NII Dodoo at Propaganda NDC( better Ghana reloaded)

? SPEAKING POINTS ON NEW ANTI-CORRUPTION STEPS BY PRESIDENT MAHAMA
President Mahama has taken further steps which clearly demonstrate his commitment towards fighting corruption. These measures have definite timelines by which they should have been achieved. Among other measure she has;
1. Instructed the Minister for Youth and Sports to:
a. Suspend with immediate effect, all payments under all GYEEDA contracts, except the payment of arrears to workers up to the end of the year.
b. Complete the review of all modules and accompanying contracts under GYEEDA by the 15th of December and, before 31st December 2013 cancel all contracts that do not pass the “value for money” test.
c. Place a moratorium on the creation of new modules under GYEEDA.
2. Instructed the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General/EOCO and the Minister of Finance to work with the Minister for Youth and Sports to achieve the following by 31st December 2013:
a. Secure refunds of monies wrongfully paid to or appropriated by any individuals or companies from contracts with SADA, GYEEDA, and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and to retrieve the monies wrongfully paid to Waterville and Isofoton. Note that the Attorney General has already filed the necessary writs and processes to retrieve the monies with Isofoton and Waterville. This has been going on for about three months now.
b. Initiate legal action against the individuals or companies to secure the refunds and/or to punish them for wrongdoing;
c. Asked EOCO to make that update known to the public in order for the public to know what action is being taken.
3. Instructed the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General to expedite work on the GYEEDA Bill for submission to Parliament. Work on the Bill has actually been completed and submitted to the sports Ministry for comment following which it will be submitted to parliament for passage. The Bill is expected to ensure proper oversight and efficiency in management of GYEEDA as well as focus on decentralizing the program to ensure local ownership and real benefits to our communities.
4. Instructed the Minister for Finance and Minister for Justice and Attorney General to review and advice on a suspension of the contract with Subah Infosolutions seeing as the contract was not signed by the appropriate authorized Government representative.
5. Directed the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources to:
a. Present a Plan within 2 weeks for ensuring transparency under the Accra Redevelopment Policy;
b. In the spirit of transparency publish the names of all beneficiaries of the policy by the 16th of December 2013;
c. Review all the transactions involved in the implementation of the policy within 3 calendar months from today; and
d. Scrap the policy that allows public officers to purchase state bungalows allocated to them as official residences.
6. Instructed the Chief of Staff, as of today, not to grant any request by any government official to purchase any state vehicle that was assigned to them for official use. Disposal of aged government vehicles must be publicly and transparently done. A scheme is being discussed under which Senior Public Officials will be able to acquire their own vehicles under hire purchase from vehicle dealerships.
7. Directed for the re-registration with GV number plates of all Government vehicles to proceed in earnest and be completed by the 1st quarter of next year.
8.As of last week, he has constituted a Committee which will determine as one of the factors for the continuous stay in office of a Minister of State or head of any government Department or Agency, an annual report on the extent to which the recommendations of the Auditor-General’s Report have been implemented in your MDA.
9. The Minister for Justice and Attorney-General has submitted a first series of cases from the Auditor General’s Report to EOCO for investigation and possible prosecution before the Financial Tribunal following the President’s instructions.
10. Directed all MDAs to present justification for application for any sole sourcing to cabinet for scrutiny before submission to the PPA
11. Directed that any contracts above GHC5m recurring in multiple budgets must be made public through publication in the newspaper or on the new contract management database portals to be launched soon.
12. Indicated that he is awaiting anxiously the report of the Sole Commissioner on Judgment Debts and pledged to deal firmly with the report when it is presented.
13. Finally he has requested the Minister in Charge of Government Business in Parliament to rally his colleagues in Parliament to:
a. Ensure the quick approval of the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan; b. Ensure the early Passage of the Right to Information Bill; c. Ensure the passage of the Whistleblower (Amendment) Bill; and d. Ensure the passage of the Conduct of Public Officers Bill.

These concrete actions clearly show that President Mahama does not condone corruption and is prepared to tackle it head on unlike other Presidents who claimed corruption started from Adam and did everything possible to justify it.

please who urge all comrades of the GREAT AKATAMANSO FAMILY to refrain from attacking pastor Mensa Otabil, for we are in a better position than he is.

PRESS STATEMENT BY RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY PLATFORM (RAP) ON PLANS BY NPP TO USE MERCENARIES TO FORMENT VIOLENCE IN THE 2012 ELECTIONS
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen of the media. We thank you for responding to our invitation at such short notice. We have called you here this morning to share with you the contents of a shocking tape recording which has very grave implications for the peace and stability of this nation before, during and after the December 2012 elections.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, it is common knowledge that since losing the 2008 elections on account of their poor performance in government, the NPP led by Nana Akufo Addo has persistently threatened violence should they lose the upcoming elections. Indeed Nana Addo and the NPP view a loss in the upcoming elections as an existential threat and have thus resorted to the use of threats of violence as a way of forcing Ghanaians to vote for him.
We recall with a great deal of anguish Mr Akufo Addo’s infamous “all die be die”, “yen akanfuo” war chant at Koforidua where he exhorted party youth to do everything in their power to ensure his election as President even if it meant dying since death is death and it doesn’t matter how one dies. Not too long after these frightening statements Mr Akufo Addo told students at an event on KNUST campus that the NPP must win the elections “at all cost”.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, taking inspiration from their leader, various leading functionaries of the NPP have made equally incendiary statements including Kennedy Agyapong who stunned Ghanaians earlier this year when he declared war and called on Ashantis and Akans in general to butcher Gas and Ewes. We acknowledge that Kennedy Agyapong’smurderous and genocidal statements are currently the subject matter of a trial before our courts as well as an investigation by the International Criminal Court.
We also remember that Mr Samuel Awuku, a deputy communications director of the NPP called on NPP youth to arm themselves with disused pestles “woma funu” and be prepared to attack anyone who goes near a ballot box in the December elections. More ominously, Mr Awuku stated at the same forum that nothing short of a victory will be acceptable to the NPP - a point which re-echoes Akufo Addo’s at all cost posture.
Ladies and Gentlemen, evidence available to the Research and Advocacy Platform makes it abundantly clear that these statements are not mere political rhetoric intended to incite party supporters to violence but rather the opening phase of an elaborate plan by Nana Akufo Addo and the NPP to plunge this country into total chaos and violence as a way of ensuring that when he loses the elections the victor is unable to govern a united,cohesive country.
We have in our possession a tape recording in which Anthony Karbo then the National Youth Organizer of the NPP is heard spelling out the details of plans to hire Mercenaries from some neighbouring West African countries and beyond to “instigate” violence during the elections. Karbo is also heard audibly on the tape recording setting out how the NPP will through a campaign of lies, attack vital state institutions as part of a psychological war aimed at paralysing those institutions and rendering them incapable of dealing with the rogue elements who they have brought in.
At this juncture Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to crave your indulgence to listen to this short recording after which we will return to the statement.
For the avoidance of doubt Anthony Karbo said the following on the tape you just listened to.
“Now, that’s what I’m working on now. I’m meeting with all the bad boys; some of them are NDC boys, some of these guys from Libya, some ayigbe boys who have come in from Togo: There are some guys who have come in from Benin and Liberia we are meeting.
“So I’m just trying to consolidate that by second week of October I’m done with the whole country. We’ll be able to consolidate all the bad boys because what they are going to try to do is to try to instigate some fighting.
“Our party people too they talk, blah-blah-blah but they don’t have people that now-now-now if they say there is something and call people; NPP people can’t call anybody so we just want to focus on that one. Ashanti region, Western region, Eastern region, all the five Akan regions, those are our strongholds and we need to protect that quickly.”
Apart from plans for the EC, where he said weak batteries would be used for verification, Karbo reveals the plot against the security agencies:
“By October ending, first week, second week in November, we need to start attacking particular national institutions; like police, like the military, the national security and BNI. We need to start attacking those institutions to make it known that we are aware they are going to be used in this elections,” he stated
Anthony Abayifaa Karbo, National Youth Organiser of the NPP, who has long declared that “if the NPP does not win the 2012 elections, Afghanistan” also said that;
“We have to hit particular officers in the EC: Director of Operations, CID Boss, and this Amidu guy; these are key; some of the Brigadiers, ‘Ayigbe brigadiers: we need to attack them about secret meetings they held here, even if it is not true,” Karbo is heard telling die-hard party youth, adding “it’s part of the psycho,” war.
The recording shows that as many Ghanaians try to assess the political parties on the promises they are making and whether they can be trusted to deliver on them or not, the NPP is plotting to create a state of insecurity in a bid to rally together five regions they consider their own, aimed at creating a state of fear and panic to make the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) party unpopular
Ladies and Gentlemen these are very serious revelations which require immediate action by relevant state agencies especially the security services. As part of efforts to help investigations into this matter the Research and Advocacy Platform will lodge a formal complaint with the Criminal Investigations Department of the Police Service and other state security agencieswith a view to ensuring that Mr Karbo is brought to book.
Having made this recording public it is our expectation that all Ghanaians, Civil Society Groups, Religious Leaders and members of Moral Society will condemn in no uncertain terms this dastardly attempt to undermine the peace and tranquillity which has prevailed in Ghana all these years.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is important not to take the contents of this particular tape in isolation as it only goes to reinforce the NPP’s track record of employing the services of thugs to attack political opponents during elections.Not too long ago,the embattled Kennedy Agyapong was heard in an interview confessing that he on the say so of the then Defence Minister,recruited a thousand macho men to intimidate NDC members in the Ashanti Region during the 2008 elections. Just two weeks ago, Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, NPP MP for Asokwa was also heard on tape telling NPP members at a meeting that he smuggled 30,000 ballot papers and weapons into the Tain constitutency during the last phase of the 2008 elections in order to help the NPP rig the elections.
The Research and Advocacy Platform believes strongly that the blame for this wicked plot must be placed squarely at the doorstep of Nana Akufo Addo because it is inconceivable that such a serious plot will be hatched by his Youth organizer and other officers of his party without his express instructions or at least approval as leader of the party.In light of this we urge him to speak directly to the contents of this tape as failure to do so will only undermine his credibility in the eyes of decent minded Ghanaians who are unwilling to thrust the destiny of this country into the hands of a group of people who see political power as an end and as a result want to win elections at all cost.
We recall with regret how Mr Akufo Addo, refused to condemn and apologise for the ethnocentric comments of Kennedy Agyapong but rather presided over a situation where the latter was hailed as a hero by the NPP for calling on Akans to kill Gas and Ewes.
Finally this revelation and all the other statements, actions and inactions of Mr Akufo Addo and other members of the NPP confirm conclusions drawn by major international bodies about the 2012 elections. In a report compiled in June last year, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the authoritative US think tank singled out Akufo Addo as the one Ghanaian politician whose conduct poses the biggest threat to the nations stability. Titled ‘Ghana: Assessing Risks to Stability’ the report notes on page 16 that “The role of the NPP leader and expected presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, will be crucial, and early signals suggest reason for worry. Akufo-Addo is desperate to mobilize support, and he has played the ethnic card, referring to the NPP as “We the Akans,” urging his supporters to “all die be die”—that is, they should be willing to die to ensure the NPP's victory…”
Thank you very much for coming once again, you may now ask questions.

Felix Kwakye Ofosu
Convener,
Research and Advocacy Platform
0248756861

NDC Manifesto Regional Provisions
Greater Accra
• Rehabilitate kindergarten facilities
• Improvement of the Teaching and learning environment of the existing Technical institutions and Accra Polytechnic.
• Conversion of the GRATIS Foundation into a College of Vocational Technology by 2016.
• Continue to upgrade both the residential and academic facilities at the University of Ghana.
• Establish at least a polyclinic and a District hospital in the Greater Accra Region.
• Construction of fishing harbours in Teshie, Ada, and James Town.
• Review the Accra Re-development policy to remove the abuses associated with it.
• Institute a post-graduate programme at the 37 military hospital to augment the local training of specialists in Ghana.
• Development of the Achimota Forest into a publicly owned ecological theme park.
• Start and complete the Accra plains irrigation project.
• Start and complete the AMA ICT-Enhanced Traffic Management Project
• Resuscitate the Volta Aluminium Company (Valco)
• The Eastern Corridor will start from Tema in the greater Accra region up to the northern region.
• The Central spine roads will start from Accra right up to Paga in the northern region.
• The Accra-Tema and Accra-Nsawam railway lines will be rehabilitated and refurbished to meet modern standards with funds obtained from General Electric.
• The NDC will also improve the physical infrastructure at the Kotoka international Airport
• The NDC will establish a national Science Park at Tema.
• The Greater Accra Region will have its fair share of the proposed 200 Community Senior Secondary Schools.
• The Greater Accra Region will have a College of Education built for it.
• Continue the new campus development for the Institute of Journalism, the School of Translators and the National Film and Television Institute.
• The NDC will improve the efficiency in the provider payment mechanism, expand the national health care scheme, expand coverage of diseases and introduce instant NHIS Card Issuance.
• The next NDC government will procure additional ambulances to establish an Accident Evacuation service along the major roads.
• The NDC government will increase the proportion of the District Assemblies Common Fund set aside to support the disabled under the Districts’ Support Scheme for the Disabled from 2% to 2.5%.
• The Greater Accra Region will get its fair share of the promised 20,000 boreholes nationwide.
• Provide modern toilet facilities for public basic schools in this region to help eradicate the 16,265 public basic schools without toilets in this country.
• Enforce sanitation bye laws by all MMDAs.
• Ensure that the CRC-proposed constitutional amendments are passed to allow the direct involvement of people in the election of DCEs; the Office of the Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund etc.
• Ensure that the new districts are provided the 5 basic needs of namely electricity for the district capital, SHS, a District Hospital, portable water and a minimum second class access road to the district hospital.
• Fund women politicians to aspire to local government positions.
• The NDC government will resuscitate the Wahome Steel Factory in Tema.
• The NDC government also plans to implement a policy of Water for All under which there will also be the establishment of a Water Fund to support the provision of water for pro-poor areas.
• The NDC government will provide alternate livelihood programmes to develop skills among rural dwellers and also access roads to markets.
• The NDC will adopt a water for all policy and also set up a pro-poor policy to ensure that portable water reaches all corners of this country by 2020.
• The NDC is going to rehabilitate Regional Cultural centres across the country. (pg 46)
• The NDC is going to establish renewable energy projects at Kpando, Ada and Prampram. (pg 52)

NDC Forum For Setting The Records Straight
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.