The National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kofi Adams, has laughed off claims by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the NDC’s manifesto highlights are collations of campaign statements by its flag bearer.
The NPP claim Wednesday at a press conference that the NDC manifesto highlights delivered by President John Mahama, are stolen ideas from the NPP’s presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo.
President Mahama Tuesday presented synopsis of the NDC’s yet to be launched manifesto, enumerating his vision for the country in his next term including the creation of five more regions.
“We currently have ten regions and we believe that it is possible to increase the number to 15. So, we will set up a commission of enquiry that will look into the viability of increasing the number of administrative regions in Ghana from ten to fifteen,” he said.
Not long ago, Nana Addo also promised to create a new region in the country to be called the Western North region should he be elected president of Ghana in the forthcoming elections. But this promise was rubbished by the NDC describing it as divisive.
“You can see now, what they [NDC] call the highlights of their manifesto was just a photocopy of what the New Patriotic Party has been saying and it is amazing that we still have these people talking to the people of this country,” John Boadu, the acting General Secretary of the NPP told journalists Wednesday in Accra.
But, according to Mr. Adams, who is also the NDC’s 2016 campaign coordinator, assertions that the governing party’s manifesto highlights are stolen ideas of the NPP are baseless, arguing that the flag bearer of the NPP lacks the ability to come out with good ideas.
Speaking on Joy FM Wednesday, he said emphatically that “nobody is copying Nana Addo,” and that the policy highlights presented by President Mahama are captured in the government White Paper.
He said the NDC since its inception in 1992 have been social democrats and that it is simply untenable to claim that they [NDC] are stealing social democratic ideas from a capitalist entity [NPP].
“If today, you have seen the sense in what we have stood for since 1992 and you are coming towards our side then you now want to claim what has been our rights all this while,” he added.
The NDC, he continued, is very focused stating that “Nana Addo has never come out with any such good ideas. Nana Addo is talking about one dam one village. He doesn’t see the difference… at least yesterday [Tuesday] the president taught him the difference.”
This fight over who is the originator of what idea is infantile, Professor David Millar, former pro-vice chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS) said.
Addressing journalists at the sidelines of a stakeholders’ forum aimed at formulating a master plan of SADA Wednesday 14, September added that the ensuing brouhaha is inimical to the development of the country.
“So let this bickering stop…It is too childish to find leaders say that this is mine don’t take,” he said.