Say No To Mahama In 2020 – NPP

The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has appealed to Ghanaians not to make the ‘biggest mistake’ again of entrusting the country’s resources and future into the hands of John Dramani Mahama and his NDC, since the previous Mahama administration virtually grounded the economy and took oil-rich Ghana from a growth path of 14% to 3.4%.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra yesterday, the General Secretary of the party, John Boadu, said former president Mahama has nothing new to offer Ghanaians other than the incompetence and corruption which characterized his first four year tenure

“Say No to a redenominated candidate (Mahama) for he never changes. Mahama – the Value is the Same. More importantly, the NDC alternative under Mahama is still scary,” he stated.

According to Mr. Boadu, the record of Ghana’s Fourth Republic in the areas of growth and economy is obvious that the NPP builds and develops, while the NDC has a penchant to destroy and erode the gains made.

“NDC took us to HIPC but did not have the courage to admit it even though it was under an IMF programme in 2000. It took President Kufuor to have the bulk of Ghana’s debt written off and get Ghana out of the IMF programme. Not only that, NPP, through the focused operations of GNPC, made Ghana an oil rich nation, but left office before a single barrel of Jubilee oil could be produced.

“Also, the NPP under President Kufuor left office with Ghana’s first credit rating taking us to B+. Before that we were not even rated.

“After eight years of NDC economic management our rating went down from B+ to B-. Yes, B minus under John Mahama! After only 20 months of NPP under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, we have already been upgraded from B- to B. Our upgraded credit ratings earned us an oversubscribed Eurobond issue in multiples of seven at the lowest coupon rate and longer maturity Ghana has ever had,” he explained.

He said he found it amazing that, instead of apologising to Ghanaians on how he had wasted public funds, Mr. Mahama is busy using the dubious infrastructure projects he did at outrageously-inflated prices for his 2020 campaign. “This is the height of reckless arrogance,” Mr. Boadu said.

The NPP scribe also praised President Akufo-Addo and his government, particularly the Economic Management Team (EMT), led by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, for listening to the cries of Ghanaians and reducing import duties, which he believes, will help ease the burden and hardships on the people.

“To facilitate trade, make our ports competitive in the region, and to further reduce the costs of goods and services even with a single digit inflation, government has introduced a raft of measures at the ports that is ground-breaking” – he indicated, adding that “the effect of this is that the dutiable value of, say, a container-load of tin tomatoes, which may have been say GH₵100,000.00 attracting say 10% in total fees, charges, and duties of GH₵10,000.00 has immediately become GH₵50,000.00, resulting in lower total fees, charges, and duties of just GH₵5,000.00. This in turn translates to affordable prices of tin tomatoes on the market for Ghanaians of all income groups and jobs for more people along the line etc”.

He took a swipe at the NDC who, having been shocked politically with this reduction, have made several attempts to create the impression that the reductions would not impact the net duties paid by importers.

Boadu adduced several exhibits, including a testimony by the son of Former Deputy Attorney-General and an NDC Member of Parliament, Dr. Dominic Ayine, to advance his case.

In a Facebook post on Thursdays 4th April, 2018, just a day after the announcement of the policy, Dr. Ayine’s son, Ross Berizaya Ayine stated: “I am very impressed and pleased with the NPP and Dr. Bawumia for the reduction in import duties.

This is a great move and by far, it is the best policy in governance and in the right direction. God bless all who contributed to this success and to the brain(s) behind this splendid move. I cleared a Honda Civic Touring at GH¢31,000 just last week and clearing another under GH¢18,000 today. If all successive governments could initiate these kind of policies, Ghana as a country would be a better place to live. Politics isn’t about colours but reality”.