Do the right thing and stop begging – Nana Addo to Prez. Mahama

• Posted on October 12, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said that the much-needed investors will continue to elude the country if the investment climate is not conducive.

Nana Akufo-Addo asked President John Mahama to stop begging investors if he would not put in place measures to attract them.

The NPP flagbearer said he was shocked by President Mahama’s decision to literally beg investors to set up their industries in Ghana, stating that this was not the way to go if Ghana is to industrialize and create the thousands of jobs needed for the teeming unemployed Ghanaian youth.
“What Ghanaians demand from a President of Ghana, endowed with all the power of the State, is to put in place policies and measures which will stimulate the growth of local production and not to go begging,” the NPP flagbearer said during his three-day tour of the Ashanti region.
“We are not looking for a president who will go and beg for us. We want proper policies that will make it possible for our industries to grow. If you put in place polices aimed at strengthening your currency, reducing interest rates and putting in place an effective fiscal policy, these are the things that will stimulate local production and not begging.”
Nana Akufo-Addo reiterated his pledge of putting in place the requisite policies that will help players in the private sector to facilitate the industrial development of Ghana when elected President in the 2016 general election.

“That is what we, in the NPP, are going to do when we come into power to help develop our nation,” he stated.

Incompetent Govt

Nana Akufo-Addo criticized the conduct of the Mahama administration, describing the president as the worst leader of Ghana in the Fourth Republic.

He observed that the current NDC administration had collapsed the country’s economy and worsened the plight of the populace, adding that he must be kicked out of office in 2016.

“President Mahama-led NDC administration is the most incompetent Ghana government in the Fourth Republic. We have to do everything to unseat him in 2016 in order to save Ghana.”

Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo said, is currently in tatters due to bad governance of the NDC, stating that his administration would implement the required policies to transform the state when elected as president.

He said the NPP boasts of competent, patriotic, visionary and hard working people who could restore the country to the path of prosperity, saying the NPP is seeking political power to promote Ghana’s growth.

Ready For Power

Nana Akufo-Addo indicated that the NPP is poised to wrestle political power from the incompetent NDC administration, stressing that the NPP would unite to defeat the NDC government.

He expressed unhappiness with the seeming rift in the steering committee of the party, which is causing pain to party people, vowing to resolve the anomaly soon before campaign 2016 starts.

Eyes NDC Seats

Nana Akufo-Addo emphatically declared the NPP’s intention of winning all the 47 seats in the Ashanti region, including the four seats currently being held by the NDC, in addition to 80 percent of total votes in the Ashanti region in 2016.

According to him, the NPP ought to campaign vigorously and position itself properly so that every single vote in the Ashanti region would be secured for the party to ensure total victory for the NPP in 2016.

Little Push

Nana Akufo-Addo commended the Ashanti regional NPP for standing solidly behind him throughout the four decades of his political career, stating “I have reached this far because of your support.”

He charged the NPP’s members across the country, notably the Ashanti region, which he described as his strongest base, to help him become president in 2016, saying “I need a little push from you.”

Independent Candidates

Nana Akufo-Addo admonished NPP’s parliamentary aspirants who lost during the party’s primaries not to contest as independent candidates in the general elections since the move could prevent the party from securing its intended victory in 2016.

Double Standards

Earlier in the day, Nana Akufo-Addo, in an interview on Kumasi-based radio station, Hello FMexposed the double standards adopted by President Mahama on the issue of the voters’ register.

It would be recalled that the President Mahama reportedly stated in France that the Electoral Commission (EC) should be left alone to do its work in relation to the voters’ register.

The president said, “I have no right to interfere in that list. Ghana has an Electoral Commissioner that is independent and does not consult the president to do anything.”

Despite declaring that he would not interfere in the work of the EC, President Mahama is reported to have stressed that “it is a relatively young register because we have only used it for only one election and it was a register that has been biometrically compiled. And what we have done in the past is that when we have a young register we clean it up but one party says they want it scrapped completely and a new register compiled. We have to look at whether they have a case and that is why they are supposed to present their view but they are not only presenting view they are holding demonstration. It is for the EC to decide what to do.”

However, the NPP flagbearer said, “When some of us speak, President Mahama calls that interfering with the work of the EC. But does his comments on the register and the need for it to be cleaned, instead of the compilation of a new register not constitute interference?” Akufo-Addo added.

FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi