THE WESTERN Regional Organiser of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Kojo Acquah, has expressed concern about the way loyal supporters of the party in the urban centres have all of a sudden turned their back to the party and have joined hands with the opposition to continuously criticize the government in an unpalatable way.
He said during the previous elections, it was the National Democratic Party (NDC) that was controlling the rural areas, thus making it impossible for NPP to penetrate.
According to him, the trend has now changed in favour of NPP as they are now controlling the rural areas.
He, however, regretted that the urban centers, who backed NPP to power, have surprisingly lost confidence in the government, claiming that the government has disappointed them with some of her policies.
Speaking at Papa Owusu Ankomah’s “Meeting with my Constituents” programme at Kojokrom in the Sekondi constituency last Saturday, Kojo Acquah said if the NPP government has not done anything at all, it has been able to bring about a true freedom of speech which has enabled critics of the government to say what they want to say using the various media.
The seemingly emotionally charged Kojo Acquah further reminded supporters in the urban centres that the government came and met a lot of problems left behind by the NDC government and, therefore, it would be wrong for them to expect the government to bring everything under control within the shortest time that they have been in government.
According to him, when NDC was in power the take-home pay of the Ghanaian worker was nothing to write home about, but when NPP came in they increased it to an appreciable level with the corresponding stabilization of prices of food throughout the country, thus giving real meaning to the pay increase.
The regional organiser further said instead of stressing on this laudable achievement, supporters of the party in the urban centres have succumbed to the NDC propaganda strategy that the so-called economic success is not being felt in their pockets.
Kojo Acquah, who together with Mr. Peter Mac Manu, the regional party chairman, masterminded the NPP success in the Western Region during the last elections, also noted that Ghanaians have known the sort of bad policies (P)NDC government forced on us, therefore, it is incumbent upon loyal supporters of the party to help the government achieve her aim of liberating Ghanaians economically, instead of falling prey to NDC tricks that have been designed to bring the NPP government down.
“We appeal to all supporters of the party to remain loyal as the government also does her best to solve the numerous economic problems left behind by NDC to make life bearable for all of us,” he said.
Papa Owusu Ankomah, who, despite his busy schedule as the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, has been frequenting his constituency to interact with the people, noted on his part that for the country to achieve her economic success, the proper foundation has to be laid first, adding “this is what we are doing at the moment.”
He said Ghanaians would attest to the fact that when NPP took over power the economy was out of control, as prices of goods generally, interest rate, among others, were very high, not forgetting about the free fall of the cedi against the almighty dollar.
“Because of this, we decided to tackle the macroeconomic environment which has now resulted in the low interest rate being charged by the banks, low inflation and the stabilization of the dollar,” he explained, and added that the government is now working hard to stabilize the entire economy so that the benefits could be felt in the pockets of Ghanaians.
According to Owusu Ankomah, when NPP assumed office, they discovered that the previous NDC government was spending almost 90 per cent of revenue generated in the country on recurrent expenditure thus starving the country of the needed development projects.
He said all these things he has outlined have almost been remedied, but there are some people in this country who would not appreciate the good things being done by the government because of enviness.
“Those who voted for us must stand firmly behind us. By the next four years, all of you would begin to see the result of our good policies,” he concluded.
Present was Ms. Abena Kwalla, the Regional Women’s Organiser of the party.
