We of the above mentioned group, basically made up of the many teaming youth that voted for the Na) for change wishes to react to a press conference organized by the New Patriotic Party and read by its Chairman, Mr. Peter Mac-Manu, on the 22nd April 2009 on their “state of the nation.”
From all indications the press conference was borne out of a desperate attempt by the failed Executives of the NPP led by its Chairman Mr. Peter Mac-Manu to give a glimmer of hope to their supporters that they are still in existence since there have been several calls by a section of their supporters that they should resign.
On the issues raised by the NPP Chairman and his executives, we of the BBG would have expected that since they just left office they would be positive in their criticism instead of engaging in criticisms that clearly is borne out of a deliberate attitude of ignorance and mischief .
The NPP stated categorically in their statement that the NDC government had not achieved anything within its first hundred days as promised in its manifesto.
We find this statement extremely unfortunate and see it obviously as a clear case of intellectual dishonesty coming from a party that just finished its term of office with issues like the killing of the Ya-Naa, Issa Mobilla, the MV Benjamin cocaine case etc hanging around its neck.
For the information of the NPP we wish to state that according to the Police Public Relations Officer DSP Kwesi Ofori if for nothing at all the political will exhibited by the present government since January 7 till this time has led to the motivation of our hardworking police officers to fight crime especially armed robbery cases which has reduced from over 400 robbery cases during the first quarter of last year to about 200 cases this year.
Was it not under the NPP that as a result of their love for favoritism, nepotism and desire for substandard recruited a lot of half-baked personnel to join our noble security service without even passing through the right process of recruitment and the end result was police officers engaging in armed robbery and stealing guns for armed robbers to engage in their operations.
The NPP Chairman out of no shame and respect for Ghanaians also alleged that the state was now sponsoring and condoning gangsterism, assault on journalists amongst other criminal acts , we wish to state that he who lives in a glass house should not throw stones.
Has Peter Mac-Manu and his NPP executives forgotten so soon the kind of evil plots top leading members of their party with some even in the current legislature planned to execute during the elections and the number of journalists that were attacked during the elections both at their offices and residence of then NPP flagbearer Nana Addo Dankwaa Akuffo Addo.
To refresh their memories many journalists including Peter Apausika from the Insight, Metro TV reporters both in Accra and Kumasi, Joy FM reporters ,Radio Gold reporters, Oman FM etc were all assaulted and beating mercilessly by gangsters recruited by the NPP.
On the state of the economy we believe that the NPP Executives are aware that Ghana just like the rest of the world is facing a global recession which is the most serious after the second World War and since our country is not immune from the current crisis some of these shocks are expected and wish to commend the government for the bold initiatives it has taken so far to deal with the current crisis.
The World Bank recently in a report indicated that for governments to critically deal with the current crisis there was the need for them to cut down on unnecessary expenditures.
Cleary President Mills has already demonstrated this by cutting down on the number of Ministers ,not allowing his Ministers to take Special Assistants and Advisors etc.
Let us not forget that we had a government that even when it was clear the country was going to be affected by the crisis the then President Kufour came out to say we would not be affected at a time when economists in the world had indicated that developing countries including Ghana were going to be seriously hit.
Even in our local economics the Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwabena Duffour under whose term of Office as governor of the Bank of Ghana we were able to achieve single digit inflation has come out to explain to Ghanaians the manner in which the NPP mismanaged our economy.
The BBG is astonished by the statement by Mr. Peter Mac-Manu that the current NDC leadership is not inspiring the people of Ghana but lest they forget that thousands of Ghanaians were inspired to clean their environment during the first hundred days of Prof. Mills.
Also for the information of the NPP Chairman and his Executives the political will by government to fight armed robbery has inspired many citizens to be each others keeper no wonder armed robbery cases has gone down by half.
And we wish to state that it was due to the inspirational leadership of the NDC led by Prof. John Evans Atta Mills that over 4 million Ghanaians had to sacrifice their sleep and stand in the sun to vote them out of power.
The BBG wishes to find out from the NPP leadership were their so-called inspiration was when they could not even galvanize for their supporters to turn out and vote, since till date they still argue that they lost the elections because their supporters refused to vote.
Perhaps the modest life-style being exhibited by President Mills and his team is extremely shocking to the NPP since when they were in power they were used to exhibiting a flamboyant, ostentatious lifestyle at the peril of the ordinary Ghanaian.
On the issue of the NDC reproducing another manifesto, we of the BBG wish to state that we always waited for this day to come for us to fish out the criminals that broke into the headquarters office of the NDC and made away with a Computer and its accessories.
From all indications and deducing from the statement by the NPP they had a hand in the stolen computer and therefore call on the executives of the NDC to take immediate action.
The BBG urges all the leadership of the various political parties especially the NPP since is the largest opposition party to behave like an alternative for Ghanaians by offering constructive and valid criticisms instead of trying to score cheap political points.
The BBG wishes to declare its support to the Agenda for Better Ghana Manifesto of the NDC and avails itself to ensure that the government meets all the aspirations of the people of Ghana.
We wish to commend the President for exhibiting in action his believe in the youth of this country by appointing youthful, intelligent individuals like Mrs. Zita Okaikoi, Messrs. Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwaa, Messrs. James Agyenim Boateng and Dr. Omane Boamah among others .We promise our support to help them succeed in any legal way possible.
Thank you
Antonio Edem ASINYO. (0245614527) Spokesperson for BBG