Mustapha Hamid
The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) says it is sure of winning next week’s general election at least by 10% points difference as predicted by many recognised research institutions and the party’s own internal survey on the coming elections.
The Minister for Zongo and Inner Cities, Alhaji Mustapha Hamid, who made this known at a press conference yesterday in Accra, said the biggest opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC), led by former President John Mahama, having tested the waters and seen that it was going to suffer the heaviest electoral defeat in the history of the Fourth Republic on December 7, had resorted to throwing mud at the NPP government and its appointees.
He said the NDC with its dead campaign intended to launch series of attacks on the government and its appointees within this week using doctored materials that had been produced locally and internationally.
He therefore asked Ghanaians who had already made up their minds to vote massively for the NPP government in order to continue with its great works to disregard such vile NDC propaganda and go to the polls on December 7 and vote massively for the NPP to stay in power and continue with its pro-poor policies.
The Minister for Zongo and Inner Cities, who is also the NPP Deputy Campaign Manager, said Ghanaians were going to vote on policies that had had direct impact on their lives and not on mere NDC propaganda.
“I entreat the members of the security services who are going to vote today to realise the massive positive changes that have taken place in the services within the past three years and vote massively for the ruling NPP government,” he said, stressing that the military people especially must reward this government with massive votes because of the fact that the retiring age in the service has been increased by five years by this government while peace-keeping allowances have also been increased significantly by this government.
He said the only verifiable social interventions since the inception of the Fourth Republic by the NDC were that when it assumed power it would build mortuaries for the Zongo communities and also legalise the Okada business as compared to NPP’s ‘introduction for NHIS’, ‘free maternal care’, ‘capitation grant’, ‘school feeding’, ‘introduction of Metro Mass bus transport’. ‘One District, One Factory’, ‘Free Senior High School’, ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’, ‘One Village, One Dam’, ‘One Constituency, One Ambulance’ and many more that were benefitting all Ghanaians directly or indirectly.
He said the former President, John Mahama, who was now leading the NDC again vehemently, opposed the free SHS policy and even sponsored adverts in the run-up to the 2016 general election, claiming that the Free SHS would compromise quality education at the SHS level.
“Now John Mahama, who opposed the Free SHS, is now subjecting himself to public ridicule by claiming that he was the one who introduced the free SHS,” he said, stressing that the NDC’s presidential candidate has lost all the credibility he has by “saying something tomorrow and turning round to say that he did not say that.”
According to the Zongo and Inner Cities Minister, the excellent WASSCE results of the first batch of free SHS students released recently have come to vindicate President Nana Akufo-Addo that his free SHS meant for all Ghanaian children has not come to compromise on quality education at the SHS level.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr