Don’t expect anything new from Mahama-Amissah-Arthur gov’t – NPP
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has asked Ghanaians not to expect anything new under the Mahama-Amissah-Arthur Administration.
In an apparent resumption of its campaign to wrest power from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), NPP argued that President Mahama as the head of the Economic Management team, with Mr Amissah-Arthur as the Governor of the Central Bank for more than three and a half years, failed to deliver on the most important aspect of the Ghanaians life, which was the economy.
The NPP suspended its campaign for the 2012 elections following the death of President J.E.A Mills.
At a news conference in Accra Tuesday, dubbed “Nothing has Changed and Nothing will Change Unless you make the Change on December 7”, the Chairman of the party, Mr Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey said that from his own confession, President Mahama told Ghanaians that when he was the Vice President, late President Mills offered him unfettered control “to run the show because the late President trusted him fully”.
He argued that in the last three and a half years, the cedi had lost 81 per cent of its Value to the US dollar and that by the end of last year, the cedi had lost 21 per cent of its value to the dollar in this year and was still falling.
He said surprintingly,, crude oil prices were stable, revenues from the nation’s export commodities were strong, meaning that the nation’s balance of payments was in far stronger shape that it was during the record hikes in crude oil prices and the global food crisis that the NPP encountered in 2008.
The Chairman noted that thankfully, the job of the Mahama-Amissah-Arthur caretaker team, in the words of the Vice President during his vetting “is meant to be just a stop gap thing” but appealed to them to drive the nation gently “like a spare tyre to the December elections”.
He described the President as the face of the “NDC broken promises”, explaining that he championed the Sahara Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), with the promise of an initial start up capital of GHc 200 million and a further GHc 100 million every year, which had not been fulfilled.
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey wondered why President Mahama who admonished his communicators to be civil in their language and even went ahead with a threat to fire any of his appointees who would engage in vitriolic politics was the first to flout his own pledge by describing debates that ensued the decision of where to bury the late President as “senseless”.
The NPP Chairman who was supported by his General Secretary, Mr Kwadwo Owusu-Afari and the party’s Communications Director, Nana Akomea told the media that this year’s elections were about the performance of the current NDC government and what he said was the incompetent, corrupt and uninspiring leadership it had provided.
He said the issues would also be around “the gross mismanagement of the economy; the falling cedi with its inherent impact on trade, from big businesses to the ordinary street hawker, the rising cost of living and the “hypocrisy, lies, propaganda and broken promises.”
He said. the NPP, led by its flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will continue to campaign for their programme of economic transformation, access to free and quality education, competent and anti-corrupt leadership.
Source: Daily Graphic