The Acting Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party says President John Dramani Mahama, in his latest attempt to justify his incompetence and indecisive leadership, has told Ghanaians to give him time because he is still in his first gear and will be speeding up to fourth soon.
But, how true is this? And if this is true, what exactly does it mean? First, the NDC should not even attempt to lie to Ghanaians on their time spent in office. 13 out of the 21 years so far under the Fourth Republic has been endured under an NDC rule.
Even more significant is the fact that we are in the second term of a continuous NDC rule since January 2009. So for the President to concede to being in his first gear at this stage is to concede that it has been five wasted years and if we continue at this rate, the rest of the whole world will overtake us on the highway to progress. To, therefore, call on Ghanaians to exercise patience is to add vitriolic insults to the injuries you continue to cause them.
As a mark of his insincerity and complete lack of focus, this call for patience from the President came when he travelled to Ofaakor in the Central Region to inspect land the NDC government presumably hopes to use to begin to build the 200 secondary school buildings the President promised when he was begging Ghanaians in 2012 to give the NDC a second consecutive term in office.
In their desperate attempt to counter the NPP programme for education, the ruling NDC promised in 2012 to build 50 new secondary schools every year for the next four years, if given a second term in office.
On Page 153, paragraph 606 of the 2013 budget statement, this is what the NDC government promised to deliver: "Mr. Speaker, over the next four years, Government will construct 200 new community day Senior High schools. For this year, 50 community-based and 10 colleges of education will be completed in order to increase accessibility to secondary education; subsidies would be provided to students in all public Senior High and Technical Schools. In addition, funds would be made available for the completion of on-going and remaining emergency classrooms and dormitory blocks."
What this means is that, with a few weeks to the 2014 budget statement being read and about two months to the end of the year, what Ghanaians expected to see was the President touring the regions to commission the completion or opening of the first 50 newly built community day Senior High Schools. Instead what we have been treated to is another purely insulting PR stunt with the President inspecting a 200 acre land which the chiefs of the area are, understandably, happy to offer to see the schools for their children built.
The NPP is calling on the President to explain why after nearly five years in office he is today telling the people that the NDC government is yet to get out of first gear. At this rate of corruption, incompetence and indecision from the Presidency, we will be lucky if we get into second gear before the clutch of the nation (the funds for running the affairs of state) burns out completely.
While we do not wish to argue with the President on his claim that the first four years, which had him mostly in charge of the nation's economic management, saw the NDC government stuck in first gear, we do not agree with him that the vehicle of leadership is still in first speed. In fact, since he took over completely from the late President John Mills in July 2012, President John Dramani Mahama has, whether by design or accident, put the Ghanaian vehicle in reverse gear and it has been downhill ever since.
No government that spends four years in first gear can be trusted to do anything differently to move the country forward over its next four years, especially, when it began its next four years clearly in reverse gear. The President has, at best, been reversing the vehicle of the state at top speed into the walls of indebtedness and unsustainable borrowing.
We wish to give clear notice to President John Mahama that this is the second consecutive term of the NDC government. And, therefore, no amount of spin can change the fact that the NDC has been a monumental failure and that he continues with every day he stays in office to reaffirm that fact to the detriment of the Ghanaian people.
We will urge him to, for change, come out of his constant gear of PR gimmicks to try and do something with the power that he controversially took.
The people are suffering. Businesses are collapsing. Jobs are being lost. Workers are crying. Cost of living is running high. School standards are falling. Roads are getting worse and the only remedy from the President and his team of propaganda specialists is more and more propaganda.
The President should heed calls from the public that if he finds the kitchen to be too hot for himself and his team, he should be honest enough to take off the apron before he kills us all from the proverbial food poisoning of bad and uncommitted leadership.
Signed
Perry Okudzeto
AG Director Communications
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