NDC- A Credible Party With A Credible Track Record Ghana Can Trust
Thank you ladies and gentlemen of the media for accepting our invitation once more.
It's been weeks since we last addressed you. At our very first press conference in February of this year, we brought to the attention of the country the unprecedented macro-economic achievements that the Mills led government had chalked in just three short years. We subsequently addressed two more conferences that dealt with the Mills-led NDCs remarkable economic infrastructural achievements and the phenomenal rural development strides made.
In July of this year, the great leader who led us to accomplish those unprecedented feats departed into glory and sadly left the nation he had served so diligently and honestly into a state of unprecedented grief and sorrow.
Today, as we get ready to address you on another critical subject, we wish to use the opportunity to salute the memory of our departed beloved President Mills and rededicate ourselves to our mission of continuing to tell the full story of the great job he did with the able assistance of the indefatigable and competent John Dramani Mahama, who as the head of the Economic Management team under President Mills, was throughout these nearly four years, the pivot and anchor-man of the many unprecedented feats that have been chalked by the NDC.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, we wish today, to touch upon an issue that we consider to be of critical importance in this campaign. The issue of the credibility of the promises that are being made and the need to take a close look at the track record of those making some of these promises.
Any political party can make a promise. Every candidate can mount a platform and make promise after promise. What is important is not the promise but the credibility and the track record of the party and the candidate making that promise.
Now let's do some detailed analysis.
Economic Transformation
NPP has been boasting about their ability to deliver an economic transformation for Ghana when given the opportunity. They boast that they will be able to transform Ghana into a Brazil type economy in the unlikely event that they win the upcoming elections.
Ironically, while the NPP candidate and his party are trumpeting how they plan to catapult Ghana to the level of Brazil when given a four year mandate, the NPP Chairman Jake Obetsebi Lamptey speaking on an Accra Radio station in defense of NPP’s eight year tenure between 2001 and 2008 declared emphatically that it would be impossible to transform a nation within eight years. “You cannot transform an economy in eight years. We will not transform a whole nation, a whole economy in eight years,” he said.
Ladies and gentlemen, you can, right from the word go, realize the duplicity and the confusion of the NPP and its leaders. It shows that their whole talk about turning Ghana into Brazil within a four year mandate is just NPP’s typical way strategy of employing plain deception and empty promises hoping that the people of Ghana will be naïve enough to believe the lies.
When will NPP realize that the people of Ghana are not as gullible as they think? Ghanaians are not simpletons and the earlier the NPP understands that the better for them.
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s even assume that the NPP genuinely believes that they can turn Ghana into Brazil when given a four year mandate- have the NPP even bothered to find out how President Lula da Silva turned around the fortune of Brazil? Do they appreciate the aggressive investment in the transformation of the infrastructure of Brazil? A move which dramatically positioned Brazil as an attractive global investment destination?
If the NPP have taken time to imbibe, then it’s good for us to scrutinize NPP’s record in infrastructural investment and to use that as a barometer of how the party will pursue that path if given power. Let’s begin with energy infrastructure.
Energy Infrastructure
Until the energy crisis that hit the country between 2006 and 2007 the NPP had not added an ounce of energy to the national grid. This shows the scant regard the NPP had for the transformation of the energy infrastructure of the country.
Is this the track record of a party that believes in the transformation of an economy? Spending nearly two terms without adding an ounce of energy to the nation's energy grid?
The NDC has within three years added 376MW to the nation’s energy generation capacity. And whereas it took the NPP eight long years to add 11% to the total number of households connected to electricity, the NDC has within three short years, achieved 18%, almost twice what the NPP took eight years to accomplish.
So how can the NPP and Nana Addo go about boasting about economic transformation when he and his party have such a disastrous record in the transformation of a critical sector such as the energy sector, which across all economies is the game changer?
We Can Point To Projects Being Financed With the $3b- Can The NPP Do Same Concerning the $750m?
How can a party claim it believes in economic transformation when that group can go and borrow 750 million dollars and cannot point to a single visible infrastructure it used the money for? Where is the road they used it for? Where is the port? What railway project? What thermal or hydro project can they point to? Which hospital? What water system or dams or irrigation projects?
Ladies and gentlemen, ask them to point out just one infrastructural project they used nearly the 1 billion dollars to construct? In spite of that huge amount of money it had to take the coming into office of the NDC for monies to be raised for the construction of the gang of four roads NPP cut the sod for. And this is the group going all over the place talking about economic transformation! Talk is so cheap. If wishes were horses the NPP would have a jolly good ride at the expense of the good people of Ghana.
Let’s compare that pathetic record against the way the NDC is going about the 3 billion dollar CDB loan- a facility, which incidentally, the NPP did everything to stop using all kinds of excuses, like they have virtually opposed every good thing in the history of Ghana- from the unitary state of Ghana, through the independence of Ghana, the Akosombo dam, the 1992 constitution, the VAT, the Getfund etc.
As opposed to NPP which cannot point to any infrastructure they used the 750 million dollars for, the NDC can point to the 850m dollar Gas infrastructure that is on course as we speak- a project that is set to truly transform Ghana’s energy situation and usher in an integrated Aluminum project that will make full use of our bauxite, salt and gas deposits.
Unlike the NPP that cannot point to one visible infrastructure they used the 750m dollars for we will soon be pointing at the Accra plains irrigation project which will revolutionize the agricultural sector, the Western corridor petroleum terminal project, the Eastern corridor multi modal transportation project, the Western corridor infrastructure project consisting of the western railway line modernization and Takoradi Port rehabilitation. The fishing industry will also see fishing harbours and landing sites.
Each of these projects is supported by robust feasibility and financial viability studies. Unlike the NPP that went collecting $750m without any feasibility studies. No wonder they cannot show one visible project they used that gargantuan loan for.
The way the NDC has gone about it shows how a party that is serious about transforming an economy goes about things. The NDC walks the talk- all the NPP and Nana Addo do is to make empty statements. Their track record gives true meaning to the expression “Talk Is Cheap indeed”.
NPP Wants To Know What The NDC Is Using Loans For?
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, when you hear the NDC making noises about the quantum of loans the NDC has borrowed, you need to appreciate where they are coming from. The NPP because of its disastrous history in how to use loans for transformational infrastructure thinks that the NDC is also like it. The NPP is wondering what it is the loans contracted by the NDC are being used for?
How does the NPP think the NDC has been able, within three years to connect as many as 1700 communities to the national grid? How does the NPP think the NDC has accomplished the feat of increasing by 18%, households connected to electricity in three years, when for eight long years the NPP could achieve only 11%? How does the NPP think the NDC has within three years added 376MW to the nation’s energy generation capacity?
The NPP wants to know what we have used the loans for? How do they think the nearly 1 billion TOR debt they left behind was settled? A settlement that helped save both the Tema Oil Refinery and Ghana Commercial Bank from collapse?
How do they think the gang of four roads which they started without securing any financing is being done in earnest?
Do they pause to think of the fact that while the NDC has within these four years allocated as much 340m cedis for cocoa roads, the NPP in eight long years managed to allocate only 3m cedis to cocoa roads?
They are asking what the loans are being used for? They should just stop pretending to be asleep and open their eyes and see development all over the country starting from the beautifully asphalted road which passes right in front of the residence of their flagbearer Nana Akufo Addo- a road which was in dire condition during the eight years of the NPP. If the NPP cannot see these because they pretend to be asleep, we are at least happy that the people of Ghana are very much awake and can see and appreciate the many projects that are being done all over the country using the resources being raised domestically and externally. Not only can they see, but like Oliver Twist they are clamouring for more; and more development they shall receive from the performing NDC- a group that believes in taking development to the length and breadth of our country.
So it is clear that because the NPP has such a disastrous record in efficiently using loans for infrastructure, they wrongly assume that the NDC is like them. Because the NPP can still not point to one completed economic infrastructure in their first four years, they think the NDC is also like them. We are not non-performers like them. Apart from paying about 3.8 billion cedis arrears they left behind, we have massive evidence of solid infrastructure the loans are being used for.
Track Record In Boosting Nation’s Productive Sectors
How can a party that is boasting about Economic Transformation of Ghana preside over the systematic collapse of the nation's critical productive and employment generating sectors in their eight year tenure at the helm? The local rice industry collapsed under them. The local fishing industry collapsed under them. The cotton industry collapsed under them. Virtually everything the NPP touched collapsed- even their own Presidential Special Initiatives collapsed under them. And yet this group is boasting about leading Ghana on a path of Economic transformation.
Let’s compare that with the strides that the NDC has made in these areas. We have procured within three years as many as 140 new rice combine harvesters when for eight years the NPP acquired only 4? Is it any surprise that as a result of this and other far reaching measures, the country has managed to reduce rice importation by 30%? And we are going ahead to make this even far better with the finalization of plans for the Accra plains irrigation project. The cotton sector that saw a massive collapse under the NPP, has seen significant improvement under the NDC. For the first time in several years, 40,000 farmers in 2011 cultivated 23,000 ha of cotton in the three northern regions. Prior to that, the total number stood at 2500. In the fishing sector, the NDC has swiftly moved the procure four patrol vessels and is also dedicating a good chunk of the $3 billion facility to the coastal fishing harbours and landing sites as well as boosting fishing in the Volta lake.
This is how a serious political party pushes towards the transformation of an economy- not like the NPP that presides over the systematic collapse of these critical productive sectors and yet is boasting about its ability to deliver economic transformation.
Macro-economic Management Capacity
Economic transformation must be anchored on the ability to find solutions to difficult economic problems which will continue confront us. Let’s compare the way the NPP and the NDC confronted the problem of the depreciation of the cedi in the year 2008 and 2012 respectively.
In 2008, the NPP had not met unprecedented import levels that the NDC is currently dealing with. Yet the cedi in 2008 lost as much as 20% of its value. What did NPP do when confronted with this difficulty? They had no clue and therefore could find no creative solution. So as a result, they ended up depleting the foreign reserves of the nation down from about 3 months of import cover to as low as 1.8 months of import cover. In addition they became so desperate that they had to sell off Ghana Telecom in addition. In spite of that the cedi lost as much as 20 percent and the negative effects led to a further 18 percent depreciation of the cedi in the first six months of 2009.
Let's compare that with the way the NDC has handled a far more difficult problem faced by the cedi this year- a year in which a combination of unprecedented public sector wage payments and import levels brought unprecedented pressure on the cedi. The NDC economic team, unlike the NPP which in 2008 could not find a clue, put in place far reaching policies that have arrested the rapid depreciation and brought about a situation where the cedi is once again seeing appreciation against the dollar. As a result of these successful measures, the global confidence in the Ghanaian economy has once again skyrocketed as evidenced in the recent massive oversubscription of the 5 year bond floated by the government.
This capacity to meet and resolve difficult economic problems is what a government that can usher in economic transformation demonstrates; and not the lazy and incompetent way the NPP went about a lesser problem in the year 2008. The NDC has demonstrated that same capacity and competence in the way the party has met and resolved the huge deficit the NPP left behind in 2008, the almost 4 billion cedis of arrears the NDC met and the hydra headed Single spine salary scheme. These abilities are the mark of a group that can be trusted to usher in economic transformation.
Brazil Teaches Shows Importance of Maintaining Single Digit Inflation
The economic transformation path of Brazil shows the importance of bringing inflation down and keeping it for a long time within single digit. With the exception of 2003, Brazil had from 1999 to 2011 maintained single digit inflation. Prior to that, triple digit inflation was not uncommon in Brazil.
NPP in eight long years could hardly attain and maintain inflation in single digit. Yet they are touting Brazil as their economic model forgetting the path of transformation Brazil followed. The NDC not only attained single digit inflation but has been able to maintain it now for about 26 long months-an unprecedented feat in our history.
Simply because the NPP has not been able to achieve that, they go about discounting its importance claiming that prices have still gone up in spite of single digit as if in places like Brazil price levels have remained frozen because of several years of single digit inflation. The experience of countries like Brazil demonstrates that the attainment and maintenance of single digit inflation is a necessary prerequisite for economic transformation.
Even though price levels will continue to go up as long as there is inflation, our continued effort to keep it within single digits will ensure that we do not go back to the skyrocketing price levels seen during NPP’s tenure when over a four year period Ghana saw the price of Kerosene up by 583%, a bag of cement go up by 244%, a ball of kenkey up by 700%, a bag of maize increase by 375%, a Tin of milk up by 481%, a bag of rice by 550%; a loaf of bread up by 950%, a sachet of water increase by 200% etc.
While Brazil Empowers National Oil Company NPP Plans To Castrate GNPC
How can Nana Addo and his NPP be touting Lula’s Da Silva’s Brazil as their model when Lula like the NDC has pursued the empowerment and transformation of his country's national petroleum company, Petrobraz, a company that today is the shining example of Brazil's economic prowess, whereas NPP Led by Nana Addo is talking about rendering the GNPC virtually impotent, by taking away precious resources GNPC needs to continue to work with other foreign companies to find and produce more oil and gas to power the nation’s economic transformation.
Rapid Growth Of Economy
Economic transformation must be anchored on a high growth rate. This is what the NDC tradition has stood for. Between 1993 and the year 2000, the NDC grew the economy of Ghana 12 times- an incredible increase of 1169%. NPP in eight years achieved a comparatively insignificant 300 % and yet they have been singing all over the place about this performance forgetting that the NDC had done about four times what they have done. The current NDC is continuing this same strong growth path as can be seen in the strong GDP growth rates of 8% and the record breaking 14.4% recorded in 2010 and 2011 respectively.
this growth rate is not just high but showing robustness and sustainability. This is completely different from the high growth rate the NPP achieved in 2008 which left the country with a crippling 3.8 billion cedis of arrears and brought in its wake high inflation, high deficits, depleted foreign reserves and a rapid currency depreciation among others.
So how can the NPP be boasting about their ability to deliver economic transformation when they do not know how achieve rapid and sustained growth rates as the NDC does?
Hairdressing Saloon Loan Specialists
How exactly will the NPP bring about the economic transformation? How will they go about achieving this when the key personality the NPP is depending on to pilot this is their running mate Dr Bawumiah- the same person who not once but twice was key in leading the NPP government to pursue phantom hairdressing saloon loans- the IFC and CNTCI 419 loans. How safe is Ghana when the economic transformation dream of the NPP is being piloted by a man who knows not the difference between a 419 facility and a genuine facility?
It does not take our running mate Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur and the NDC economic team even two minutes to detect these 419 facilities. Yet NPP is talking about Economic transformation and touting Bawumiah as the pivot of that plan? When will the NPP get serious?
Even Modernization of Accra NPP Could Not
Which economic transformation is the NPP talking about? Even a simple project such as the modernization of the capital city- the NPP failed abysmally. The NPP led by the party's current Chairman, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, just wasted precious taxpayer's money and time and achieved zilch. The only transformation Ghana saw at the end of that failed project is Jake buying his government bungalow- a scandalous and unprecedented act. Maybe that parochial transformation of individual NPP leaders' personal situation is what the NPP means by Economic Transformation.
When Will The NPP Take Ghanaians Seriously?
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, we are in days when all kinds of promises are being made. Promises are easy to make.
It's easy to promise to replace all slums with apartment houses with modern conveniences, which will be cost-effective and environmentally friendly as NPP did in the year 2000.
It’s easy to promise to modernize and extend the railway network, and connect it to the Northern Regions as NPP in the year 2000.
It is not difficult to promise to revive the local rice production and cut rice import by 30% as the NPP did in the year 2000.
It does not take a lot to promise to ensure that at least a community health nurse is located in every hamlet of the country.
What matters is not what one is promising but one’s track record of delivery.
After eight long years in office, did the NPP replace all the slums with modern apartments? No.
Did they modernize the railway and extend it to the north? No. they actually presided over its further collapse to the extent that some of the lines were sold as scrap.
Did they ensure that at least a community health nurse is located in every hamlet of the country? Definitely not!
Have the NPP subsequently even shown any remorse for not delivering on these and so many more promises they made? No. instead, they have waxed even more audacious and making even more outlandish promises and they somehow presume that the people of Ghana do not remember their track record of non-delivery.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, we have today amply shown that when it comes to the issue of delivering economic transformation, NPP simply has not got what it takes. They do not have the track record, the capacity and above all they do not have the credibility that should elicit trust from the people of Ghana.
Instead of the NPP telling the children the truth, they are rather deceiving the innocent children by making more promises that they know they will not be able to keep.
We will deal with the specific one they are making about free SHS at our next conference.
Till then, thank you once again for honouring our invitation.
