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Did Akufo-Addo and Bawumia just lie to us for power? Did they deceive us just for power? Did they sweet-talk us just to get our votes! Is it the case that they have never had any intention of fulfilling the promises on which basis we voted for them? If such is the case, then let us all be advised, four years is very long, but not too long for a patient deceived voter.
Clearly, even before 7th January, 2017 when they would be sworn-in as President and Vice President respectively so as to carry out their side of the social contract that we signed with them by voting for them on the 7th of December, 2016, Akufo-Addo and
Bawumia have started trying to prepare our minds for renegotiation of the terms of the contract after we, the people of Ghana, have done our part and handed over the country to them!
1. Akufo-Addo promised us that if we vote for him his government would establish a factory in each district of the country so as to give us, the youth, much needed jobs. However, just two days to the elections he goes on BBC to tell us that he is STRONGLY OPPOSED TO THE IDEA OF THE STATE ESTABLISHING ENTERPRISES therefore it is not his government that would establish the factories!!!
This is what he said when he was interviewed by the BBC’s Akwasi Sarpong:
Akwasi Sarpong asked: “On the campaign trail, for example, you have proposed to build a dam per village, a factory per village, $1million spent on a sanitation project for 275 constituencies, that’s $275m. Ghana is broke. Where are you going to find the money from?”
Nana Addo response: “First of all, the developments, at the level of the village, at the level of the district are ones we intend to do with the private sector. We are not necessarily looking at disbursements from state funds to establish these entities. We are looking at encouraging private sector operators to be able to do that.”
Akwasi Sarpong: “Meaning what exactly, Sir?”
Nana Akuffo Addo: “Meaning exactly that the factories that are going to be established will be established by Ghanaian entrepreneurs, private businesses. They will have the facilitations of government but it will be done by private, by-by private, entities. It’s not going to be government…these… We are not setting up state enterprises. On the contrary, we are very strongly opposed to the establishment of state enterprise. As far as that is concerned, that is a-an initiative that is going to be private-sector driven.”
My brothers and sisters, have you asked yourself why it had to be that it was only two days to election day that Akufo-Addo “clarified” his one-this-one-that policy by saying that his government was not going to finance the implementation of those policies and that it was the private sector that was going to shoulder the responsibility? Have you asked yourself why?
Is it the case that Akufo-Addo and Bawumia threw all those promises out there to get the most of us salivating and fantasizing about an industrial revolution that would lead to jobs-explosion, knowing fully well that they do not have the slightest intention to fulfill these promises?
When Akufo-Addo and Bawumia were telling us about building factories and giving us dams in our villages to propel agriculture development, they made sure that we understood that these are projects that were going to be established by the government that they would lead therefore we must vote for them to enable them form the next government so that they can establish these factories and dams.
Today, Akufo-Addo is telling us most succinctly that he and Bawumia as well as the New Patriotic Party “are very strongly opposed to the establishment of state enterprise”.
Question is didn’t they know that they “are very strongly opposed to the establishment of state enterprise” when they were telling us that they were going to establish these enterprises? Clearly the BBC interview was only a gimmick to put out an alibi ahead of failure to deliver.
The alibi is that Akufo-Addo ‘clarified’ that they “are very strongly opposed to the establishment of state enterprise” for which reason it is the private sector, and NOT HIS GOVERNMENT that is going to drive the implementation of the one-this-one-that policies that he and Bawumia sold to us to get our Votes!
Well, the alibi has been established. Never mind the fact that the alibi came too late [two days to elections] to influence decisions of the electorate; the fact is that the ALIBI HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED!
If you do not get a factory in your district, Akufo-Addo and Bawumia do not expect you to blame them; they expect you to blame the private sector for not showing interest in establishing a factory in your district or a dam in your village!!!
But must we allow them to renegotiate the terms of the contract to suit them just because they now have the power that they seek? Well, for now there is nothing that we can do about it apart from constantly reminding ourselves of how we have been fooled. Four years is a very long time, but not too long for a patient deceived voter.
2. Again, in getting us to vote for them, Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahmoud Bawumia pledged to us that they will restore teacher trainee and nursing trainee allowances “IN FULL WITHIN THE FIRST THREE MONTHS” of coming into office.
Read:- http://buzzghana.com/npp-restore-trainee-allowances-resumption/
One the basis of this promise also, our young nursing and teacher trainees, their relatives, and would-be trainees voted for Akufo-Addo and Bawumia enthusiastically.
Today, barely some two weeks shy of their formal assumption of power, Akufo-Addo and Bawumia have sent the Honourable Maxwell Kofi Jumah to insult us simply because we have sought to remind them of the need to honour their promise within the timeframe that they pledged to us!
Hear Maxwell Kofi Jumah:- “Go and tell the so called Concerned Teachers that I said they are mad. What is that nonsense for; giving Akufo Addo hundred days to restore allowances? We don’t have time for them. We won’t restore any allowance. They should get the f..k off. They should wait when we, the Maxwell Kofi Jumahs, are dead then they can come and carry out that nonsense. If they have a hundred day ultimatum they should go and give it to John Mahama. Stupid Fools”
As if that was not enough, the NPP Chairman of the Canada branch of the party, Mr. Gilbert Adu Gyimah was also sent to come and tell us that Akufo-Addo and Bawumia do not “think [that] anybody voted for the NPP because of promises so the NDC should stop wasting our ears.”
Yes, they now have the power, so anyone who seeks to remind them of their promises can only be doing so because he/she is NDC and not because he/she is first a Ghanaian who expects that politicians must honour their promises and must not be allowed to renegotiate their promises once they are in power.
To make sure that the message delivered to us by Kofi Jumah and Gilbert Adu Gyamfi is not lost on us, Akufo-Addo and Bawumia again sent the NPP’s Ashanti Regional Secretary, Sam Pyne to tell us that “We might not deliver our promises because we didn’t know the National COFFERS until after briefing from the Transitional Team.”
In other words, the NPP’s Ashanti Regional Secretary has been sent by Akufo-Addo and Bawumiaa to come and tell us that ‘sorry folks, we are unable to fulfill our promises because although we thought we knew that the situation of the country was bad, we just didn’t know how bad it was so bear with us. Those promises cannot be fulfilled in the next several years’.
Yes, Akufo-Addo and Bawumia must certainly be thinking that “you and I were not there” at the numerous lectures that they gave us on the state of the Ghanaian economy. They must be thinking that “you and I were not there” following the discourses on the state of the Ghanaian economy right from Senchi through New York, to Paris, back to Accra and wherever else. They must think that you and I are so very daft with sponge for brains.
We are not going to lower our expectations. We expect that nursing and teacher trainee allowances would be restored in full in three months without current intake levels being negatively impacted. In other words, we expect that the restoration of these allowances should not lead to a Teacher Training institution such as Ada Training College being forced to reduce its trainee population from the over nine hundred and ninety (990) trainees that the institution currently has. If for n0thing at all, we expect that restoration of these allowances should rather lead to increased intake of trainees.
We refuse to buy into the mediocre excuse that Akufo-Addo and Bawumia did not know the reality of the state of the national economy when they were making their promises. We insist that they know perfectly well the state of the economy and that the promises they made to us were based on the reality of the state of the economy so we would not allow them to renegotiate the social contract that they signed with us after we have done our part by handing them our mandate.
I just heard a voice whisper into my ears, “too known, Kobby. What at all can you do? The power is already in their hands so “insist” all you can, it would not change anything.” Well, that is true. We’ve been had, and for now there is nothing we can do about it apart from making sure that we won’t forget it as we count the days downwards towards the year 2020.
We must constantly remember that Akufo-Addo and Bawumia lied to us just for power. They deceived us for power. They sweet-talked us just to get our votes! They have never had any intention of fulfilling the promises on which basis we voted for them. Let us all be advised, four years is very long, but not too long for a patient deceived voter.
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