Akufo-Addo’s first term infrastructure development 'best in 4th Republic' – Bawumia

Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has challenged anyone who has data to prove that any first-term government has provided more infrastructure than the Akufo-Addo administration to step up and provide the evidence.

Speaking on the sidelines of a COVID-19 meeting at the Jubilee House on Monday, 4 May 2020, Dr Bawumia indicated that some members of the opposition NDC, especially former President Mahama, have sought to downplay the infrastructural achievements of the Akufo-Addo administration in the vain hope that Ghanaians would not independently check.

“But I can say without any fear of contradiction, the data shows that in the history of the Fourth Republic, there is no government that has provided as much infrastructure across all sectors in its first term than the first term the government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. If you want to challenge that please bring your data”, he declared.

Recalling the precarious situation the Akufo-Addo government ‘inherited’ a little over three years ago, including four years of dumsor with its costs, negative industry growth, decline in agricultural growth, a freeze on public sector recruitment, abolition of teachers training allowances, abolition of nurses training allowances and the worst macroeconomic performance (2013-2016) since 2000, Dr Bawumia emphasised that the Akufo-Addo administration had not only reversed this rot, but had made giant strides in all sectors of the economy.

“The government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been in office for a little over 3 years. Even though there is still a lot to do, any objective assessment of our performance will agree that we have performed much much better than the situation that we inherited at the beginning of 2017.

“All the major indicators – agriculture, industry, inflation, interest rates, job creation, education, provision of essential services, resourcing the security and anti-corruption agencies, justice delivery – and many more show we have performed better.

“We have done all of these, while providing infrastructure in schools all across the country to ensure the success of Free SHS, while building health infrastructure and constructing roads. Contractors are getting paid, every sector of the economy is witnessing major infrastructure development. All of these works are going on even now despite the global challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Throwing a direct challenge to the former President, Dr Bawumia stated: “The true test of the robustness of an economy can be measured in a time of crisis: Dumsor (internal) and COVID (external). What mitigating measures did the NDC under John Mahama provide for businesses and individuals? They rather increased electricity and fuel prices, cancelled teacher and nursing allowances, among others.

“We [Akufo-Addo government] have been able to do all this because we have built a strong economy and managing it in a way that allows us to continue to do these and more even amidst a global pandemic.

“The data is clear. My humble advice to the former President Mahama is to take a look at the data (not Green Book data) and try to understand it before you speak otherwise you will embarrass yourself.”