NPP shouldn't delude itself that it's entitled to a second term to mess up - Bia East MP

NDC Member of Parliament for Bia East constituency, Richard Acheampong says Ghanaians will never make the second mistake of giving President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his NPP government a second term to mess up the proper economic measures put in place by his predecessor.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' morning show, the Bia East MP said the Akufo-Addo government should not delude itself into thinking that it has that sense of entitlement.

“The NPP is advancing an argument that former President Kufuor did most of the developmental projects in his second term and so the second term of President Akufo-Addo, he will do a lot of projects . . . but who gave them that sense of entitlement that Ghanaians will give them a second term? . . . they will have to account for their stewardship to Ghanaians for the 4-year mandate to determine their fate,” he stated.

Delving into the dumsor saga, the NDC MP pointed out that John Mahama inherited that particular crisis, and therefore it cannot be said to be incompetence on the part of the NDC.

“What happened before President Kufuor carried pastors to pray at the Akosombo Dam? What was happening there? Was it not because of dumsor that the pastors went to pray at the Akosombo Dam? Where did President Mahama bring dumsor from? He inherited dumsor and he made sure that he fixed it before he left power. He didn’t bring dumsor into the country, we knew it but he put measures in place to address the issue,” he recalled.

He stressed that President Akufo-Addo is giving freebies to Ghanaians in the midst of the COVID-19 due to the availability of the commodities provided by former President John Mahama; thus, President Akufo-Addo in his almost 4 years in office cannot show one water system, electricity plant and a hospital project he has added to the existing ones.

He reiterated that it would have been difficult for President Akufo-Addo to supply free water and subsidised electricity and even have enough hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients if former President Mahama has not invested in water, electricity and the health sector.

“These are the issues we are raising that John Dramani Mahama made a lot of investments in the health, Agric, electricity, oil and gas sectors and even in the service sector and that is why we are benefiting from these dividends. Governance is continuos and so if you take advantage over what someone did, you give credit to the person who started all these projects and finished them,” he argued.

Touching on the economy, the Bia East lawmaker said that the so-called robust economy which is projected by the Akufo-Addo government has a growth rate of 1.5 percent as compared to the NDC’s 3.5 percent which was brandished as bad.

He again mentioned that the debt to GDP ratio after rebasing is around 76 percent; thus, with rebase under the NDC, the debt to GDP ratio was 52 percent, showing that the NDC performed better than the NPP doing currently.

“Our total debt was 120 billion under the NDC but as we speak it is 136 billion and so which one is better? To whom much is given, much is expected and so if you ask the Akufo-Addo government the projects they have used all these monies for, they will tell you that all the projects will be done in the second term. Who told them that we will give Nana Akufo-Addo a second term?” he rhetorically asked.