President John Mahama has described Nana Akufo-Addo’s campaign promises as outmoded, urging his opponent to strive towards making policy proposals that are in tune with the times.
The President said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential candidate’s one- district-one-factory and one-village-one-dam are poorly packaged and devoid of clarity.
Speaking on Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV, Tuesday, the President said the lack of clarity in Akufo-Addo’s promises smacks of mediocrity.
“You just throw out a promise – that is yesterday’s campaigning. In those days, my father’s time, you just throw out something and people just pick it. One village one dam they don’t know if it is a dug out or a barrage dam or a proper irrigation dam they don’t know. One-village-one factory – what kind of factory? Is it a car assembling plant? Is it the kind of factories that we know? Is it electronic appliances, textiles and garments or small and medium enterprises?” he quizzed.
He adds, “this thing about one factory per district came up under the rural enterprise project. It’s not a new idea. It’s a very old idea. If you are talking about small and medium enterprises, like gari making factories, small processing companies, and the use of gratis machines, that is happening already. So the promises are not new.”
The President’s criticism is one of many that have greeted Nana Akufo-Addo’s promise to build factories in all 216 districts in the country to reduce unemployment.
His pledge to build a dam every village in the three regions of the north to boost dwindling agriculture production has also been criticised as unattainable.
Speaking on Good Evening Ghana, the President said if the NPP Presidential hopeful was talking about dugouts, then the Savanah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) was already providing such sources of water for livestock.
“What we call a dam in the north is a dugout and every village has a dugout. It’s a pond we drink from it in the north when there was no water. But now that most of the communities have water the dugouts are used for livestock watering,” he said.
He advised Akufo-Addo to make realistic campaign promises.
“In campaigning, you put up a programme and your programme speaks to what you intend to do over the next four years if you are given the mandate. And there are linkages in everything that you do, things do not stand in isolation and so if you just pick one this one that what does it relate to?” he said.
-myjoyonline