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The Ghanaian electorate have been called upon to consider the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections as not just a political contest but an opportunity to rebuild the nation rooted in progress, inclusivity and justice for posterity.
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, made the call in Accra yesterday at a news conference dubbed: “John Dramani Mahama a President you can trust".
“Let it be a referendum on the kind of Ghana we want to build for ourselves and for generations yet unborn; let us choose hope over despair, action over inaction, and progress over stagnation," he said.
The conference sought to highlight the outcome of Mr Mahama’s “Building Ghana Tour” where he visited 11 out of the 16 regions.
They were Volta, Northern, Upper East, Bono East, Bono, Ahafo, Western, Western North, Central, Ashanti, and Eastern regions.
The general secretary suggested that for the nation to be rebuilt, it required that the electorate worked tirelessly not just to “secure a victory for John Mahama but to achieve victory for every Ghanaian who dreams of a better tomorrow".
He then made some comparisons between Mr Mahama and the Vice-President and the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahumudu Bawumia, and suggested that while the former was a visionary leader with a track record of making far-reaching investments in infrastructure in health and education, and ensuring economic growth and reserves, the latter had about six leadership deficits.
These defects, he said, were in vision, responsibility, credibility, gratitude, competency and experience.
Mr Kwetey, in stating the leadership qualities of Mr Mahama, said the assurances of Ghanaians during the Building Ghana Tour by the NDC flag bearer encapsulated the vision the NDC flag bearer presented to Ghana.
Those qualities, he said, were expressed in his focus on sustainable development, job creation, anti-corruption measures, and significant improvements in the education and health sectors.
The assurances, he explained, resonated with the immediate needs and aspirations of “our diverse demographic groups across the nation”.
These, Mr Kwetey said, included economic revitalisation and tax reforms by scrapping the “draconian taxes imposed by the NPP, implementing a 24-hour economy for job creation under job creation, industrialisation, agriculture, rural development, infrastructure development, as well as education and health, with the abolition of the teachers licensure exams, among others.
Mr Kwetey expressed displeasure that Dr Bawumia had failed to acknowledge some of the reserves left by Mr Mahama, including the $250 million Stabilisation Fund which the NPP government fell on during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
He said the Vice-President also failed to acknowledge the Canadian finance to the agricultural sector for the Planting for Food and Jobs and the two new oil fields that accounted for eight per cent economic growth rate the NPP achieved in 2017.
The general secretary further argued that Dr Bawumia was a trial-and-error leader as compared to a tried and tested Mahama who, as head of the Economic Management Team between 2009 and 2011, delivered a single digit inflationary rate for over 30 continuous months and a Gross Domestic Product of over 14 per cent in 2011.
“We need a man with vision and experience to fix the mess.
John Dramani Mahama is that man with the experience required to fix this mess and take Ghana to the next level of progress and prosperity,” he advised.
On yesterday’s reshuffle by President Akufo-Addo, the NDC general secretary expressed disappointment that the exercise fell short of downsizing the NPP's bloated government.
“In an era where the clamour for efficient governance and fiscal prudence has never been louder, the reshuffle starkly reflects a government in disarray, obstinately disconnected from the realities of its people," he stressed.
