NPP blasts Mahama over wild campaign promises

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) yesterday went to town, almost stripping President John Mahama and the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) naked regarding their failed promises.

This was when the NPP Communications Director, Nana Akomea, addressed a press conference in Accra to respond to fresh promises by President Mahama when highlighting the NDC’s yet-to-be-launched manifesto Tuesday evening.

The president among other things, promised to give every student one tablet when re-elected, even though he still has not fulfilled the ‘one student, one laptop’ promises he made in 2012.

He went as far as exposing lots of promises the NDC candidate made but had still failed to fulfill – from the year 2008 when he was the running mate to Prof Atta Mills till date – and therefore, stressed the need for Ghanaians not to fall for the deceptive schemes to get their votes.

That, Nana Akomea said, was because President Mahama’s records indicate that he is not one who can keep, let alone fulfill promises; therefore, he cannot be trusted because he has gained notoriety for broken promises, including fixing the power crisis by his first year in office (2013).

First was the NDC’s promise to create another region out of the Northern Region in the year 2009.

Failed promises

According to Nana Akomea, “Eight years down the line, there has been no such fulfillment” yet, the president has promised to create five more when re-elected in the upcoming general election.

He also recalled Mahama’s promise to establish an independent fraud investigator [independent of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice] with powers to initiate prosecution on his (investigator’s) own to deal with corruption in October 2008 during the manifesto launch of the NDC. But that had not seen the light of day.

At the time, Mahama said the party would also amend the country’s Constitution to review the authority of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for it not to require complaints before initiating investigations and also have the power to investigate allegations of corruption without requesting evidence from the complainant.

That was aside the promise by the NDC in 2008 to make legislative and policy reforms to give minimum 40% representation to women in senior government positions.

Interestingly however, Nana Akomea said though none of these promises and many more had been fulfilled yet, President Mahama continues to deceive Ghanaians with fresh promises, most of which he said are stolen ideas from the NPP and its flag bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo. Chief among which was Nana’s promise to trigger the constitutional process to create new regions when elected in December. Mahama is also saying he is also planning to trigger a similar process to create new regions.

After Nana had promised to have metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives elected, President Mahama has also said he would to do same when re-elected.

Interestingly, in the year 2011, the NDC administration issued a White Paper against the recommendation of the Constitution Review Commission to have MMDCEs elected if re-elected this December.

It was one of the reasons why Nana Akomea said the president steals ideas from his political opponents only to be found wanting when it comes to their implementation and that Mahama and his NDC have no intention to deliver on their manifesto promises if Ghanaians make the mistake of re-electing them for 12 straight years this December.

Stolen ideas

Below are excerpts of promises made by Nana Akufo-Addo, according to Nana Akomea, which President Mahama is also promising to do.

NPP promises to create new geographical development authorities to oversee the deliberate development of every inhabited corner of the country.

President Mahama yesterday gave the same promise.

In March 2016, Akufo-Addo announced to the chiefs and people of Suma Ahenkro, in Jaman North, Brong-Ahafo Region, that as part of his plans to transform cashew farming into a major cash crop and export earner for Ghana, he would establish a Cashew Marketing Board to regulate the industry and provide ready market just as it is done for cocoa.

Last night, President Mahama stole from Akufo-Addo yet again saying, “We will establish a cashew board with its headquarters in the Brong-Ahafo Region.”

NPP was implementing ‘One Child One Latop’ policy by 2008 – a policy spearheaded by the late Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, President Kufuor’s Finance Minister.

President Mahama is today promising to implement a ‘one tablet one child’ policy after the NDC had killed that scheme in 2009, only to make it seem like a new idea and a new promise today.

The NPP had a Deputy Minister of Education in-charge of Technical Education – Kwame Ampofo Twumasi was Deputy Minister of Education, Youth & Sports in charge of Technical Education in 2008.

The NDC elected to abandon it in 2009, only for President Mahama to re-introduce it now as a new idea he wishes to implement if re-elected.

NPP promises to implement in 2017 the National ID cards which President Mahama has totally abandoned since he assumed office after the Kufuor administration had started it.

President Mahama, after listening to Dr Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia last Thursday, now promises to do the same.

If re-elected, the President has repeated his 2008 promise given at the KNUST Energy Forum that an NDC government would provide “energy security” in Ghana before 2012. Yesterday he repeated, “We will have off-takers for excess electricity” produced here in Ghana. He again made a promise in 2012 that Ghana would be exporting power if elected, only to hit Ghana with the longest power crisis on record.

After watching many potential investors in our petroleum industry leave the country, President Mahama says he wants Ghana to become “the petroleum hub of West Africa.

In its 2012 manifesto, the NPP promised to make the Western Region “the hub of the oil & gas industry” in West Africa. Earlier, on several platforms, including a speech delivered in Houston, Texas, USA, in February 2012, Nana Akufo-Addo said, the NPP was looking at how Houston had successfully managed its petroleum industry through “the diversification and industrialization of a state that used to be dependent on cotton. It is this model of the integrated petrochemical industry that we seek to build in Ghana, servicing the entire oil-rich West African.”

President Mahama says he will “expand the investment under SADA to construct more irrigation facilities.” Recalling how some $200 million of SADA money flew away illegally to irrigate corrupt private pockets, what the president actually means to say is that he would give away more money through corruption in the false name of the people in the North. “If he has failed to prosecute one single person for the hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from the people of the North through SADA, then why would throwing more money at it deter any corrupt person from doing the same thing?”

The President says the IMF programme he forced Ghana through “will be the last.”

Nana Akomea countered, “We must remind him that NPP successfully weaned Ghana off the IMF in 2007.”

He continued, “The 2016 NDC manifesto is also noted for repeating failed promises. The NDC in 2008 promised to create full employment. Instead, what they did was to build a strong foundation for creating massive unemployment. NYEP left NDC 110,000 employed. Today, its replacement after the scandalously corrupt GYEEDA, YEA, he admits now has less than 70,000 young people employed.”