Yaw Buaben Asamoa
The Communications Director of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buaben Asamoa, has lampooned the presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), former President John Mahama, and the hierarchy of the party for ‘shamelessly’ running away from their own ‘people’s manifesto’ after spending so much time to prepare it.
According to him, the NDC and its leadership have suddenly abandoned their own ‘people’s manifesto’ because they realized the NPP launched what he called ‘unbeatable and comprehensive’ manifesto which he said virtually addresses the immediate needs of Ghanaians under the broader theme: “Leadership Of Service: Protecting Our Progress, Transforming Ghana For All.”
He said as soon as NPP launched its manifesto for the 2020 general election, the NDC elements decided to throw away their ‘underwhelming and nothing to write home about manifesto’and are now hurriedly trying to prepare another one that would compete with what had been done by the NPP.
People’s Consultation
Addressing a news conference at Alisa Hotel in Accra yesterday, the NPP Communications Director stated, “Months before Covid-19 changed the world, John Mahama’s NDC set out on a perilous journey of trying to find out what Ghanaians want.”
He said, “After 16 years of NDC in the 28-year-old Fourth Republic, six of those years as Government Official 1, the final decision maker in Ghana, he is still struggling to find out what Ghana’s governance priorities are. On July 1, 2020 the whole world was told that Candidate Mahama had received ‘the people’s manifesto’. He said he would launch it in August. When the NPP announced August 22, 2020 as its date for launching its manifesto, we were told theirs would follow on August 29, 2020.”
Mr. Buaben Asamoa fired again that “then came the bomb. ‘Leadership Of Service; Protecting Our Progress, Transforming Ghana For All’ hit them so hard they hurriedly postponed to 31st August 2020. As we speak, we are not sure whether it will happen on September 7, 2020 as nobody seems ready to own up to another promise.”
Listening In
“The NPP was sure that they were not going to be able to launch it. We knew they had to listen to the commentaries, criticisms and suggestions that have greeted our manifesto in order to try and rewrite theirs ostensibly to pander to the public debates on our manifesto. Candidate Mahama has no vision. He just follows the wind,” he pointed out.
The NPP guru insisted that what the NDC people are doing now after the launch of the NPP’s manifesto is to meticulously scrutinize its content which touches on all aspects of the needs of Ghanaians and come up with the same policies.
“John Mahama and NDC leaders want to steal our good policies and that is why they could not launch their manifesto on the well-publicized date of August 27 for their manifesto launch,” he added.
He said John Mahama and the NDC are completely bereft of ideas on pragmatic policies and that was why Ghanaians voted them out in 2016.
Covid-19 Challenges
He said the main focus of the NPP government for 2020 is how to effectively manage the economy in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and also expand the economy after the pandemic, but former President Mahama had never got the chance to know about the real challenges in Covid-19 economic, let alone being able to find solutions to them.
Flip-Flop
He said, “Candidate Mahama flip-flops. He follows the wind. As you can see, he is now converted by the forward-looking policies of the current administration, the strong, focused wind generated in the wake of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s credible delivery,” adding “Candidate Mahama cannot do it. He had his chances and squandered them all.”
“So, all the policies he rejected as impossible when in power, the good governance he could not deliver, he is now saying he will do, after Nana Akufo-Addo had already delivered.
“President Mahama hated free SHS with a passion. His government paid for over forty advertisements against it from his assumption of the Presidency. He failed to deliver on his ill-conceived alternate of E-Blocks. Today, he says he should be voted into office to maintain free SHS,” he added.
4 More To Do More For You
He said that “the Akufo-Addo government is clear on what it wants to achieve with the support of governance partners.” He took his time to list all the programmes they had set out in the NPP manifesto sector by sector.
He also said “the heartbeat of our manifesto is part 3, the sole chapter 3 of which sets out the ‘CARES programme’. The Ghana Covid-19 Alleviation and Revitalization of Enterprises (Ghana CARES) Programme. Having seen our manifesto, the NDC is desperately trying to come to grips with our chapter 3 of part 3. How will the NDC leadership offer a solution without a vision? (sic)”
Media Admonishing
Mr. Buaben Asamoa also admonished the media to continue to monitor activities of the government and the opposition objectively, saying “we expect that you remain steadfast independent arbiters in helping to redirect the debate to sifting the grain from the chaff and weighing the grain in the white light of fair inquiry.
“We hope that in this fast evolving media environment of competing claims, you use the versatile tools at your disposal to throw even more light on the real issues of poverty eradication and jerky growth hindering our forward march (sic).”
By Thomas Fosu Jnr.