The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has charged MPs on the Majority side of Parliament to continually arm themselves with the “great success stories and achievements” chalked by the Akufo-Addo administration to dismantle any propaganda and lies churned out by the opposition.
The Majority Caucus has also been urged to strengthen the bonds between Parliament and the Executive as the two work hand in hand to help fulfil the promises made to Ghanaians and further earn their trust to continue governing the nation.
Dr Bawumia issued the rallying cry at a workshop for the Majority Caucus and members of the Executive on Saturday August 28, 2021 at Mpraeso in the Eastern Region.
Reminding the MPs that they are an integral part of the success or failure of the Executive and by extension the NPP administration, Vice President Bawumia urged them to always remember the key communications role they play and work extra hard to respond appropriately to any attempt to downplay the achievements of the Akufo-Addo administration.
“The propaganda machinery of the NDC will be oiled using their representation in Parliament. Every conceivable government policy or intervention will be furiously attacked. They will question the government’s promises, they will question the government’s achievements and they will question government’s intentions. They will unleash these attacks both on the floor of Parliament and outside the floor.
“There is no better group to respond to these attacks, to set the records straight and to match them “Boot-for-Chalewote” than the Majority Caucus of Parliament. Fortunately, we have enthusiastic leaders and members of the Majority Caucus and what is needed is the requisite cooperation and exchanges between you and the Executive,” he indicated.
Reducing Suffering
Listing over 50 policies, programmes and social interventions introduced over the past four and half years designed to reduce the suffering of the citizenry, Vice President Bawumia emphasized that the NPP government continues to do a sterling job with the limited resources at hand, and urged the MPs and all party communicators to arm themselves with the facts to enable the telling of the good stories.
“We need to tell our story. We need to let Ghanaians know how we have been able to reduce, not completely eliminated, but reduced the hardships. The hardships were there before we came into office in 2017, but we have done so much. This is an area we should not shy away from.
“In the area of social interventions, our Government has been just marvelous. I can list at least 50 policies and interventions that we have made to reduce suffering of our people. NABCO for the graduate unemployed, 50% of all operators at the toll booths are persons with disability, Ghs2m each for the Presidential Empowerment of Women and Men with Disability, clearance of goods at the port through the paperless system has been made much easier and reduced so much suffering of importers.
“We have managed the exchange rate to an extent that it is the lowest depreciation for the first term of any government in the Fourth Republic. Today drivers who want to get licenses find it very easy. You can easily renew your NHIS on your phone, easily get a passport, students are no longer paying utility bills, no more guarantors for student loans, scholarships have increased by 70%. We have reduced and abolished 15 separate taxes. Even Kayayei have benefited; we have eliminated the daily Ghs1 toll they used to pay.
“We have restored Teacher and Nursing Trainee allowances, and currently there is no backlog of nurses who have finished and are sitting at home, but before they were sitting at home for four years. Today there is no backlog.
“Today if you are pensioner, 10 days after you go on pension, you can start receiving your pension benefits.
“In addition to all of this, you have Free SHS, and Free TVET. These are all policies that we can sit down and enumerate and show how we as a government have reduced suffering. We have not eliminated suffering, it is continuously going to be a work in progress, but we can say with all confidence that we have done the best with the resources at hand, to reduce the suffering.
Facts
“In your discourses in Parliament and outside of Parliament, you should not only be interested in having your way. Your way should be based on facts. The minority is entitled to their opinion but they are not and cannot be entitled to their own facts.
“With the right set of facts, you are expected to challenge the NDC’s propaganda and educate Ghanaians on NPP’s sterling economic performance to an end of establishing, as a matter of fact, that the NPP administration has managed the economy better.”
It is important, Dr Bawumia emphasized, to delineate the clear difference between the NPP and the opposition in the area of governance and the management of the economy.
“We have carved a niche and reputation as a political tradition with ideas for the development of the country. The expectations of objective Ghanaians of the NPP are totally different from their expectations of the NDC. It falls back on the Majority Caucus and the Executive to carry Ghanaians along,” he stressed.