Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has declared that the ruling party’s “Breaking the 8” target is possible because the NPP has outperformed its opponent, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), in all economic sectors.
According to him, the NPP’s achievements and records should serve as the basis for the party’s campaign to win the elections on December 7.
Addressing NPP members in the United States of America (USA) for the first time since being elected as the party’s leader and presidential candidate, Dr. Bawumia stated that the NPP’s achievements are far superior to those of the NDC when they were in office.
The event was the NPP-USA’s 30th anniversary celebration, with the theme “30 Years of Political Dedication and Sacrifice: Honouring Our Heroes, Preserving Our Legacy, Securing Our Future Through Victory.”
Dr. Bawumia stated that the NPP has a solid case to make to Ghanaians on why the party should be maintained in office to continue its mission of transforming the country.
“The comparative performance (of what the NDC did while in office and that of the NPP) is practically like night and day. Of course, it is not everything we want to do that we have been able to do, but it is true that if it is compared to them [NDC], we have done much more if they are the comparative metric for us,” he said.
On agriculture, Dr. Bawumia stated that the current NPP administration had doubled growth from where the previous NDC government left it.
Industrial expansion, according to the NPP leader, has been a main objective of the Akufo-Addo administration, and it has resulted in the creation of many jobs, as opposed to the NDC, which created unemployment while in office.
“We have created over the last seven years 2.1 million jobs which have been well documented. 1.2 million jobs in the public sector and 975,000 jobs in the private sector with a crisis.
“And even (amid) COVID-19, we were recruiting more nurses, in COVID-19, we did not lay off any public sector worker. We have created more jobs than any other government in the history of Ghana. No government has achieved that record,” Dr. Bawumia indicated.
He also pointed to roads constructed by the Nana Akufo-Addo government, saying that the government has built more roads than any other government.
“Our government has built more airports than any other government, more railway lines than any other government, more court buildings than any other government, more hospitals than any other government in the 4th Republic, more landing sites,” he added.
He continued that the government is proud of its sanitation efforts, which have resulted in Ghana having the lowest cholera rate in Africa.
He stated that expenditures in sanitation infrastructure had resulted in the declaration of around 5,400 localities as open defecation-free.
Dr. Bawumia also asserted that the country’s security forces have been retooled to carry out their duties.
He added that 93% of the National Communication Authority’s (NCA) licensed fiber optic cable for internet connectivity in Ghana was put in place under the NPP government in 2017.
“When you look at sports facilities, no government has been able to achieve what the current government has achieved in office. So, when you look at the basic metrics that we normally use to measure development, we just have outperformed them [NDC] in every sector,” he intimated.
By Ernest Kofi Adu