Deputy Majority leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has stated the New Patriotic Party (NPP) cannot be accused of sloganeering judging by what the government has done over the past six years.
According to him, the Akufo-Addo-led government that inherited a very terrible economy from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) outlined alternative policies to deal with the challenges even during the 2016 campaign, which are today being implemented.
He argued that some of the policies President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo put forward while in opposition including the Free Senior High School (FSHS), training college allowance, and nursing training allowance are being implemented and benefiting the majority of Ghanaians today.
Moving the Motion for the House to thank H.E. the President for the Message on the State of the Nation that he delivered to Parliament on Wednesday 8th March, 2023, the Deputy leader challenged the Minority and the NDC to also propound alternative policies for the current economic challenges.
He said, “The NPP administration also promised Ghanaians then that the high utility tariffs would be reduced. Again the NPP in opposition made a strong case for a reduction in taxes as well as a waiver of certain levies that the NDC had imposed at the time.”
“True to the words of the NPP when it assumed office in 2017, efforts were made immediately to introduce the free SHS and there are no doubts on our minds as a people that free SHS has really helped many who otherwise will not have had the opportunity to benefit from secondary education.”
He indicated that President Akufo-Addo had the perfect response to those shouting the government is spending so much when he told his cynics how the government introduced a major social intervention programme in spite of the challenges the country faced.
He averred that utility tariffs, especially electricity were a major burden on Ghanaians that the NDC at the time said it could do nothing about despite all the calls by Ghanaians for a reduction.
Mr. Afenyo-Markin stated that President Akufo-Addo also made a passionate appeal for Ghanaians to join him to address the challenges brought about by COVID and the Russia-Ukraine war and stated, “As a major opposition party has they been able to present their policy alternative? Have they been able to tell us what they would do differently to make our lives better?”
“Mr. Speaker, the only thing they have been clear and unambiguous on its Article 71. The only thing they seem to be clear is the populist slogan of dealing with Article 71; even so, they are under the impression it is only the executive that benefits from Article 71.”
The Deputy Majority leader argued the very people who had an opportunity to transform lives but could not are the same people criticizing and claiming to have the magic wand to solve the challenge.
Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo who seconded the Motion expressed shock at how the President painted a picture of a ‘paradise in Ghana,’ and then turned around to ask for support to go to IMF to remove the country from hell.
President Akufo-Addo, he said, does not appreciate the suffering, pain, and difficulties that Ghanaians are going through hence his contradictory statements.
According to him, the sovereignty of a country resides in its trust and credibility and when it borrows so much, its biggest pride is the ability to pay immediately.
“When you get to the point where you say you cannot pay you to become a country of straw and your sovereignty means nothing to the investor and that is where we are as a country,” he said.
Mr. Adongo rebuffed President Akufo-Addo’s comparison of the economy he inherited in 2016 and stressed that between 2015 and 2016 the global economy went into a recession that affected the West African sub-region including Nigeria among several others.
Ghana, he said, did not go into recession because of the prudent and better economic management that the John Mahama government implemented.
He said, “We did this without borrowing one cedi from the Bank of Ghana; you borrowed GH¢55 billion last year from the Bank of Ghana and borrowed GH¢35 billion in the previous years.
“President Mahama delivered this economy from the recession across the globe without taking a penny from the Bank of Ghana,” and stressed the economy inherited by President Akufo-Addo in 2017 was so solid that the NPP government raised all the money to finance the budget internally without going to the Eurobond market.