Akufo-Addo: “It is Mahama’s policies that lack sense, not the NPP’s”

President Akufo-Addo has launched a scalding attack on John Mahama, the former president, for referring to the present government’s policies as “lacking sense”. President Akufo-Addo argued that, on the contrary, it is the former president’s policies which lacked sense.

Addressing followers of the New Patriotic Party at the official launch of the NPP’s Election 2020 manifesto in the New Examinations Centre auditorium of the University of Cape Coast yesterday (22 August), the president said it is the Mahama regime that was characterised by senseless decisions which resulted in the oil-rich Ghana going to the International Monetary Fund for help.

Eye on the public finances

“It has been said by the NDC presidential candidate that NPP policies lack sense. If running an emerging oil economy into the arms of the IMF because of indiscipline in the management of the public finances is sense, I am happy that the NPP has another concept of sense,” Akufo-Addo declared.

“If having sense means cancelling teacher trainees’ and nurses’ allowances, I am happy that the NPP has another concept of sense. If having sense means recording the worse economic management statistics of modern times with the lowest rate of growth of the last 30 years, I am happy that the NPP has another concept of sense.

“Having sense in the NPP means being able to take an economy growing at 3.4% to an economy that grew on the average, for three successive years, at least 7% per year before the pandemic and was rightly acknowledged as one of the best-performing economies not just in Africa but also in the world,” the president said.

Towards a peaceful election

“Having sense in the NPP means executing the programme for Planting for Food and Jobs which has led to the revival of Ghanaian agriculture from the doldrums of the NDC years, bringing in its wake bumper harvests and affordable food prices in our markets, and exports of significant quantities of foodstuffs to our neighbours.

“I am happy with and prefer the NPP’s sense,” the president concluded.

Turning to the 7 December 2020 general election, President Akufo-Addo pledged that he will ensure free and fair polls.

As president, he said, he will not do anything to derail the peace and stability of Ghana that was bequeathed to the current generation of Ghanaians by the nation’s founding fathers.

NPP Manifesto 2020

The NPP’s 216-page manifesto for Election 2020, Leadership of Service: Protecting our Progress, Transforming Ghana for All, revolves around themes of national continuity and development.

It is set out in six parts. Part one – by far the longest section – is titled “Accounting for Our Stewardship”. It focuses on promises made by the party in its 2016 manifesto and sets out how much has been delivered.

Part two considers the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact it has had on Ghana and the mitigating measures government has implemented so far. The national post-COVID recovery plan – the Ghana COVID Alleviation and Revitalisation of Enterprises (known for short as “Ghana CARES”) – is the focus of part three. Part four, “Beyond 2020”, sets out a plan for the way forward by consolidating the achievements of the NPP government.

Part five broadly looks at ways in which the country can speed up growth. It has two major sub-thematic areas, the first digitisation and the transformation of the Ghanaian economy and the second the role of the private sector in building accelerated growth. The sixth and concluding part focuses on the changes needed to achieve a Ghana Beyond Aid.

Wilberforce Asare

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