... attacks President Mahama

By Seidu Kpebu

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) organised a press conference to kick start their campaign which they suspended after the demise of the late President Professor John evans Fiifi Atta Mills. At the press conference addressed by the national chairman of the NPP, Mr Jake Otanka Obetsebi Lamptey, they catalogued reasons why His Excellency President John Mahama and his Vice His excellency Amissah Bekoe Arthur should not be given extended mandate in the December 2012 elections.

Indeed it is amazing how the NPP has not changed their tact and is using the same strategy they have used all this while leaving their campaign floundering at every stage. The charges against President Mahama were without substance and credibility.

Then NPP stated that President Mahama and the government has done virtually nothing in the areas of development, education, and creating jobs. In terms of youth development, President Mahama has inspired and led the youth of Ghana. He is instrumental in implemeting the youth development policy of Ghana. The NYEP has undergone a massive improvement and many youth are now employed or receiving employable skills training.

Regarding free education for every child, this is clearly a policy NPP is struggling to explain to Ghanaians how it will be implemented. Nana Akufo Addo could not tell the whole world and Ghanaians in particular how much the implementation of the policy will cost when he appeared on HardTalk on BBC. In any case education is already free in Ghana up to JHS level, and SHS level in some parts of the country.

Jake said raw marerial economy is not NPP's way and that their government will concentrate on adding value to raw materials. Mr Jake was part of Kufuor's government when Ghana initialed the Economic Partnership Agreement in December 2007 opening up our market to foreign goods and every raw material was exported from Ghana.

STX was a bold move on the part of government to ensure that Ghanaians get affordable houses and not luxurious appartments built by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the bourgeoisie in our society. NPP's housing policy for Ghanaians which they christined Prpoerty owning democracy was not for the proletariat or low income earners in Ghana.

They could not afford to buy those expensive houses the NPP put up which they did not even complete at the time they were leaving office. The affordable houses for the poor (how cheap were they?) were those Jake and his colleagues sold to themselves at ridiculously cheaper prices. Jake paid $400,000 for a bungalow that could be sold for millions of dollars on the open market.

Jake Obetsebi made the point that the President was corrupt and presided over corruption in his negotiations of contracts referring to the STX deal. Jake was part of a Government that went to contract loan from a hairdresser's salon in London's Hammersmith and also signed a loan written in German which the then Minister of Finance, Mr Osafo Marfo could not read let alone understand. The NPP also sold Valco to a non-existent Brazilian company .

The Chairman of the NPP also claimed that President Mahama declared himself president whilst the late president was alive and that he made the revelation when he addressed mourners at the Efua Sutherland children's park. I must emphasis here that at no point did President Mahama say that he was the President when the late President was still alive when he addressed mourners at the children's park during the one week mourning of the demise of the late President. I found it dishonest on the part of the chairman of the NPP and indeed mischievious when he sought to impugn that President Mahama declared himself president.

The Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) is one policy NPP keeps getting wrong. The policy was first started by the Kwame Nkrumah's government and continued by the Acheampong regime and now NDC government. President Mahama is responsible for the successes SADA has chalked in just few months. He negotiated the establishment of the sheanut factory at Buipe with a capacity of 40,000 tonnes per day and construction of roads in the SADA area. The NPP promised to give the Nothern Development Fund (NDF) Ghc25 million cede money but never paid a dime into the account of the NDF.

It was very clear that Jake was struggling to link President Mahama to judgement debts, attempt which he failed spectarcularly. President Mahama can never be linked to judgement debts since he had no role to play in that regard. The NPP's ploy to link the President to judgement debt will lead to them exposing their botched and floundering campaign to ridicule.

Nana Akuffo Addo was part of the Kufour government, how did he contribute to fighting the endemic corruption in the NPP government. There were myriads of allegations against the NPP government from 2001 to 2008 and it was an opportunity for Nana Addo to show his anti-corruption credentials but it was not to be.

President Mahama has learnt important lessons from the late president Mills which include; humility, patriotism, integrity, selflessness, competence, peace loving and above all concern for all Ghanaians irrespective of their ethnic origin or political affiliation.

H.E. the Vice President Mr Amissah Arthur as Governor of Bank of Ghana presided over the longest period of single digit inflation and the stability of the cedi. NPP is struglling with the choice of Amissah Arthur as Vice President and the fate of Dr Bawumia who is yet to get settled in his running mate role.

Deja vu, after hounding Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah to his grave, they decended on late President Mills and now they are looking for their third victim. The souls of Nkrumah and Professor Mills will protect their next target.

Mr Lamptey found it difficult reading the press statment at the press conference because what he was delivering was non-factual, pedestrian and lacks judgement. Ghanaians have had enough of this ancient politics full of mischief.