NPP Govt Is Bankrupt With Ideas

With the 2008 general elections drawing closer, members of the leading opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have become more vocal in their criticisms of the ruling government?s policies, their outcomes and impact on the citizenry. Among the critics is the NDC Parliamentary Candidate (PC) for Asunafo North, Mohammed Kwaku Doku, who says the Kufuor-led NPP government is bereft of ideas on governance and for that matter Ghanaians should think twice before casting their votes come December 2008.

He accused the government of bad governance and for being insensitive to the hardship and economic plight of the citizenry, saying a few privileged are enjoying, while the majority of the people are reeling in poverty and hopelessness. Speaking to The Chronicle in Sunyani, Mr. Doku said all the policies and programmes the NPP government is priding itself, to have undertaken namely; the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), GETFund, Road Fund and the Value Added Tax (VAT) were initiated by the NDC government. Mr. Doku said, VAT, which the NPP stood against when it was instituted by the NDC has been the major internal revenue generating policy ever introduced in the country.

He continued that if the NPP could boast of improving infrastructure in education, they should praise the NDC for the introduction of the GETFund, adding that, if the GETFund had not been misapplied and misappropriated by the NPP government, the infrastructure development in the country?s educational system would have been better than it is today. On the NHIS, the NDC Parliamentary Candidate, who is a former District Chief Executive of Asunafo District Assembly said, before the NPP took over from the NDC, the NHIS had been piloted in 41 out of the then 110 districts, with the necessary structures being put in place to extend it later to other districts, saying if the NPP wants to boast with its achievements, then it should not do so with the NHIS.

Mr. Doku challenged the NPP and the general public to show just a paragraph in the party?s 2000 manifesto, which it used to wrestle power from the NDC that mentions anything about the NHIS, saying he would resign from the NDC if anybody could show him a prove. ?I am giving the NPP and the general public one week to prove to the whole world that indeed they had at least one of the four policies mentioned above captured in the NPP?s 2000 manifesto as a policy?, he stressed. He said, if the NPP government could rehabilitate and construct new roads, then credit must be given to the former Vice-President Prof. Evans Atta-Mills, who initiated the Road Fund (which they stood against, when it was introduced) for the NPP to used. According to Mr. Doku, ?since NPP did not initiate those policies, they find it very difficult implementing them, and therefore after mismanaging all those noble policies of the NDC, the NPP must now be voted out by Ghanaians for the policy owners to come and implement them effectively and efficiently?.

He said Ghanaians should not blame the NPP for the economic hardship they are experiencing currently, because they allowed themselves to be deceived into thinking that they could do it. He however stated that it is not too late, because now that it has come to light that the NPP lacked the managerial competence to rule the country, Ghanaians should renew the mandate of the NDC who are the genuine owners of the policies and knows how best to implement them for the benefit of the people come 2008.