A response to Manasseh's letter to Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko

Dear Manasseh Azure Awuni,

I have read your beautifully crafted letter to your friend Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko in which you belligerently disagree with him over the comparison of the Akufo-Addo-led government to that of John Dramani Mahama.

You vehemently disagree that the hardships Ghanaians are facing today cannot be blamed on the events of yesterday, and upon that, you conclude that it is an admission that the Akufo-Addo administration has failed to live up to expectations.

You went about itemizing all the ills the NPP identified with the Mahama administration and the pledge to rectify same if candidate Akufo-Addo was entrusted with the mantle of leadership of the country in the 2016 elections.

You employ grandiloquent expressions and sometimes haughty words to sweep away whatever logical arguments Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko projected in his short but concise piece.

You also pontificate that Nana Akufo-Addo is failing to exhibit the qualities upon which you and many people voted for him. You insist that there hasn't been anything transformational and inspirational about President Akufo-Addo’s governance style so far.

You lament about the continuous existence of the gloomy clouds of corruption and hopelessness that dwelled in our midst under Mahama.

You also urge Mr. Otchere-Darko to stop irritating your ears with the numerous hymns about the corrupt acts which defined Mahama and his government because the Akufo-Addo administration has not done anything to prove that it is taking steps to deal with the culprits.

Manasseh, is it not strange that you weigh an 18-month old government against an 8-year old administration? It is the height of unfairness to compare the Akufo-Addo government that has been in power for less than two years with the NDC that chalked eight years in power!

With your level of intelligence, one would have expected that you would know that with the tattered nature of the economy as bequeathed to Akufo-Addo, you would not expect paradise in such a short period of time.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad a idea to ask you to plough through your archives and find out the number of articles you have written in praise of President Akufo-Addo over some key decisions. One of them was the appointment of Mr. Martin Amidu as the Special Prosecutor. In that piece, you mentioned, amongst other things, that President Akufo-Addo’s appointment of Mr. Amidu was not only a step in the right direction but also symbolic because he had appointed someone who abhors corruption and would help fight it.

This piece to Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko is, in all sincerity, parallel to what you said in the afore-described one you penned some months ago eulogizing His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

It is quite intriguing to read from you that comparing Nana Addo’s performance with that of Mahama is needless, but would you not agree that in the same letter to Gabby, you sought to draw lines between the Akufo-Addo administration and that of Mahama? How do you reconcile the two?

How do we know whether we are making progress or not if we should not look at events of yesterday? Comparing the present situation to the past in itself must not be seen as a tragedy.

Your fixation on corruption fails to garner support in that you wrote in a vacuum. You could not adduce any occurrence in this administration that smacks of corruption.

The Special Prosecutor is in town, and some of us would expect that you petition the office with acts of corruption so that the outfit can help all of us in dealing with that canker. Until you do that, shouting corruption without evidence would be considered irritating.

Did you say you don't see any difference between Mahama and President Akufo-Addo? Really? Let me refresh your memory with a fraction of the achievements of the Akufo-Addo Government in just eighteen months in office;

Successful implementation of Free SHS.

Implementation of National Digital Property Addressing System

Nation Builders Corps (NABCO).

Interoperability in the banking and mobile payment system.

Fight against galamsey.

Establiahment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

National ID take off.

Implementation of paperless port system.

Implementation of Planting for Food and Jobs.

Growth rate from 3.6 (lowest in 23 years) to 8 in 1 year.

Restoration of Teacher Trainees Allowances.

Restoration of Nursing Trainees Allowances.

Reduction of inflation from inherited 16% to 10%.

Reduction in the Policy Rate of the Bank of Ghana from inherited 26.5% to current 18%.

Reduction of electricity bills.

Reduction of budget deficit from 9.6% to about 6%.

Reduction of debt to GDP ratio from 73% to 69.8%.

Ongoing construction of Youth Resource Centres (including stadia) in the 10 regions.

Abolishment ofnuisance taxes.

Gross International Reserves increased to US$7.4B i.e. 4.1x of import cover.

Payment of monies owed Road Contractors and NHIS Service Providers.

Digitalization of Registrar General's department.

Manasseh, stop these emotive effusions and allow a bit of objectivity to determine what you write to your readers. Akufo-Addo is lots of distances above Mahama, and I am tempted to believe that deep in the hazy recesses of your mind, you know that President Akufo-Addo is far better than dethroned John Mahama.