John Boadu: Ghanaians should reject President Mills in December polls
A member of the Vigilante Against Propaganda (VIPA), and a deputy Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party, John Boadu, has urged the Ghanaian electorate to reject President Mills and his ruling National Democratic Congress administration in the December 2012 polls because it has only succeeded in heaping hardship on the Ghanaian in just 3 years of being in office.
John Boadu made this known at a press conference organised by the party, yesterday, to react to a recently held press conference by Deputy Finance Minister, Fifi Kwetey, where he [Fifi Kwettey] praised President Mills for ‘unprecedented levels” of economic success and improving the living standards of Ghanaians.
In a sharp rebuttal to Fifi Kwettey’s claims, John Boadu stated that the figures contained in the NDC’s own 2012 budget is a humble admission of failure on their part and also an honest analysis of why every sector of the economy is deteriorating.
According to the John Boadu, it is in the areas of agriculture, manufacturing, trade, banking, education, business, among others, that Ghanaians make their living from and when these sectors are failing, people are bound to feel the pinch, “hence the general complaint that enko yie”.
Obviously making reference to the NDC’s 2011 set sectoral targets, a majority of which were missed, as contained, in the 2012 budget, John Boadu stated that the agricultural sector which has for long dominated economic activity in Ghana saw the NDC’s target of 5.3% for 2011 yielding only a 2.8% growth.
Also, the manufacturing sector, according to the NPP man saw only a 1.7% growth, as opposed to a target of 7.0%, whilst the services sector achieved a growth rate of 4.2% against the set target of 9.9% for 2011.
“Economic management is about delivering improvement to the lives of ordinary people. In the end, improvements must happen in the real sectors: Agriculture, Services and Industry. These are where the jobs are created for people to participate in wealth creation and earn some wage to improve their lives,” John Boadu stated.
Touting the credentials and can-do-ability of the NPP and why the Ghanaian electorate must President Mills and his NDC, John Boadu said the NPP has the track record of competence in the area of managing the economy.
John Boadu recalled the drastic turning around of the Ghanaian economy, under the leadership of President Kufuor, from one of a Highly Indebted Poor Country, to a Lower Middle Income Country.
“For people like Mr. Fiifi Kwetey who claim that going HIPC was not helpful, we draw attention to paragraph 96 of the NDC government’s 2009 budget statement: ‘The ratio of Gross Public Debt to GDP declined from 142.6 per cent in 2001 to 41.4 per cent in 2006 under the dual impact of the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI),” John Boadu said.
The NPP man continued, “This is the testimony of the NDC about what the NPP did in 2001. Today, the sectors of Ghana’s economy are in shambles. The NPP is looking for the opportunity to fix them.”
John Boadu recounted the abolition of the Criminal Libel and Sedition Laws in 2001; introduction of the Metro Mass Transit in 2002; the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme in 2003; and the introduction of Capitation and School Feeding Programme in 2004, as examples of interventions introduced by the NPP in its first term in office.
“Sadly, in its fourth year of being in office, the NPP has nothing to show to the good people of this country after adding more than $16 billion worth of debt to Ghana’s total public debt stock”, John Boadu said in an interview with the paper.
The free maternal care, National Youth Employment Programme, Single Spine Salary Structure, all of which were introduced by the NPP, according to John Boadu, are now riddled with problems and on the verge of collapse under President Mills.
“In July 2007, we secured funding and started the construction of the Bui Hydro-Electric Project in August the same year. Today, the NDC General Secretary, Mr Asiedu Nketia is sitting on the board of the project and selling cement blocks to the project at the same time. The NPP is looking for the opportunity to complete what we started.
We improved petroleum exploration and discovered crude oil deposits in commercial quantities. Today, the NDC is using the oil proceeds to pay dubious judgement debts. The NPP is looking for the opportunity to clean the mess. Today, Ghanaians are wailing. The NPP is looking for the opportunity to restore hope!” John Boadu charged.
Source The Statesman Ghana
Category: Politics
