Government Appointees Are Immune To Economic Conditions

PRESIDENT MILLS: GHANA’S NUMBER ONE APPOINTEE

The obliviousness of appointees of President Mills to the harsh economic conditions of our time is fast growing to unprecedented levels, with members of the government communication team and the criminally rented press, firing character-scathing salvos at anyone who dares to challenge the statistical figures churned out by the self-proclaimed under-resourced Ghana Statistical Service.

The latest casualty to have come in their line of fire is the vice-presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia. Ever since the economic “whizz-kid” delivered his all-famous “State of Our Economy” paper at the 5th Ferdinand Ayim Memorial Lectures, the propaganda machinery of the governing NDC has shifted to full gear, vulgarly but vainly attempting to drown the true state of our economy that the lecture unveiled. Realizing that insults to the content of Dr. Bawumia’s lecture is not doing the desired damage, the government and Party communication teams are now generating lies to defame the character of Dr. Bawumia and his family.

But according to Hon. Dominic Nitiwul, NPP MP for Bimbilla, these attempts to white-wash the true state of the economy with propaganda and out-right lies will flop. “Statistical figures should be a true reflection of what is prevailing in our markets but that being churned out by the GSS is not so. With the fast rate at which the cedi is depreciating against its major foreign currencies, and its resultant daily increase in the price of goods and services, it is frightening to hear people in power say that things are fine. The price of a bag of cement has moved up from ¢17.00 to ¢25.00 in just 5 months” he said.

He accused senior government appointees of losing touch with the conditions of living of the ordinary Ghanaian, because of the freebies they enjoy by virtue of their position. “As senior government appointees, these officers qualify for, and are given free vehicles, free fuel, free accommodation, free electricity and water among others. Coupled with the gargantuan corruption they are immersed in, there is the high tendency for them to feel immune to the harsh economic realities that the ordinary person is continuously subjected to” he lamented.

The Hon. MP who is also a senior member of the NPP Communications Team cited instances in his constituency where people are compelled to come to him for assistance to pay school fees, hospital bills and funeral bills among others because the social safety nets provided by the Kufuor Administration are crumbing, causing the people to feel the full brunt of President Mills’s harsh economic policies. “The Free Maternity Facility is gone, NHIS and the School-Feeding Programme are crumbling, and the LEAP is in shambles”, he said.

He reminded government appointees of their responsibility to formulate and see to the effective implementation of policies and programmes which will further enhance the well-being of the ordinary Ghanaian, warning that if they continue to exhibit insensitivity to the woes of the people because of the freebies they are enjoying with the tax payers’ money, then they should be ready for the wrath of the electorate come December, when they will be kicked out.

BY YAW P. K. MANU