From 2009, since President John Evans Atta Mills and the NDC took over the affairs of Ghana as the first gentleman of the state and the party in power, he has come under fire from different quarters and schools of thoughts including elements of his own party. He and his NDC administration can make history as one of the most criticised ever. Paramount among these attacking groups is the NPP. They are accusing him and the NDC of Hypocrisy, corruption, slowness, inefficiency, not being a man of himself, condoning and conniving with indiscipline, corruption and many others. Besides these they unanimously call the NDC and it's leader liars and deliberate deceivers. Does the NPP has any justification to call the NDC a party of lies and deliberate deceits? Can the(NPP) say they fulfilled all their promises?

In every party manifesto, there is the strong possibility that not all the promises enumerated therein can be fulfilled. So when does the promises turn into lies and deliberate deceits? I was told by a political expert that manifestoes turn into lies and deliberate deceits when the manifestoes are not based on genuine intentions and realistic circumstances. In my class one English, when you know what you are promising is not possible and you still go ahead to shout it loud knowing you cannot reach to it. False pretences may be the right description. So it is not necessarily a party's inability to do all what is contained in it's manifesto that makes it a liar but when they made promises they knew at the time of making same that they were not going to be able to fulfil them.

After listening to some NPP spokespersons I wrote down some points which will help us to know if the NDC made promises they well knew were impossible to fulfil which may justify the claim by the NPP that the NDC is a party of lies and deliberate deceits.

In the NDC 2008 manifesto, the people of Dagbon and Ghana were told that the NDC if voted into power will bring the killers of the late overlord of Dagbon, Ya-na Yakubu Andani to book. They buttressed their promise with a claim that they have a tape in their possession which will help them find the killers of the Ya-na. They also promised to form a presidential committee which will dig into the case and get the killers penalised. The NPP at the time told the NDC to stop politicising a purely tribal and one family issue but they never heeded to the advice. The NDC disregarded the work done by the then government in power and the work of the prominent chiefs. After two and half years in power, the presidential commission is no where to be found. To make matters worst, internal party wranglings led to a discovery that the tape they claimed they had, never in fact existed. If it existed at all, according to their Attorney General and Victor Smith the tape had no any relevant evidence which could help trace the perpetrators of the crime. If one is looking for lies and deliberated deceits this is a good example. At the time President Mills was spearheading this promise to the people of Dagbon, he knew as a law professor that the tape was irrelevant or non existent but yet they promised and even included it in their manifesto. When the President after gaining the votes based on this promise was confronted by the Abudus, he told them that he(Mills) is not a judge and could not do anything as far as seeking justice for the people was concerned. But yet he promised. This again was a deliberate deception. It was the anger and the pains of betrayal and deception that led the party foot soldiers to burn down the NDC regional office at Tamale and to threaten judges of this country. That is how much they were lied to and deceived.

President Mills and the NDC promised to reduce taxes in this country when voted into power. Lo and behold the people of Ghana gave them the mandate. As we are all aware we saw increments in already existing taxes. Even tolls were also increased, road toll was increases by an unbelievable 1000%. We also saw introduction of new taxes which never existed by the same party which brought us VAT. At the time of making this promise, the president as tax specialist knew it was impossible to reduce taxes at that time as he promised but he still went ahead promising. This again was a lie and a deliberate deceit. I am not willing to mention the "drastic" reduction and subsequent "drastic" increment of fuel prices. It was a Promise the NDC and president Mills who had been the vice president of Ghana for four years before then knew was not feasible, but yet he and the NDC lied and deceived Ghanaians that he could reduce the prices drastically only to come and increase it drastically. It is worth noting that at the time the NPP sold the fuel at 5 gh cedis the world price of crude oil was 140 dollars per barrel. President Mills sold it to Ghaians at 7 gh cedis at a time when the world price had declined from 140 to 90 dollars per barrel. Is there any lie and deception than this?

The president and his NDC promised Ghanaians that when he comes to power he will clear Accra of filt in one hundred days. I wonder how many days are hundred days. Instead of Accra being free of filt the capital city experienced a cholera outbreak which killed some more than 60 people and infected more than a record number of 4000 as a result of filt. One can be sure that, at the time the president was making this promise he well knew it to be a tall task which he can never achieve, but yet he went ahead to lie to and deceive Ghanaians. Today Accra is more dirty than the 7th of July 2009 when he was sworn into office. This was a pure lie and a deliberate deceit.

President Mills and the NDC promised to implement a one time premium for the National Health Insurance Scheme. Close to three years into his rule, we are yet to see that happen. The NHIS according to beneficiaries now only exist as a name. Cash and carry is back in full gear. If you depend on NHIS you will die; that's how somebody reacted to my question when I asked him about the progress so far of the NPP social policy. Every single service or medication you get at our hospitals are paid for. There is no more notjing like free treatment for pregnant women and the aged. The one time premium is a fiasco. A deliberate lie and deception.

After listening I had no choice but to agree that the NDC has lied to Ghanaians and have deliberately deceived us.

To be continued.....

God bless our homeland Ghana.

Noah Dugubrame Asare. Frankfurt, Germany.