John Mahama
Ghanaians are being warned to watch out for election campaign scams and rhetoric with current economic challenges imposed on the country by the COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Director of Communications of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buaben Asamoa, said ex-President John Dramani Mahama is looking to defraud Ghanaian voters by posing as a credible alternative leader, calling on them to dismiss his “fatuous claims” about the Electronic Transfer Levy, popularly known as E-Levy.
“Please look at the claim to repeal E-Levy. It’s a scam. Just like one time premium and the repeal of talk tax. In any event, can John Mahama explain the difference in his 17.5% tax on financial transactions and his manifesto pledge to impose a uniform tax on all electronic transactions? Are these measures E-Levy in disguise, and does he stand by them?” he quizzed.
According to him, it is possible that Mr. Mahama’s recent address is motivated by self-preservation towards his continued leadership of the NDC into 2024, given that both insiders and external observers are writing him off.
Crossroad Response
Addressing a news conference at the party’s headquarters in Accra yesterday, the NPP Communications Director said “it is clear that in terms of deciding direction at the crossroads, the NDC cannot be trusted to move you towards prosperity.”
“They have no policies creating new social interventions to cushion Ghanaians. Under John Mahama’s leadership, Ghana will slip backwards into chaotic incompetence. Just like his autobiography tells all, he cannot take decisions,” Mr. Asamoa stated.
He told the media that ex-President Mahama indicates in his book that “he will ride this country like a bicycle, out of control and dangerously downhill, merely hopeful of survival.”
For him, that can be avoided with a vote in 2024 to continue to consolidate good governance and socially sensitive policies under the NPP, noting that the records available in the public space indicates that while the NPP uses eight years to build the nation, the NDC uses another eight years to destroy it.
“Rather than mere dismissal of John Mahama’s fatuous claims and a trumpeting of NPP successes, perhaps it’s time discerning civil society asserted themselves to dispassionately and objectively assess the records.”
“The 2024 [general] election is more or less a tie breaker to continue Ghana on ‘a path of prosperity and dignity, but with hard work and sacrifice,’ under a renewed and fresh ideas NPP leadership or to go back ‘down an easy path of chaos and destruction’ with incompetent and nonchalant leadership under former President and twice failed NDC candidate Mahama,” he posited.
Mr. Asamoa said between now and election 2024, the NPP recognises and accepts that surveys, polls and commentaries will escalate, “but because it is a crossroads election, objectivity must be our watchword as we assess what is best for us in the context of national history generally and in the 4th Republic in particular.”
“On that record, it is clear the NPP does better at governance by far than the NDC. As their Chairman states, they will be running a government of ‘no contribution, no chop’ in the event we mistakenly choose them to lead,” the NPP Communications Director submitted.
He said the NPP believes that breaking the eight-year election cycle is a watershed decision in Ghana’s development process, adding that it is about time Ghanaians chose decisively which party will lead them into “a future of hope and prosperity.”
Painful Ritual
Mr. Asamoa stated that the eight-year rotation of political party governance would remain “a painful and meaningless ritual if the NPP continues to build every eight years and the NDC comes in to pull down in the subsequent eight years.”
“It is in this context that former President John Dramani Mahama seeks to characterise Ghana as being at a crossroad,” he explained.
“We must reflect deeply. For if we do, we will accept, as the records show, that significant change to our political institutions and conduct, economic structure and management and positive social impact, has mostly happened under the NPP’s watch.
“Many very significant national reverses occurred under the six years of John Mahama’s presidency. He has since been rejected twice in elections. It’s possible his recent address is motivated by self-preservation towards his continued leadership of the NDC into 2024, given that both insiders and external observers are writing him off,” he stressed.
He recounted the numerous achievements of the NPP governments, intimating, “in sum, NPP decriminalised speech, supported infrastructure and training with the International Press Centre and support funds, and improved spectrum allocation and regulatory oversight. Free speech will continue its healthy climb under successive NPP administrations.”
BY Ernest Kofi Adu