Dr Bawumia and his entourage at one of the mosques
VICE-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government is quickly delivering on the list of campaign promises that made Ghanaians vote for the party in the last elections.
According to him, President Akufo-Addo, who leads the government, is a keeper of promises and he is determined to navigate the complex gears of government to implement policies and programmes that will transform the country.
Addressing a gathering of Muslims after prayer sessions at Mampong and Offinso Central Mosques on Monday, the Vice-President stated that the government had delivered on promises some people tagged as impossible.
“There was a word of promise to Ghanaians on Free Senior High School (SHS) education and we have delivered; a promise to restore teachers and nurses trainee allowances and we have delivered; a promise to reduce electricity bill and we have delivered; a promise on planting for food and jobs and we have delivered,” he declared.
Dr Bawumia said even though the NPP government inherited a “bone economy”, it had used its magic wand to turn things around within 17 months in office to bring about transformation.
He disclosed that the promises of ‘One District, One Factory’, ‘$1million per constituency’, among others that seem impossible are on the way coming, asserting that President Akufo-Addo would deliver on his promises no matter how challenging they are.
Mr Akufo-Addo made a string of promises during his campaign to become the 5th President of Ghana under the 1992 Republican Constitution.
Many of them, including Free SHS made headlines at the time, but majority of them could probably be realized as early as his first term in office.
Vice-President Bawumia, who was on working visits to some mosques to offer prayers to Allah for divine protection, wisdom and understanding for the President in the holy month of Ramadan, argued that the Free SHS policy had got a tremendous impact on Zongo children.
“It is first in history to have established a Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development with a specific fund established for Zongo development. GH?100 million has been put into the fund this year. This is a manifestation of President Akufo-Addo’s commitment to the people of Zongo,” he stated.
He revealed that government had employed 3,000 Arabic instructors to teach Muslim children, and had engaged 100,000 people for the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme – a government initiative to address graduate unemployment; while 80,000 jobs were being created under the Youth Employment Programme to solve social problems.
Dr Bawumia was accompanied by Ministers of State and Members of Parliament, including Boniface Abubakar Saddique, Minister of Inner City and Zongo Development; Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, a Deputy Minister of Energy; Ben Abdallah Banda, MP for Offinso South, Alhassan Tampuli, CEO of National Petroleum Authority; and Mustapha Ussif, Executive Director of National Service Scheme.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Mampong-Ash