not ignore the plight of the people of Adenta in recent past,” Dr. Omane Boamah added.

Interestingly, his claim that NDC succeeded in improving the water delivery system for many Ghanaians comes at a time when the German Industry and Commerce in Ghana (AHK Ghana) has released a report on access to clean drinking water and sustainable water management in Ghana, which shows gross inefficiencies in delivering clean drinking water to Ghanaians during the era of the NDC administration.

Below is Dr. Edward Omane Boamah’s full response to Dr. Bawumia: