Member of Parliament(MP) for Efutu, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin has expressed surprise about the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC’s) claim that the ruling New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) social intervention programmes amid COVID-19 are populist.

“I’m very surprised that today the NDC claim to be social democrats, claiming that we implement populist social interventions”.

The NDC had chastised the NPP for introducing interventions they described as populist and vote-buying.

But Mr Afenyo-Markin said “so today, if we are in crisis and government announces free water, is populist”.

“A government is subsidizing electricity consumption, domestic and industrial, and you saying is populist”, he noted.

“If the backing of students who have graduated from nursing schools and are being recruited and getting placement on our various health facilities, you call it populist” he pointed out.

Again, Mr Afenyo Markin said “if today, government is ensuring that school feeding is extended to all schools and you think is populist, then that is up to you.”

“And you are still questioning free SHS and all that”, he described NDC as hypocrites.

Create jobs for prosperity and stop your freebies – Mahama challenges Akufo-Addo

Former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama a week ago had challenged the Akufo-Addo led administration to prioritize job creation and put an end to promising freebies to the people of Ghana.

According to him, a government that provides jobs helps economies to grow because the people will have the funds to support their lives rather than wait for free things from the government.

The former President made this call on the current administration when he met with members of the Association of Road Contractors.

He said “This government is prioritizing consumption; no government develops prioritizing consumption. You have to invest money in the productive sectors and the productive sectors would create jobs and the jobs will create prosperity for the people.

“But if you say everybody should stay at home and we will give you everything free, free; free this, free that. All the countries that have developed, they didn’t develop like that.”

“You must assure the people of jobs; if people are working and getting money what would they need free for if they can afford to pay. And somebody says, let’s have a competition on social intervention; social interventions are consumption.

“They should say let’s have a competition in who invested more in the real sectors than the other. We were doing 4.7 percent of GDP investment in the real sector, today they can hardly achieve 3 percent.”