Opinions of Monday, 28 December 2015

Columnist: NPP Newyork Public Relation Team

Misplaced priorities in NDC administration

There are lots of us who wonder how most countries especially the developed world run their economies successfully by managing to keep lower interest rates, lower unemployment rates and provide the citizenry with all the basic amenities. There are countries with minimal natural resources than Ghana but yet their economies function effectively. It is high time we realized that abundance of natural resources does not automatically translate into a prosperous economy. Africa is the richest continent in the world in terms of natural resources but yet the poorest on earth in all dimensions. The problem is the caliber of the elected officials like President Mahama and accomplices to manage the resources of the country.
A country like Ghana with all the abundance of resources should be in a better position economically. It is impossible to achieve this goal with the NDC and the incompetent President Mahama continuing to make bad economic decisions. The latest being the branding of 116 buses. Now, there is nothing wrong in branding public transportation as is being done mostly in the developed countries like USA and their counterparts in Europe. The difference is that, in the developed world it is done to generate revenue for the country or state. But in the case of Ghana, the NDC used it to steal from the people of Ghana to enrich their fellow bandits and to buy votes in the coming 2016 elections. In doing so, they prevent the good people of Ghana from electing the right caliber of people in this case, the Nana Addo and NPP to bring prosperity to Ghana one more time.
The transportation minister Ms. Dzifa Attivor wants to justify the spending of GHC3.6 million on the branding of 116 buses when our children sit under trees to learn; when hospitals in our constituencies have no back- up generators, insufficient first aid facilities and even a common ambulance to rely on in time of emergency; when all our regional hospitals have no enough beds to accommodate the sick; when schools mostly in our villages, where we grew up have no basic necessities like libraries to aide student learning. Not only is it a bad decision made by President Mahama and NDC but it is a means to loot and share the money that belong to the good people of Ghana. The Manager of Crystal Concept, the company that did the branding has come out to reveal the fact that the branding of the 116 cost only GHC11,600. Ghanaians need to know what happened to the rest of the money. Smartty’s Management and Productions own by Selassie Ibrahim delivered the invoice for the dubious GHC3.6 millions to the transportation ministry and who is Selassie Ibrahim? She is the wife of Ibrahim Adams the former minister of
Agriculture who was jailed for causing financial loss to the state during the quality grain scandal under the NDC government led by JJ Rawlings. It is crystal clear that President Mahama and NDC carefully orchestrated to steal the money. Is the branding of the buses with pictures of former presidents in black and white colors and his (Mahama) picture in colored actually benefit the people of Ghana? Don’t we have more pressing needs as a nation? This is one of the many instances of the misplaced priorities of this NDC government and incompetent President Mahama.In contrast, places such as the USA and Europe where public officers are elected to serve the people and not to be served and worshiped by the people, public buses are branded with advertising words and pictures of private companies. This serves as important source of revenues for the states and counties that use the funds to provide the needed social amenities for the general public. But why is it that in Ghana, president Mahama and the NDC administration use this lucrative revenue generating avenue as a political campaign tool? Obviously, President Mahama and NDC have no regard for the suffering of the Ghanaians and have resorted to degrading the trust of Ghanaians simply because they think they will always buy Ghanaians with stolen monies coupled with election rigging to stay in power.

The Chief of Staff , Julius Debrah, has asked Ms. Dzifa Attivor to come up with a better explanation regarding the deal but we Ghanaians know that he (the Chief of Staff ) wants to take charge of the situation and nip the scandal in the bud. We would not let that happen. President Mahama and NDC have to account to the Ghanaian public what happened to the GHC3.6 million tax payers money. President Mahama and the NDC should know that Ghanaians have had enough of their political antics and incompetence and demand the immediate prosecution of all the people involved, despite the resignation of the transportation minister ,Dzifa Attivor.

LONG LIVE GHANA.

LONG LIVE NPP.
Compiled By (NPP NEWYORK PUBLIC RELATION TEAM).