President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will go down in history as the luckiest President in Ghana in terms of revenues and resources but certainly will also go down as the President who has done very little for Ghana, the Minority in Parliament has said.
According to the Minority, when it comes to policies and programmes that affect the lives of the ordinary Ghanaian, Nana Akufo-Addo has done little.
The Minority believes the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has a superior record to the NPP while describing the Akufo-Addo government as corrupt.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, 12 February 2020, Mr John Abdulai Jinapor, former Deputy Minister of Energy under the John Mahama administration said “Ghanaians voted for President Akufo-Addo because he promised to tackle corruption head-on. Indeed, he raised the expectations of Ghanaians and promised categorically not to run a family and friends’ government. Today, you and I are living witnesses that he’s proven to be the complete opposite of what he preached in opposition. Corruption, cronyism and favouritism have become the order of the day under this administration…that is the state of Ghana’s energy sector today.”
Responding directly to Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s claims that the NPP is a better alternative than the NDC at a Townhall meeting in Kumasi on Tuesday, 11 February 2020, Mr Jinapor said: “It is important and I like it that Dr Bawumia decided to do some comparisons, we welcome that comparisons. Indeed, we want them to bring that on because we hold a superior record head-to-head, pound-for-pound, eyeball-to-eyeball when it comes to NPP and NDC.”
“There’s a very popular saying that unto whom much is given much is expected but this is not the adage under President Akufo-Addo. President Akufo-Addo will go down in history as the luckiest president in Ghana in terms of revenues and resources, but certainly, he will go down as the president who has done very little for this country when it comes to substance and issues that affects your lives,” the Yapei Kusawgu lawmaker added.
According to Mr Jinapor “If you look at petroleum receipts, President Mahama received GHS6.4billion in his whole four years but President Akufo-Addo, by the end of this year, will be receiving over GHS20 billion in petroleum revenues.
“If you look at energy sector levies…President Mahama received only GHS3 billion of energy sector levies, President Akufo-Addo is receiving GHS12 billion of these energy sector levies. Not only have they retained it, they have increased the levies on petroleum, they’ve increased the levies on diesel, they’ve increased levies on gas and increased levies on petrol.
“And so, when the Bulk Oil Distributor’s Companies (BDCs) are paid through the energy sector levies, instead of giving credit to the man [Mahama] who dreamt about it, who conceived it, who pioneered it, they rather want to take credit for where they did not sow.”