Graphs, tables and economic calculations won't solve Ghana's problems – Political analyst

A Political Analyst, Mr. Yaw Asani Tano, has decried the penchant by ruling political parties to organize huge assemblies and town hall meetings at the expense of the state just to tout their achievements.

He wonders why a government in power some just a few months to a general election, hold a press conference mainly to publicize its achieved promises made before coming into power.

To Asani Tano, who is a former Deputy General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), it a wasteful exercise just to enrich the pockets of party activists.

"..why don’t they leave the citizens to judge the works of the ruling government if you believe you are doing and taking the perfect decisions as expected by citizens...This programme has just been created by political parties to create funds into party officials pocket, causing financial loss to the state,” he stated.

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on Tuesday, February 11, 2020, addressed Ghanaians at a Town hall meeting in Kumasi under the theme; "Demonstrating Fulfillment Of Our Promises".

Using a combination of graphs, tables and text, he supported his claim that the Akufo-Addo administration has largely delivered on its manifesto promises, especially on the economy.

“The data shows that Ghana’s macroeconomic fundamentals are strong. Indeed, the strength of Ghana’s fundamentals was confirmed recently by Moody’s Ratings which changed Ghana’s sovereign ratings from B3 with a stable outlook to B3 with a positive outlook. This is unprecedented for an election year,” Vice President Bawumia pointed out.

He also touched on major feats that the government has achieved since its inception, and among other things, noted that Ghana's GDP growth over three years has made the nation one of the fastest economies in the world.

According to the Vice President, about 78% of the current government's manifesto has been fulfilled.

“Notwithstanding the difficult economy we inherited, we had to get on with it and start to fix the problems. We were cognizant of our many promises. In fact, at the direction of President Akufo-Addo, we put together a dashboard of manifesto promises immediately after we were declared winners of the 2016 election, and before we were sworn into office. We have been using this dashboard to track our manifesto promises since,” the Vice President stated.

Speaking on UTV’s ‘Adekye Nsroma’ political discussion segment, the CPP former Deputy General Secretary, whiles challenging Dr Bawumia's assertion that the NPP has achieved 78% of its electoral promises, also cautioned against the tendency by the Veep to launch a verbal attack against the previous government, anytime he takes the podium.

“..it has never happened in the history of this country that a political party, including the ruling government can achieve seventy-eight per cent [78%] of its promises made...He is doing it one too many, we expect him to by now as the Vice President of the state, address challenges he criticized the previous government of to transform the economic situation of this country through tangible means than making reference to them when he now holds the mantle,” he cautioned.