- It’s Time To Set The Records Straight
Produced By NDC Forum For Setting The Records Straight
NPP’s Lies About Capitation Grant
• The NPP and Akufo Addo are lying when they say education at the basic level is FREE today.
• NPP takes us for fools when they say that the capitation grant of 3 Gh cedis a year (1 Gh cedis a term or 25 pesewas a month), has made education free at the basic level
• The capitation grant of 25 pesewas a month cannot even buy one ball of kenkey for the school child today
• The personal fortunes of NPP officials have “Moved Forward” so much that NPP thinks that the total expenditure incurred by parents on a school child every term is only 1 Ghana cedi today.
• Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 4) estimates that the average expenditure incurred by parents per child in primary school is 122,000 old cedis in the rural areas and between 157,000 and 370,000 old cedis in the urban areas.
• A survey by the Ghana Education Service (GES) has revealed that expenditure on pupils in primary 1 to 3 averages 123,000 old cedis and that of pupils between primary 4 to 6 averages 126,000. This cost does not include the huge cost parents incur feeding their children.
• Parents of children entering primary one in the average public school in Accra today have to spend about 170,000 old Cedis (17 gh cedis) to buy stationery and other materials. This expenditure alone is about six times more than the capitation grant the NPP government has been gloating about.
• Besides, every child entering primary one in the average public school in Accra today has to spend in the region of about 170,000 old Cedis on stationery and other materials. This expenditure alone is about six times more than the capitation grant.
• Apart from that, parents on average pay an examination fee (levy) of about 10,000 old cedis at the primary level and 15,000 old cedis at the JSS level every term. This translates into 30,000 old cedis and 45,000 old cedis a year
• Additionally, parents continue to pay other extra levies imposed on school pupils today. For example, at the Sakumono school Complex, an average public school in the Tema metropolis, each pupil at the basic level is levied 300,000 old cedis as PTA levies.
• To top it all the 30,000 cedis capitation grant is not even paid on time- sometimes it delays up to two terms
• We have not even mentioned the fact that parents continue to buy uniforms for their children which accounts for about 17% of total household expenditure according to the GLSS.
• Even simple feeding grants, the NPP cannot pay, yet Akufo Addo claims he will cough up nearly 2 trillion old cedis a year on boarding and other fees of students in Ghana
• Even the Capitation Grant of 25 pesewas a month, which caters for sports and culture fees etc, the NPP government cannot even pay on time • The Ghana News Agency in its reports of May 8th and 11th this year covering the Upper West region stated the following:
1. 174 Basic schools in the Upper West region have their classes held under trees. 274 Primary schools, 207 junior high schools and 37 kindergarten institutions attend classes in dangerous dilapidated structures
2. 209 primary schools, 15 junior high schools and 72 kindergartens attend school under sheds. There were 1,060 teaching vacancies to be filled in the Upper West region alone. More than one half of the teachers in the region are not trained. The report also stressed that more than 27,024 school children in the Central region aged between 4-5 years, expected to be in kindergarten, were not in school.
• Is this the mark of a government that is committed to making education free at the secondary level?
• When a naked man promises you clothes, it means he thinks you are a Big Fool. Kufuor calls us Lazy and Akufo Addo thinks we are fools on top.
• Ghanaians, let us tell Kufuor and Akufo Addo that we are not lazy Fools
• Enough with the lies and empty promises
• The NHIL of 2.5% was to last for only the first 6 months of the operation of the health scheme. 5 years on, it is being collected- so Ghanaians are making more than adequate contribution to the NHIS
• So NPP should stop insulting the intelligence of Ghanaians by claiming that healthcare is free
• Besides, those with the scheme cannot get healthcare outside of districts where they registered
• Another great lie of the NPP is that a great percentage of Ghanaians are enjoying the so called free healthcare- here is the truth:
• Whereas NPP claims that 9 million of the 22 million Ghanaians have registered with the scheme, UNDP Ghana Human Development Report 2007, emphatically states that only 6.8 percent of the total population of Ghana, that is less than 1.5 million Ghanaians, have the National Health Insurance ID cards- only these have access to the so called Free Healthcare
• Of course Akufo Addo and the rest of the top NPP gurus do not feel the pain of Ghanaians today, no wonder they are claiming everything is free when the people are paying so much for them
• Even though Ghanaians are paying so much to the health scheme, the NPP has removed all the previous exemptions that took care of the vulnerable in our society. Without paying premiums, infants under five years, breast feeding (lactating) mothers, pregnant women, the elderly and the destitute have no help today.
• This was not what the NDC had in mind when the NDC started the successful piloting of the NHIS with a view to phasing out the cash and carry system
• NPP shows so much insensitivity when they refuse the destitute and other vulnerable groups who cannot pay premium from accessing healthcare today
• The pilot also encouraged the full adoption of the Nkoranza pilot earlier started by the Catholic Church. • NDC did this by giving a national award to the Catholic priest who began the Nkoranza project
• The Ghana Health Company was located on the 6th floor of the SSNIT Pension House (Tower Block).
• To expedite the NHIS pilot, the NDC government at the time, flew down Dr Danso all the way from Zimbabwe to kick start the project. • In 2000, the NDC also appointed Mr Amoesi Andoh as the company's CEO. Incidentally, he became a parliamentary candidate of the NPP in 2004 and is contesting again in this upcoming election. • It is sad that he looks on today while his NPP government continues to deny that the NDC did not pilot the NHIS while in office.
• While this piloting was on, the NPP in opposition opposed it vehemently just as they opposed every good thing in our history • This is what the Minority said at the time- “the billions of cedis and energy wasted on the single National Health Insurance Scheme could have been saved if the government had not brushed aside the minority’s suggestion in 1997 that such a scheme was not viable.”- Addo Kufuor, said this on behalf of the NPP, in Kumasi- (GNA, April 26, 2000)
• The NPP has over the last eight years done very little to upgrade the working conditions of health workers. • Their boast about huge increases in staff numbers is also not true, given the huge responsibilities they face as a result of the great workload brought on by the NHIS
• The NPP pretends to hate military coup d’etat. Yet, the NPP family was the first group to introduce coups into Sub Saharan Africa • The first ever coup attempt in Ghana occurred in 1958, just one year after independence- Mr R.R. Amponsah, currently a top guru and Chairman of the NPP Council of Elders was an architect of that coup • Indeed, earlier in 1958, J.B. Danquah was overheard assuring the ambassador of a western nation, hostile to the government of Nkrumah, that plans were far advanced to overthrow Nkrumah by the end of 58 • Busia, also is on record to have consulted and held several meetings with General Afrifa whilst the latter was studying at the Sandhurst Military academy in the UK. No wonder that on the 24th February 1966, Afrifa and others overthrew the CPP government • After the 66 coup, a report on the BBC clearly implicated Busia in the 1966 coup. • A.K. Deku, currently member of Council of State and prominent member of the NPP family was part of the military/police junta that did the 1966 coup. He was at the time a Police Commissioner • Following the 66 coup, the NPP family who had masterminded it, and whose members like AK Deku and Afrifa did it in cooperation with the CIA, took various key positions in the military junta. • The political committee of the NLC military junta was chaired by Edward Akufo Addo, (father of Nana Akufo Addo). • William Ofori Atta (another relative of Akufo Addo) was a key member of that group • The Committee, which later became the national advisory committee of the military junta, also had Busia as its Vice Chairman • The same Busia became the Chairman, when Akufo Addo’s father was rewarded by the military junta by being elevated to the position of Chief Justice. • Victor Owusu, President Kufuor’s political mentor, was also the Attorney General at the time. • These are the people who pretend to be against military rule • To date they continue to love military coups. President Kufuor’s first trip out of Ghana was to Togo to celebrate the bloody coup that saw the assassination of Togo’s first democratic president, Sylvanus Olympio. • The NPP family also had no qualms asking President Kufuor to take up a position in the military PNDC government- the same government they condemn so much
Violence Unleashed By NPP Sponsored NLC Junta
• The soldiers who were out on frolics and committed excesses in 1979 and 1982 did so purely as soldiers • However in the 1966 coup, the mayhem and violence that were unleashed were done with the full blessings of gurus of the NPP family • It had the full blessings of Nana Akufo Addo’s father, Dr Busia, Victor Owusu, President Kufuor’s mentor and of course the support of then young Kufuor and Akufo Addo • In the immediate aftermath of the NPP sponsored 66 coup, over 300 people were reported killed including a minister of state, Dowuona and his family. • The NPP family gleefully goaded on the military junta to the extent that Boye Moses, a member of the security detail of Nkrumah, was paraded in the streets of Accra chained and locked in a cage like a wild beast. • With their tacit counsel, Arthur and Yeboah were summarily executed for attempting to overthrow the Danquah-Busia/CIA sponsored military junta. • Even at that time, the Gbewaa palace in Yendi was attacked in 1969 and nearly 70 people were brutally exterminated • The human rights violations that occurred during that “Golden military era” of the NPP family, might easily surpass violations committed by some of the most brutal African military despots like Iddi Amin and Eyadema • Despite all this, these people dare attack the NDC because of the killing in 1982 of three judges and one military officer. Not even the fact that a Member of the PNDC and his accomplices were arrested, tried and executed at the time, would placate the “Holier than thou NPP”. • These people who have not arrested even one chicken for the Gbewa palace killings of over 100 people in 1969 and 2002, today dare call the NDC violent • The audacity of the Pot calling the kettle black!
NPP’s False Pretenses About Multi Party Democracy
• One of their best lies is that the NPP family has always believed in multi party democracy. • Apart from the NPP family setting into motion coups in black Africa, Akufo Addo’s father in particular played a unique role in dealing a blow against multi party democracy • In 1968, Akufo Addo’s father chaired the Constitutional Committee that recommended to the NLC that a long term ban be placed on the CPP to prevent the party and its functionaries from contesting elections in Ghana. • It is no wonder that 1969 elections won by them remains the most bogus election in the history of our country to date • It is simply history repeating itself when not long after the NPP came back in 2001, one of the first things they set into motion was how to use every means to destroy its main opponent the NDC. • What they did to the CPP in the past is exactly what they have tried so hard to do to the NDC. • J.H Mensah who was instrumental in 1969, revealed the agenda when he declared: “By the time the NPP government finishes with the fast track court trial and imprisonment of former NDC Ministers and functionaries, the NDC will be no more.” • And yet these people boast about being democrats and believers of multi party democracy • But given that even the name they bear is fraudulent, we should not be surprised about all their false claims
NPP’s False Claims About Good Governance
• The NPP family has time and again claimed that when it comes to good governance, it is second to none in Ghana’s history • Even if we pretend that they are not ‘bomb throwing democrats” and sponsors of military coups or haters of multi party democracy, their track record, then and now, is still absolutely horrible • What did they do in 1971, after students of the University of Ghana called for amnesty to be granted to the founder of the nation, Dr Nkrumah who was then in exile? • The NPP family responded by pushing through parliament, under a certificate of emergency, a bill that banned the holding of any photograph of Nkrumah, the mentioning of his name and the professing of his ideology. • Incidentally, President J.A. Kufuor was a member of that parliament and Akufo Addo’s father was the President at the time • In the second republic, Mr J.A. Kufuor, as Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, was part of the team that cruelly refused to allow an ailing Nkrumah to return to Ghana to die • Between 2001 to date, there are too many instances that show that the NPP family, despite loud proclamations to the contrary, has still not changed. • Ghanaians can still remember with shock how a former Auditor General, Mr Osei Prempeh, was arrested in church. • They did not stop there, they went further to attempt to arrest Mr Tsatsu Tsikata also in church and would have succeeded but for the intervention of church officials • On January 31, 2002, while Prof Mills was away in Canada, eight fully armed BNI officials stormed his house and menacingly threatened his wife, ordering her to surrender all the keys to the vehicles in the house. • Even vehicles which had been allocated to Prof Mills as part of transitional package arrangements, were forcibly seized and driven away • Not satisfied, Mrs Mills was summoned to the BNI regional office where she was detained for eight hours before being made to write a statement. • The trauma was so much, Mrs Mills ended up at the SSNIT hospital • Lord Commey, the National Organiser of the NPP is on tape, having confessed that he has under him a group of armed criminals, called Action Troopers, who snatch ballots boxes at gun points • Under the NPP, the situation is so terrible that drivers are even being arrested and forced to fondle the breasts of dead women and kiss dead bodies in mortuaries • The examples are too numerous to mention
NPP’s False Claims About Judiciary & Justice
• The NPP family preaches a lot about the virtues of Rule of Law. Unfortunately, when it comes to practice, they always do the opposite. • In the second republic, NPPs Co Founder, Busia, As Prime Minister defiantly declared following a court’s reversal of his dismissal of Sallah, that no court can force him to employ anyone the government did not want to employ • In the year 2001, Hodare Okai was unlawfully dismissed from his position as Deputy Immigration officer, upon the instigation of Asamoah Boateng on suspicion that he was an NDC sympathiser. • As if that was not bad enough, even after a court of competent jurisdiction had ruled that the dismissal was illegal and he should therefore be reinstated and outstanding entitlements due him paid- President Kufuor flatly refused to comply with the court order and to date nothing has been done • That’s not all- The NPP always accuses Rawlings of being a dictator, yet that “dictator” refrained from immorally packing the court to overturn a Supreme Court decision after the latter passed a 5-4 verdict declaring June 4 holidays non constitutional. • What did the NPP family when it was their turn after the Supreme Court by the same 5-4 majority declared the fast track court unconstitutional? • They swiftly and without any shame, ‘Packed the Supreme Court” and ensured that the decision was overturned- a practice that has evoked condemnation even at the level of NEPAD • They claim that there was injustice in Ghana before they came into power- however under the PNDC, Chairman Rawlings had no hesitation allowing his best friend Kojo Lee and his own nephew to face execution when both committed murders • Indeed in the case of his nephew, a court initially freed him but the PNDC saw to it that the case was revisited and Rawlings’ nephew was made to face the ultimate penalty • Let’s compare these cases with the several cases of killings that have gone on unpunished under the NPP today • Killers of Issa Mobila are still walking around free today four years on • Jahinfo and Sugri, who were seen in Yendi parading with parts of the body of the Ya Na are still walking free today after Akufo Addo, as Attorney General, superintended the preferring of wrongful charges against them • The cases of Bashiru Red and Baba Nkabo in Tamale are other cases in point. Do not be surprised when the NPP government does nothing about its members who were behind the mayhem in Gushiegu recently
NPP’s False Pretenses About Press Freedom & Freedom Of Speech
• Hearing the NPP boast about press freedom today, almost makes one think that journalists in the time of the NDC were operating from caves • These are the people who in 1971 jailed Kofi Badu, then editor of Spokesman newspaper. The offices of the newspaper were raided and the newspaper’s license withdrawn. • Victor Owusu, as AG in the 2nd Republic, got 28 lecturers, all of whom were board members of the Legon Observer newspaper, jailed because their newspaper was deemed to be critical of government. • The NPP cites the repeal of the criminal libel law as proof of its commitment to greater press freedom. • The truth however is that Prof Mills of the NDC, at his Meet the Press interaction in September 2000, had amply indicated that he was fully committed to starting a new chapter with the media by having more regular interactions with the press • The repeal of the criminal libel law, was therefore just a matter of months if he had won the election in the year 2000 since Prof believed that the time had arrived to launch a new co-operation between Govt and media • But examples abound to show that under the NPP things are not as rosy as the NPP wants the world to believe • GTV Breakfast show, during the time of the NDC, used to feature critical voices like Audrey Gadzekpo, Margaret Amoakohene, Nana Yaa Ofori Atta among others. Today, leading opposition voices such Dr Tony Aidoo, Kwesi Pratt, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah and Fifi Kwetey are not allowed to feature on that program funded by all tax payers • How free is the media when TV Africa crew are being detained and traumatised at the president’s private residence today? • When the editor of Insight newspaper, can be beaten up at the instruction of NPP Chairman Haruna Esseku at the NPP headquarters? • When bodyguards of Dr Richard Anane can pursue and threaten to brutalize journalists, Raymond Archer, David Tamakloe and Rowland Acquah Stephens, who had to run to a police station to save their lives • When Joe Baidoo Ansah, then Minister of Trade, can storm a live TV program and verbally abuse CPP’s Nii Moi Thompson? • In the arena of free speech which the NPP family boasts so much about, it will be recalled that during the second republic, Ebo Hutchful, then a student at the University of Ghana, who criticized Busia for living an ostentatious lifestyle was arrested and detained at the Legon police station • When poor Kwabena Kusi, a mechanic in Kumasi, is arrested for criticizing the frequent travels of President Kufuor
NPP’s Belief In Violence
• The NPP family has tried hard to label the NDC as violent and quickly cite the isolated incidents at NDC’s 2005 Koforidua Congress as proof • But how can the NPP even compare those cases to the uncountable cases of violence they have unleashed among themselves? • The manner in which Paul Afoko, was wickedly set up by Akufo Addo’s henchmen and was nearly lynched at the NPP presidential Congress but for the swift intervention of the police cannot be forgotten • The violent nature of the NPP has been amply shown in the confusion, mayhem and bloody exchanges that have characterized NPP’s primaries in places like Suhum, Bekwai, Ofinso South among others. • NDC, on the other hand has throughout this period enjoyed very peaceful primaries • At Krowor, the NPP Constituency Chairman narrowly escaped lynching but a police officer present was turned into a punching bag with blood gushing all over him • At Akropong-Akwapim, one NPP delegate was murdered in an incident which was linked to NPP General Secretary, Ohene Ntow. • With the level of violence the NPP loves to visit upon its own members, is it difficult to imagine the scale of the barbarity it is capable of meting out to its opponents? • The burning in 1992 of the NDC Effia Kwesimintim Chairman comes to mind. • The cold blooded killing of NDC’s Grukponi in Kumasi ahead of the 1996 election is another case • The recent killing and mayhem visited on NDC supporters in Gushiegu are just other tokens of the inordinately violent nature of the NPP • Their nature of violence flows through their bloodline- from the NLM, when they killed and maimed, through the UP when they blew little children through bombs up to today.
NPP & Akufo Addo’s Double Standards
• The NPP family, are the masters of double standards and political hypocrisy. They preach virtue and practice vice. Their double standards date back to the 60s. • The NPP family criticized Nkrumah for passing the PDA yet as soon they successfully got their NLC Junta to overthrow the CPP, they teleguided the passing of the Protective Custody Act • The NPP family criticized Nkrumah for taking a fat salary. But when Busia became Prime Minister he paid himself a significantly higher amount than Nkrumah. Besides, he immorally paid himself two years salary advance and not long after devalued the currency • Busia refused to live in the official presidential residence and used public funds to renovate his private property and lived there. Years later, in line with the tradition’s “Personal Property Owning philosophy”, president Kufuor also refused to live in the Castle and used public funds to complete works on his private residence. • In 1969, the NPP family made use of the votes of people in the Zongos and others they believed to be non Ghanaians to come to power. But as soon as they won power, the NPP family showed their xenophobic tendency by passing the wicked Aliens Compliance Order • This wicked law saw the driving out of Ghana, of hundreds of thousands of people who had been born and bred in Ghana for several generations. • The trauma, deaths, massive economic suffering and sheer dislocation of families cum loss of property cannot be detailed here • To date, the NPP family continues to brand our Zongo brothers as aliens anytime it is time for registration • One of the most fraudulent claims of Akufo Addo is the boast that he comes a family that is reputed for their beliefs in the values of rule of law, democracy and civil liberties etc • The double talk consists in the fact that J.B Danquah, one of the close relatives of Akufo Addo was a national traitor with no problem selling this country for a few american dollars • The critical role played by Nana Akufo Addo’s father in the NLC military junta, under which he gladly chaired the Constitutional Committee that recommended the banning of the CPP and its officials from contesting elections shows the hollowness of the democratic claims of his ancestry as well • We have not even mentioned the key role played by William Ofori Atta, another relative of Akufo Addo in that military junta • Is it any surprise that their son Akufo Addo, would swiftly strip the former president of his privileges for simply exercising his right of free speech? And also quickly resort to the “Packing of the Supreme Court to reverse a ruling of the Supreme Court? NPP’s Lies About Inheriting A Collapsed Economy
• One of the biggest lies of the NPP is that the economy of Ghana was in a state of ruin when they took power in 2001. • How can any truthful group describe an economy that has consistently registered positive growth rates from 1984 all the way to the year 2000, as a collapsed economy? • Indeed recent appraisals by the World Bank, the African Development Bank, Tony Blair’s Commission on Africa, ISSER etc have all established that Ghana has enjoyed 20 years of continuous economic growth since 1984 • The NPP virtually got away with this blatant lie all these years because many of the young generation today including many in the media do not fully remember what a real collapsed economy looks like • Anyone who wants to know what a collapsed economy looks like only needs to take a good look at what Ghana’s economy was like at the close of 1981 • The following represent the nature of the collapsed economy the PNDC met in 1982 • Growth rate prior to 1982 was continuously in the negative and stood at a massive minus 10 percent at the close of 1981 • There was massive collapse in infrastructure such as roads, bridges, railways, government buildings, hospitals etc • The cocoa sector was on its knees • The export sector in general was nothing to write home about • Electricity was limited to only urban centres and was available to less than 20 percent of the population of Ghana • Industries were operating at less than 20 percent of their capacity • The banking sector was on a brink of collapse because of a massive portfolio of bad debts • The least said about the telecommunication sector the better • Shops were empty all over Ghana and long queues were everywhere as Ghanaians struggled to obtain basic commodities • NPP’s political guru and former presidential candidate, Prof Albert Adu Boahen in his book Ghanaian Sphinx (page 35) confirmed that by the end of 1981, the economic situation had gone from bad to worse on all economic fronts with inflation hitting 121% • Does the situation above even remotely resemble the situation in Ghana in 2001? No! • What the NPP has done is to deliberately ignore all the remarkable economic progress chalked over a period of many years by the NDC family and point out a few isolated negative economic indicators at the close of the year 2000 to mislead our people that the 19 year economic management led to economic collapse NPP’s Lies About Inheriting Empty Coffers
• The NPP has constantly claimed that it met empty coffers in January 2001. That was another blatant lie by them • At the end of January 2001, less than a month after the NPP took the reins of power, all public and civil servants were duly paid in Ghana. Some contactors were also paid. • The NPP government found enough monies in those so called “empty coffers” to start the expensive renovations of the Castle, the State House, ministerial and other official bungalows • We have not even mentioned works done on the president’s private residence. • There was also enough money to start funding President Kufuor’s numerous trips that had already started in that first month of 2001. • Moreover, the NDC government gave Jake Obetsebi Lamptey sufficient money to organise the elaborate handing over ceremony on January 7th 2001. • So why has the NPP been lying that it inherited empty coffers?
NPP’s Loud Noises About Unprecedented Foreign Debts
• The NPP in 2001 went to the every extent to criminalise the NDC government because the nation’s total debt (foreign plus domestic) at the end of the year 2000 stood at 41 trillion old cedis. • While orchestrating the “opipii piim pii piiim..” catcalls against the NDC, the NPP had hidden from Ghanaians the truth that the 41 trillion old cedis (5.8 billion dollars) was the total debt outstanding from independence to the end of 2000. • After a whooping $4 billion had been written off from that $5.8 billion, the NPP has still taken the total debt of the nation to a staggering 89 trillion old cedis ($7.8 billion) and still “Moving Forward”. • The NPP had, in just 8 short years accumulated so much debt compared with 41 trillion in 43 long years. • Today, in order to run away from the astronomical debt they have accumulated in 8 years, they have resorted to using Debt per GDP ratio in order to more throw dust in the eyes of our people • The truth remains that in eight short years the NPP has saddled the next generation with a colossal debt of about $8 billions
NPP Has Not Faced The Scale Of The Crisis NDC Faced In Year 2000
• The NPP has not faced the scale of the crisis that confronted the NDC in the year 2000. Whereas the NDC faced four separate crises in one, the NPP at the moment is facing just one. • The NDC faced the following at the same time- i. Collapse in price of cocoa- ii. Collapse in the price of gold and other minerals- iii. Increase in the price of crude oil- iv. Failure of donors to release critical donor support. • We have not touched on the fact that in the midst of that “Super Crisis”, the NDC government was still faithfully and promptly servicing all the nation’s foreign debts to the tune of about $300 million dollars. • The price of cocoa fell by over 120 percent from $1,500 to $670 per tonne. Gold fell from $650 to $240 per ounce- representing 170 percent drop. As if that was not bad enough, the price of crude oil also went up from $15 to nearly $38 per barrel- a rise of 153 percent. • According to the World Bank, Ghana, from the Middle of 1999 to the end of 1999, Ghana had lost more than $500 million as a result of external shocks in cocoa and oil alone. (Daily Graphic of Wednesday, 3rd May, 2000). • If that huge loss was for just the second half of 1999, it is not difficult to imagine how much more monumental the loss was in the whole of the year 2000. • NPP’s problem today essentially consists of only the rise in the price of crude oil (from $60 as at June 2007, the price as at the last week of September stands about $104). This is just about 73% compared with the nearly 153% NDC faced • NPP has no excuse citing the recent increases in the global prices of rice and other food items as an excuse when they have had eight long years to ensure food sustainability in Ghana as has been done in some other African countries such as Botswana. • Indeed, the NPP promised in the year 2000, that it will significantly reduce the nation’s rice import, which at the time stood at $100 million. Today, the amount we spend on the import of rice alone stands at about $400 million.
NDC Held The Economy From Collapsing In 2000 Amidst The Super Crisis
• Despite the unprecedented crisis faced by the nation in the year 2000, the NDC managed to record an annual average inflation figure of 25%, which was lower than NPP’s 2003 average inflation figure of 26% • The deceit of the NPP has been to fraudulently bandy about the inflation figure of a single month in 2000- that is, the December figure of about 40% and make it appear as though that were the figure for the whole year 2000. • That is one of the kangaroo tricks NPP used to paint the deceitful picture of economic doom and collapse. • Meanwhile, anytime the NDC mentions that in 1999, inflation at the end of a particular month- May 1999 was a single digit, the NPP quickly counters that one month end inflation is nothing to boast about since apart from that month, inflation under the NDC was never again below 10 percent. • The difficult situation in the year 2000, was principally due to the harsh realities that confronted Ghana in the year 2000. • Prior to the onset of the Super Crisis which began in the middle of 1999, not only was inflation down to 9.4%, the cedi had shown significant stability. • The cedi was on course towards a second successive year of relative stability after the remarkable 4.1% depreciation it enjoyed in the whole of the year 1998. • Apart from that single digit inflation success, it must be recalled that the PNDC had met inflation at over 120% in 1982 and competently brought it down
Even With All The Favourable Conditions See How NPP Has Messed Things Up
• Whereas the NDC faced a super crisis in the year 2000, the NPP has had to deal with just a mini crisis by way of 73% rise in fuel price (as at last week in September) • The other favourable thing for the NPP is that, whilst the percentage change in the price of oil from 2001 to date (last week in September) stands at about 200 percent, the percentage change in the price of gold and cocoa over the same period stands at about 344 percent for cocoa alone ($670 to $2980) plus 240 percent for gold ($240 to $818). • We have not even made allusion to the fact that the NPP government has not, during this period, have to put up with the sudden drying up of much needed donor support. • Neither has the NPP have to use about 300 million dollars a year to service debts • We have also not mentioned the fact that the NPP has had unprecedented resources because of GetFund, additional taxes such as talk tax, taxes on petroleum, and increase in VAT in addition to lowering the VAT threshold among others. • In spite of all these relatively favourable conditions, the cedi which started the year 2008 at about 9,600 to the dollar is today trading at 11,500 to the dollar, a depreciation of about 17 percent- and we have four whole months to go. • Needless to say that the dollar itself, has over the last few years been in free fall vis a vis other major currencies of the world. • Despite all these relatively favourable conditions, the cedi this year has already lost 17 percent against the dollar. • Can you even begin to imagine the scale of the depreciation that would have occurred in the value of the cedi vis a vis the weak dollar, if the NPP had faced the “super crisis” the NDC faced in the year 2000? • The current level of inflation of nearly 20% at a time of these relatively favourable conditions, reveals the emptiness of the boasts of the NPP • In fact, some of the reasons for which inflation has not gone even higher are the fact that the NPP has, for political expediency, thrown its much vaunted full cost recovery policy in the petroleum sector out of the windows. • Additionally, they have also refused to pay contractors and suppliers, newly recruited nurses, teachers, doctors, immigration workers and NYEP workers. Workers of Ghana Railway Corporation and workers of the National Identification Exercise have all not been paid for months. • In spite of all these “kangaroo tricks to hold inflation down”, leading economic experts continue to predict that inflation will reach even higher levels by the close of December NPP’s Empty Boast About Economy Moving Forward
• The NPP boasts the Nation has moved forward in leaps and bounds over the last eight years • Among other things they beat their chest that Ghana’s recent successful borrowing of about 750 million dollars at 8.5% on the international bonds market shows the great strides the economy has made • The truth however is that Turkey, which has about the same rating as Ghana, managed to raise $1.25 billion at a much better rate of 6.85% around the same time last year. • Turkey’s own was also three times oversubscribed. So why is the NPP making so much noise? • By the way, how much forward has Ghana moved from 2001? • When Kwame Pianim, an economic/financial guru and former NPP presidential aspirant recently underscored the fragility of the economy when he declared that Ghana's economy badly needed about $130 million injection to stay healthy else inflation would go up, which will greatly affect the poor? (Graphic, July 29, 2008) • When Ghanaian students at the University of Nottingham and other Universities in UK and others (as at last week in Sept) are on the verge of being dismissed because of government’s failure to pay their fees? • When thesis grants of Ghanaian graduate students have not been paid for a year? • When Ghanaian modern language students are unable to embark upon their year abroad program because the government says there is no money? • When for six weeks all secondary schools in the three northern regions remained closed because of government’s failure to pay feeding grants? • When as stated earlier, so many newly recruited public sector workers have not been paid for several months • When Ghana@50 suppliers and contractors have not, for over a year, been paid? • When waste contractors are being owed several billions of cedis by government • When UNICEF and WHO have ranked Ghana the second dirtiest country in the whole of West Africa?
How NPP Has Collapsed Almost All Productive Sectors
• All the Presidential Special Initiatives (PSI) have all virtually failed under the NPP • The cotton, poultry, textile, timber, rice, local fishing industries have all virtually collapsed with huge negative consequences on unemployment and crime rate? • The Metro Mass Transport is on its knees and on the brink of collapse owing GOIL over 30 billion cedis • VRA’s indebtedness has reached an astronomical 1.2 billion dollars? • When despite instituting the TOR debt recovery levy, TOR today still owes GCB over $500 million (as at April this year) even though the TOR debt recovery levy had yielded about over $500) million. • Ghana Airways has completely collapsed and its successor, the GIA has become stillborn • An improved economy must translate into improved standards of living for the people. But the UNDP has found out about the standard of living of Ghanaians has dropped even as NPP claims things are better • UNDP 2007 Ghana Human Development Report shows the following: • Infant mortality which stood at 57 deaths per 1000 live births, now stands at 71 deaths per 1000 live births • Maternal mortality which in 1999 stood at 240 deaths per 100,000 live births now stands at 540 deaths per 100,000 births • In sum the report states that life under the NDC in 1995 and 1999 was better than life under the NPP.
What NPP Really Means By “We Are Moving Forward”
• We are moving Forward first means that the properties, bank accounts and private fortunes of the NPP gurus, their families and close friends have moved forward • The President and his NPP gurus have moved forward so much that they can afford to insult suffering Ghanaians as lazy when they complain about how life has become unbearable • How can the NPP claim to have improved the lives of the people over the last eight years? • When a gallon of kerosene HAS MOVED FORWARD from 4,500 to 57,000 cedis • When a bundle of roofing sheets HAS MOVED FORWARD from 350,000 to 2.5 million cedis • When a bag of cement has HAS MOVED FORWARD from 17,000 to 100,000 • When a single room has HAS MOVED FORWARD from 15,000 to 300,000 • When the electricity bill per the first 100 units paid by the average Ghanaian HAS MOVED FORWARD from 10,000 to 122,000 cedis a month • When a sachet of pure water HAS MOVED FORWARD from 100 to 500 cedis • When a loaf of bread HAS MOVED FORWARD from 1000 cedis to 20,000 cedis • When a tin of milo HAS MOVED FORWARD from 3,800 to 42,000 cedis • When a tin of milk HAS MOVED FORWARD from 800 to 8,500 cedis • When one olonka of gari HAS MOVED FORWARD from 2500 to 15,000 • When a bag of maize from HAS MOVED FORWARD 100,000 to 850,000 • When a bag of rice HAS MOVED FORWARD from 50,000 to 600,000 cedis • When a ball of kenkey (without mentioning fish) HAS MOVED FORWARD from 200 to 3000 cedis • When fresh coconut HAS MOVED FORWARD from 500 to 4000 cedis • When a bar of key soap HAS MOVED FORWARD from 3000 to 22,000 cedis • When a bottle of Coke (that is Coca Cola) HAS MOVED FORWARD from 600 to 4000 cedis • When even the price of nature’s call in a KVIP HAS MOVED FORWARD from 50 cedis to 2000 cedis?
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