Opinions of Tuesday, 30 March 2021

Columnist: Joel Savage

The deceptive boasts NPP politicians adapted to cover up their failures in 2019

NPP won the 2020 presidential elections NPP won the 2020 presidential elections

In the year 2019, it is obvious that the NPP government was aware of Nana Akufo Addo’s poor performance and inefficiency of his leadership, despite having the largest number of ministers in Ghana's political history.

Therefore, their politicians, especially, the Vice-President, Bawumia, adapted certain tactics of bragging over and over about what the party has achieved, including the success of reducing or getting rid of corruption.

The latter is something no developed country has fully achieved, despite using digital electronics in payments and monitoring monetary affairs to avoid money laundering.

During one of Donald Trump’s interviews about Africa, he was asked: “Why should we spend funds on Africa when we are suffering here in the US?”

He said, “That’s a very good question. Corruption, from petty bribes to high-level political graft, has a corrosive effect on public and private institutions across the African continent."

Trump is right but what I have observed also is that it is not only corruption that has affected developments in African countries.

For example, in Ghana, many politicians are holding posts they are not qualified for, therefore, they are not providing anything significant towards the development of the country.

They drain the country's resources by collecting large amounts of salaries each month, plus bonuses and free benefits, while the common Ghanaians suffer because the ministers are inept, lack the knowledge of developments and job creation.

The Ghanaian ministers are only there so that in class if a teacher asks, who is the minister of education, health, information, etc, a pupil could raise his hand and say, "the arrogant Opoku Prempeh, the sad face Kweku Agyeman-Manu and gentleman Kojo Oppong Nkrumah."

I have said over and over that those in Ghana or Africa see things differently and those in the Diaspora also see things differently, therefore, they often get confused over what is ‘efficiency’ in Ghana, which in the developed world, it is either considered a failure or inefficiency.

Ghanaians may think the Ministers of Education, Health, Tourism, Information, Finance, etc, are doing well for the country, yet the intelligent ones in the Diaspora know that those ministers can’t even get posts in any poor Eastern European country, let alone a Western country.

If you analyze the work of these so-called ministers, many will agree with me that it is important for an African country to have ministers but they lack the knowledge to perform those tasks they are assigned, the reason it’s hard to see any developments in Ghana.

The government of Nana Akufo Addo saw its failure in 2019, by then clandestine corruption had already started, while they blamed John Mahama for mismanaging the economy of Ghana.

We can't dispute the fact that Mahama wasn't corrupt. He made many mistakes but the truth is he achieved 100% more efficiently as a leader than Akufo Addo.

Moreover, he left many projects including schools and hospitals uncompleted, out of jealousy Akufo Addo abandoned them, yet he couldn't even fulfill one-third of what he promised Ghanaians.

If Akufo Addo had taken over the uncompleted projects, the hospitals would have served a purpose during this time of the coronavirus devastation in the country.

To avoid being detected about their failures, corruption, and incompetence, Vice-President Bawumia, developed a plan of boasting repeatedly on what he calls the NPP government's achievements.

One of his boasts was in December 2019, Bawumia addressed 78 achievements since NPP came to power, while in Belgium, Charles Michel, the former Prime Minister, stepped down to take a new appointment offered by the European Union, after creating 290,000 new jobs with his 14 Ministers within five years.

In October same year, 2019, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, also said “There is no more hardship under Nana Akufo Addo government."

Actually, I was shocked when the Finance Minister made that statement, taking into consideration the high rate of unemployment, biting economy, the weak foundation of businesses, and the collapse of banking institutions in the country.

While they make such deceptive boasts to cover up their mismanagement and misappropriation of funds, many Ghanaians that never suspected their corruptible deals gave them support.

Ghanaians put their trust in the president that indeed, he has declared war on corruption, this increased the hate towards John Mahama. It is often said that people really believe in lies rather than the truth.

The NPP government knew already that the party's popularity is fading, and the corruption scandals are piling up, therefore, in November 2019, the Education Minister, Opoku Prempeh, also came forward to tell Ghanaians about the free-education that “Not even Nkrumah can match what NPP has done in the educational sector in Ghana.”

What I found more outrageous is that when any corruption scandal hits the NPP government, many Ghanaians, including members of the NPP political party supported the activities by telling Ghanaians Mahama also did the same.

How can someone encourage crime because someone else also did the same? This doesn't make sense unless in Ghana and how do we expect the country to move forward?

Even some columnists on ModernGhana made such references instead of discouraging them in Akufo Addo's government. I may ask, are they helping the president or causing his downfall? I don't spare the rod to spoil a child.

The actions of Nana Akufo Addo by closing down radio stations, the crime wave in the country, and the level of corruption, were enough to acknowledge Nana Akufo Addo as a different person and not what he wants Ghanaians to believe he is.

Frankly speaking, Akufo Addo knew he would lose the elections in 2020, therefore, he started working on his diabolical plans to remain in power. Those plans are what we witnessed.

The election frauds organized by the management of the Electoral Commission boss, Jean Mensah, and the corrupt Supreme Court judges, ruling in favor of the rejected Ghanaian president.

My question is, NPP, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time,” said Abraham Lincoln.

Therefore, NPP, are you going to survive another four years by walking the common Ghanaians through the wilderness of thirst and hunger and win again in 2024? Time will tell.