[ 2016-12-04 ]

Contrary to propaganda reality on ground is different — Nana Akufo-Addo
The Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic
Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said
that contrary to the propaganda being churned out
by the President Mahama-led National Democratic
Congress (NDC) government that it has undertaken
unprecedented infrastructural development, the
reality on the ground is different.
That, he said, was not surprising considering the
fact that rather than moving on the ground to
ascertain the truth or otherwise of what he
claimed to be unprecedented infrastructural
development, President Mahama had resorted to the
use of helicopters for rallies.

On the other hand, he (Nana Akufo-Addo) had been
moving from one constituency to another using the
road and had seen at first hand the deplorable
conditions of the country’s roads, as well as
other huge infrastructural challenges.

Addressing a press conference in lieu of a
regional rally, he said after touring the 275
constituencies of the country, a common request
that the chiefs and opinion leaders had made on a
regular basis was the poor conditions of their
roads and the need for schools.

Nana Akufo-Addo was unable to hold a rally in
Kumasi because of the passing away of the mother
of the Asantehene for which reason there had been
a ban on noisemaking.

President Mahama has lost touch

He said it was clear that President Mahama had
lost total touch with reality because rather than
moving on the ground and touching base with
Ghanaians, he had detached himself and was always
using a helicopter to every part of the country
where the NDC held rallies.

Yet when he (Nana) experienced the difficulties
that Ghanaians were facing on the ground and
commented on them, President Mahama accused him of
sleeping while travelling around.

He said when the NPP mentioned infrastructure,
they were not referring to infrastructure as
captured in green books but that which “is
visible, viable and working for the people.”

He announced the completion of an eastern and
western corridor rail system that would open the
country up and make sure people and goods could
easily connect from Accra through Kumasi to Paga.

“It is a major infrastructural initiative that
we are going to take when we are given the
opportunity of office in the days to come,” he
added.

He made a passionate appeal to the people that on
Election Day, no matter what engagements they had,
they should endeavour to sacrifice, turn out in
their numbers and cast their votes.

Let’s correct our mistake

He said the present state of affairs under which
Ghanaians were suffering was because of the
failure of many to cast votes for a credible
government of the NPP and added that the time had
come for that mistake to be corrected.

“Every year, since Mahama became President, the
economy of the country keeps shrinking and we need
to vote in the NPP to save the economy from total
collapse,” he said.

He said the Ashanti Region was the biggest support
base of the party and that if all the popular
votes in the region were properly harnessed,
nothing could stand in the way of a decisive
victory in the December 7 polls.

He stated that practical policies would be
initiated to revamp the private sector to
spearhead the development agenda of the country.

As part of plans to strengthen the private sector,
he announced the waiver of taxes on the
importation of machinery for the processing of raw
materials, reduction in the volume of taxes being
paid by businesses and also the institution of
measures towards ensuring that the cocoa sector
upped its tonnage.

Revamping the agric sector

“Our target within the next four years is to
reach 1.6 million tonnes of cocoa export in
Ghana,” he stressed.

Under the Kufuor regime, he recounted, four per
cent of the annual budget was devoted to the
agricultural sector but that had been reduced to
less than one per cent under the current
government.

He, therefore, pledged to restore the allocation
of the four per cent to the agricultural sector
“so that we can have the funds to spearhead
public interventions in the agricultural
sector.”

He said the policies that the NPP had in mind were
those that would inure greatly to the benefit of
the people of the region for which reason the
people should vote massively for the party.

Source - Graphiconline

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