The Vice Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has noted Ghanaians can have better lives devoid of the many hardships “we face today with the right leadership” if his party comes to power.

According to him, Ghana’s problem is not the lack of resources but corruption and mismanagement.

Dr. Bawumia added that for Ghanaians to see real change in their lives, there was the need to vote out the current John Mahama government which has been characterised by the twin evils of incompetence and mismanagement and unbridled corruption in every facet of the government’s operations.

Dr. Bawumia made these comments on the first day of his Central Regional Tour in Nyanyano Kakraba in the Gomoa East Constituency on Monday.

“There is a lot of hardships in the country today. In Nyanyano Kakraba, water is a problem, paying for electricity is a problem, paying school fees has become a problem, there are no jobs and this is why there is the need for change. Ghana’s economy has now been totally run to the ground and that is what is causing these hardships.

“But the problem is not a lack of resources, this is a land of resources but the real problem is that those who have been entrusted with the responsibility of managing our resources, mismanage and steal them, and this situation cannot continue any longer”, he said.

Touching on some of the policies of the NPP, Dr. Bawumia mentioned that to ensure that development reaches all parts of the country and to ensure that the basic issues affecting persons, especially in the rural areas are tackled, the NPP will allocate 20% of the Capital Expenditure budget to the 275 constituencies every year, purposely for development at the local level.

“The one constituency, one million dollars every year policy will ensure that, unlike the current situation, our capital expenditure budget reaches all parts of Ghana especially our towns and villages and that the constituencies are directly given significant resources to tackle their developmental problems. So from 2017, Gomoa East Constituency will have an equivalent of $1million and this will come every year so that no one will sit in Accra and send these monies to Burkina Faso or Dubai and deprive you of the benefits that can be gained from such an amount.”

Referring to a promise that had been made early on by the Parliamentary Candidate for the area, KojoAsemanyi to tackle the water challenges facing the constituency, Dr.Bawumia noted that the promise can be easily fulfilled because with $1million dollars every year, the constituency can solve such basic challenges and give the people of the area a more comfortable life.

NPP Manifesto will be all about Jobs
Dr.Bawumia hinted while speaking at NyanyanoKakraba that the soon-to-be launched NPP Manifesto will primarily be about the NPP’s vision and programme for job creation, especially for the millions of youth, who are jobless today as a result of the inability of the government to create the environment for business and economic growth.

He outlined a number of policy initiatives including redirecting focus from taxation to production to create jobs and wealth for the larger Ghanaian populace.

“Our soon-to-be launched Manifesto will be about jobs. Today our youth cannot find jobs, this will change under the NPP. We will introduce policies that will make it easy for businesses to operate, make profit, grow and employ. We will deal with the high import taxes to make it easy for companies to bring in raw materials and equipment for production and we will reduce the high tax burden on companies and traders”, he indicated.