NPP Parliamentary candidate criticizes Government

Koforidua, Oct. 27, GNA - Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentary Candidate for New Juaben South, has criticized the Government, saying it lacks the vision to initiate major policies and programmes to alleviate Ghanaians from economic hardship.

Dr Assibey-Yeboah was speaking at a community forum held at Nyamekrom, a suburb of Koforidua, on Wednesday as part of his campaign strategy to win more votes in 2012.

He questioned the validity of current economic indicators where the inflationary rate was less than nine per cent and lending rates of the various commercial banks were around 25 per cent, yet prices of goods and services kept increasing by the day.

"I believe there is something wrong with the way the economic indicators were calculated, because they do not correspond with the situation on the ground", he emphasized.

Dr Assibey-Yeboah therefore appealed to the electorate not to renew the mandate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government come 2012, urging that the NPP be brought back to continue with its good policies.

He said the forum offered him the opportunity to introduce himself to the people of Nyamekrom and its surrounding villages, and also to learn at first hand their development challenges.

Dr Assibey-Yeboah asked the government to stop the blame game three years into its administration and rather focus on solving the doctors' strike and the myriad of other problems confronting the nation.

He lambasted government functionaries for being insensitive to the plight of the doctors as shown by their posture and utterances, and said the Government had also failed to tackle the housing deficit it promised to solve with the STX project.

He reminded the people of the NPP's track record in the area and said the NPP government initiated and executed numerous developmental projects locally within its eight years in the power.

Dr Assibey-Yeboah said he could 93sense the wind of change blowing" in Nyamekrom, which had always been an NDC stronghold.

He urged the people to register massively in the upcoming biometric registration exercise so that come 2012 they could send Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the NPP Presidential candidate, to the Jubilee House.

He said an Akufo-Addo's presidency would give them an economic boost from the savings they would make by enjoying free secondary school education.

Mr Maxwell Boakye, former National Youth Employment Coordinator of the New Juaben Municipality who had defected from the NDC, said the government was destroying the brilliant youth employment policy initiated by the NPP.

Mr. Michael Oteng-Adu, a defeated parliamentary aspirant, reiterated that the next NPP administration would focus on massive industrialization to create jobs for the youth of the area.

The constituency chairman, Mr. Agyena Sarpong, called for a united front to be able to maximize the party's votes in the constituency.