President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Vice President Bawumia
“To worsen matters, the Mahama government has placed a ban on public sector employment and it appears things will worsen come next year when the government rolls out its agreement with the IMF. The IMF is not more important than Ghanaians in the discourse……” this is quoting verbatim the words of the current Vice president on the 5th of May 2016 when he spoke at Accra polytechnic on the topic –“Youth Unemployment, Causes and Solutions.”
He proceeded by stating that the reason for the excessive borrowing Ghana was witnessing at the time was sheer incompetence and mismanagement and that there is enough resources in Ghana to expand the economy and employ more youth and not be slave to the IMF.
The then vice presidential candidate sounded profoundly intelligent and appeared to have all the answers the youth of the country wanted. Just seven months down the line, the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, is espousing the same position for which they criticized of the Mahama government for. Is that the change you promised Ghanaian youth?
The vice presidential candidate of the “shadow government” at the time could not have been ignorant of the workings of the IMF and the financial strength of our economy. He was a deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana before assuming the position of Vice Presidential candidate and was capable of getting any information he needed for an accurate and informed conversation on the economy.
The hungry and angry young people of this country hated this IMF arrangement and were very happy to associate themselves with the position of the NPP at the time – that Ghana does not need the IMF to dictate to us who to employ and when to employ them. The TUC and other worker unions supported that clarion call for a retreat from the IMF deal. Nurses and Teacher trainees burnt down party paraphernalia of the ruling party of the time in support of NPP’s position. We were told that the young people of this country needed jobs and could not wait for the time of Mahama’s incompetent austere regime to end. By the grace of God, the government of the internationally acclaimed economist, the man who would not trade his competence and intelligence to the dictates of the IMF won the election, the long awaited game changer had finally arrived and all of a sudden the richly available resources of this country has disappeared?
The internal avenues of resource generation have suddenly vanished such that the same men of competence who chastised others for borrowing are issuing bonds left, right center to the tune of 40 billion dollars in less than a year.
The so called incompetently austere impositions on Ghana by the incompetent Mahama government is being upheld and repeated and no one is shouting this to remind them of their promises? Well, I am happy of the emerging agitations by the same youth who were chanting and clapping for him when he was romanticizing the Queen's language on Accra poly and Central University campuses. Talk is cheap!
But that is not enough.
Where is the outspoken Catholic Bishop Conference? Why is the TUC silent this time? Where are the “nyansafo))” Professor Martey ask about? Why must it take their Invincible Force and the Delta Force to remind them of the worsening plight of the Ghanaian youth? I call this duplicity, hypocrisy and dishonesty of this groups who are silent on this!
Ghanaians were told there is going to be full implementation of free SHS by September 2017 if Nana Akufo-Addo wins, Nana Akufo-Addo won and it has suddenly metamorphosis from the full implementation to a ‘step by step progressively free implementation’ beginning with the first years only. Was that the promise? Who is fooling who here? And they won’t even apologize and speak the truth about it.
The NPP stated during the campaign last year that each of the 216 constituencies were to be allocated 1 million dollars each beside the district common fund and their internally generated funds to support the rapid development of our districts. Ghanaians supported, chanted and applauded them. In much this year, the Vice President reiterated that it was to take effect in June 2017, today is 8th August 2017. The Monitoring and Evaluation Minister said it won’t happen this year and no one is agitated about this. But if it were Asamoah Gyan missing a penalty, you would have seen the anger and aggression of the Ghanaian.
The nurses and teacher trainees who voted for the NPP has not benefited from the allowances they were promised. They are rather told that new admissions will be offered the allowance. The health minister categorically indicated that those completing this year should look for their own jobs because they are not bonded by the state. A complete stab at the back!
“Why should President Mahama put the lives of 26 million Ghanaians in danger by accepting to settle the two ex-Gitmo detainees in Ghana? They must be taken back in the supreme interest of the country” this was the NPP’s statement issued on the 26th Jan. 2016. When this same party in power was offered the opportunity to return these “terrorists” they regularized their stay without apology to Ghanaians and everyone is silent about it. It’s normal to lie and go scot free.
I have said this somewhere and will repeat it here that; when you exaggerate you competence into power, the realities of the issues of governance will expose you. For those of you who think we should wait until four years to pass a judgment, the Vice president told you when he was in opposition that when you board a bus and the driver is demonstrating incompetence; you don’t wait until he crushes. We will not stop reminding Bawumia and the NPP of their broken promises so far. The same civil societies, religious bodies and individuals who yelled at Mahama for the wrongs that are still being repeated today should be bold and speak out!
