Broken social contract: Nana Addo came to power on the back of mouth-watering promises — Mahama
Former President John Mahama has said the NPP government came into office in January 2017 on the back of mouthwatering promises.
Former President John Mahama has said the NPP government came into office in January 2017 on the back of mouthwatering promises.
According to him, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo prior to 2016 promised to change Ghana in eighteen (18) months if voted for and grow the economy at double-digit, reduce borrowing, ensure fiscal discipline, bring down the cost of living, lower taxes and protect the public purse, promised to move Ghana "from taxation to production" but he has failed.
Mahama addressing the nation on the theme 'Ghana At A Crossroads' on Monday, May 2, 2022, said "an assessment of our current conditions shows that what is happening now bears very little or no resemblance to what was promised. There is a sharp disparity between promise and practice."
He stated that "most Ghanaians feel they were hoodwinked, and this is manifesting in their personal lives and their daily struggles.
He added: the economic mismanagement, hardships, unemployment, and other forms of misrule exhibited by the NPP government, Ghana is deeply worrying issues of high-handedness, intolerance for criticism, and outright abuse of the rights of citizens deemed to be critical of the government.
Mahama stressed that the government constantly seeks to impose on Ghanaians their version of the economic reality-denying that food prices have gone up; "insisting that the business climate is favourable; virulently protesting the evidence that their investments in meaningful capital expenditure are insignificant, and ignoring glaring evidence of unprecedented levels of corruption and breaches of internationally acclaimed standards of social justice."
He indicated that the litany of excuses offered by the government for the economic mess, especially on COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukraine war as well as the so-called financial sector clean-up and supposed excess capacity payments in the energy sector are acceptable.
"The Russian-Ukrainian conflict cannot possibly be responsible for the suffering Ghanaians are going through. The suffering predates the war. Before this conflict, our currency had been depreciating and was impacting negatively fuel and commodity prices in our markets. Fuel prices had gone up on more than forty different occasions since 2017 before the Russian-Ukrainian conflict started," he noted.
