So, where is Dr. Bawumia's response to Mr. Terkper's budget statement?

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Folks, when I read a news report yesterday that the NPP's Dr. Bawumia would respond to the budget statement presented to Parliament by Mr. Seth Terkper (Minister of Finance), I had a huge hunch that the response would be nothing other than the "emotive language" feeding the NPP's "Concert Party" enactments. Boy, I did I feel right?

I have looked around to see what exactly Dr. Bawumia said about that budget statement and can't say that I was disappointed at what I discovered and read from the beginning to the end. It met my expectation to the full. Here is why:

1. "Bawumia speaks: Mahama has created "toxic mix of incompetence and corruption" (See more at: http://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2015/December-2nd/bawumia-speaks-ghanas-economy-has-plummeted-in-many-areas.php#sthash.fEu7u6ns.dpuf)

The usual scratching around for "statistics" to beef up the rogue politics and a lame comparison of what transpired under Kufuor's 8 years and John Mahama's 4 years!! What will the NPP under Akufo-Addo do differently?

2. "'Lives destroyed under NDC Govt—Bawumia". (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Lives-destroyed-under-NDC-Govt-397953)

A play to the gallery as if no one suffered any hardship when Kufuor was in power!!

3. "Propaganda cannot manage Ghana’s economy—Bawumia tells NDC". (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Propaganda-cannot-manage-Ghana-s-economy-Bawumia-tells-NDC-397972)

As if what he is leading the NPP to do is not propaganda (against the NDC and the government).

MY COMMENTS

As usual, Dr. Bawumia has hyped nothing but the NPP's ill-temper and desperate attempt to whip up emotions instead of reason to help people know what it will do differently if given the mandate.

In truth, any response to such an important government policy hub should not only point out the flaws in it but should give us an alternative so we can see things from a wider angle. We have been given the detailed budget statement to read so we could pinpoint specifics for any argument and suggest options if we find certain aspects to be flawed or unrealistic.

What specifically did Dr. Bawumia present as the NPP's alternative budget statement (even if just for the records)? NOTHING apart from emotions. Unfortunately, countries are not built on/with such useless emotions.

Folks, I will continue to say that these NPP people don't know how to do productive politics. They pick up opportunities to advance only to drop them and relapse into their cocoon of rogue and "book" politics. They pick up the ball only to drop it. How can they reach out successfully to informed Ghanaians looking for alternative positions on crucial national issues to make up their minds toward Election 2016?

The truth is that the NPP people have found "emotive language" as a political weapon of choice to cause disaffection instead of presenting concrete and substantial proofs for the people to reason about. In our kind of situation, when people are aroused emotionally to make political decisions and miss the chance to assess issues critically, they put in office those who worsen national problems instead of solving them.

The NPP's kind of politics is fixated on sentimentalism, which explains why their easiest means of public outreach is wrapped around insults and dogged ethnocentricism. Such a political camp is doomed!! It has no future, especially as the citizens become more enlightened to sift the grain from the chaff.

Those who will regard Dr. Bawumia's effusions as anything for the NPP to approach the electorate with will be laughing at the wrong side of their mouths at electoral decision time.

The solution? Give the people alternative aspects of the government's budget statement for them to see what you will do better, not to continue hammering on what is already obvious---that the government is facing challenges. What will you do differently? That is what the people are asking. Don't continue flogging the dead horse, Dr. Bawumia and Co. But will they ever do anything differently? Such people!!

I shall return…

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