Nana Addo engages in ‘Mallam Atta’ market politics – Communication Minister

He however noted that the NPP Flagbearer fails to realize that such approach has not inured to his benefit; thus his continuous stay in opposition.

According to the Deputy Communications Minister, Nana Akufo-Addo’s campaign style is fit for the Mallam Atta market because there is no order of direction of his message to Ghanaians.

He based his comment the NPP Flag bearer’s remarks he passed at an NPP branch meeting in Paris on Saturday, May 28, 2016 on the country’s agricultural sector, which has seen a sharp decline.

The opposition leader during the said meeting with party members and sympathizers accused President Mahama of mismanaging to the Ghanaian economy to the extent that the West African nation now imports plantain from neighbouring La Cote d’Ivoire.

“When Kufuor was leaving office in 2008, the food import bill for our country was $600 million. Mills and Mahama criticized Kufuor for his performance and they promised to reduce it. Last year, the food import bill of our country was $1.5 billion. We are now importing plantain into Ghana! Agriculture, which in Kufuor’s last year was growing at 7.4%; this last year was 0.04%. These are the facts about Ghana, they are not my inventions. You look at the official and budget statistics, you’ll find it there,” he said.

But reacting to Akufo Addo’s statement on Okay Fm’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Kwakye Ofosu jabbed saying it is wrong for the NPP leader to address the whole agricultural sector by picking an aspect of it to draw his conclusions.

He insisted it is only conventional politicians who address a sector without looking at the holistic view; thus, per the holistic view, projections are made and then possible alternative to foster development.

“I have realized that all the time when he (Nana Akufo-Addo) is going to speak, he doesn’t do any research. He only relies on what his party officials put before him to read. Recently when he traveled to Amsterdam, he told the Ghanaian community that government has spent US$10million to print diaries knowing very will that what he said wasn’t the truth”.

“At another platform, he told the people that the cost of the Ridge Hospital facility has been inflated which wasn’t the truth. If he takes his time to do a little research on the given topics that are put before him to speak on, he will realize that all that he has been saying are lies”.

“In addressing the agricultural sector, you look at the holistic view of the sector and not to pick on an aspect of the sector to generalise the effect on the sector. When you do this, you are a conventional politician; I am sorry but this is Mallam Atta politics and not the kind for someone who wants to be President. Per the holistic view of the sector, you can make projections and come up with alternative”, he punched.

The deputy Minister of Communication revealed that the crop sector has seen improvement as total cassava crop produced last year was about 17 million metric tons as compared to NPP’s cassava crop record of 6 million metric tons.

He maintained that rice importation under President Mahama has reduced to pave way for the local rice production in the country; reiterating that for now, local rice production can be found more on the market than the imported rice; which was not the case during the NPP era.

“Even livestock growth has improved under President Mahama as poultry farming has seen improvement but under NPP, Poultry farming collapsed. Government has reduced 40 per cent importation of poultry into the country”, he averred.

He cautioned leaders seeking to take over political power from Mahama administration to be truthful and investigate before passing accurate comment and then come up with alternative plan to help the sector.

“For the past 2 years as Nana Addo was elected Flagbearer of NPP, he has not issued a single policy to Ghana but keeps on spreading falsehood as he visits Ghanaians…what are the policies of NPP on Education, Health, Agriculture, Employment, Security, etc?” he quizzed.