NPP doesn't know how to build a prosperous country – Mahama

President John Mahama has taken a swipe at the largest opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) saying the party lacks the understanding of how to build a prosperous country.

The Mahama-led administration has invested massively in infrastructural projects in the last four years for which reason it believes it must be retained at the polls in December, but critics of the party has questioned that claiming that is not putting money in the pockets of the Ghanaians.

But addressing the Chiefs and people of Anfoega as part of his tour of the Volta Region on Wednesday, President Mahama stated that his government is laying the foundation for the growth of the economy through infrastructure development which will ultimately ensure that the living conditions of Ghanaians are enhanced.

“They don’t understand how to build a prosperous nation, this is simple economics. You must put the infrastructure so that it will stimulate the growth of the economy. And so when you have built the infrastructure then you build the house on top of the infrastructure. If you don’t have good roads can you evacuate the food products from Anfoega to the markets…you can’t. If you don’t have hospitals and the farmers in Anfoega are sick can they produce food for you to eat? If you don’t have water and they drink dirty water and they have water borne diseases, can they produce food for you to eat? If you don’t have electricity can you do any productive small and medium enterprise here in Anfoega…you can’t, so it is important to invest in social and economic infrastructure and when you have built the foundation, you put the rest of the super structure on it and that is what we are doing.

He added: “And so the next administration of John Dramani Mahama is going to be based on what we call the economic transformation and livelihood empowerment programme. Then as a programme, we’ll expand the skills of work so that they can get jobs to do. No President is going to come to Ghana one day and line all the people and say everybody come and get here is free money put it in your pocket, it will never happen. The only way to put money in your pocket is to work for it and even the Bible says so.”