Former President John Dramani Mahama, has described the governing New Patriotic Party(NPP) as a government that is “intolerant of criticisms” and only implements “adhoc solutions” to challenges confronting the country.
Addressing teeming supporters of the National Democratic Congress(NDC) at the ninth edition of the Unity Walk at Ramsey Park at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region last Saturday, the former President wondered why anytime the NPP government was criticised about their approach to addressing certain issues in the country, they got so “worked up”.
Galamsey issue
Making references to the galamsey issue, he expressed regret that some personalities in the current government allegedly used all kinds of unprintable words on him (Mr Mahama) when he tried to offer some suggestions as to how best the NPP could go about the galamsey menace in the country without creating unnecessary hardship for the youth engaged in the business.
He reiterated that the NPP government should have been working hard at providing alternative means of livelihood for the affected people who were mainly the youth.
“The simple point I made was that we as the NDC have tried that approach of using soldiers to stop the illegal mining issue but it did not work and so we realised that the best way to stop them from illegal mining was to work on providing them with alternatives,” Mr Mahama further pointed out.
According to him, if there is any President who has been heavily criticised then it was he but “as a good leader you must be calm and be focussed in the face of criticisms”.
Statutory funds
The former President also took a swipe at the NPP government for “using statutory funds” meant for the National Health Insurance Scheme and the Ghana Education Trust Fund(GETFUND) to finance some of its flagship programmes to the detriment of the NHIS and the GETFUND.
He explained that because of those bad decisions by the NPP, the NHIS is suffering as the current government is not able to pay claims under that intervention while funds for delivering projects under the GETFund had also reduced and stalled its projects.
Failed promises
He further observed that the NPP government was still struggling to fulfil its promises such as the one million dollar-per constituency, one-village, one-dam, one-district, one-factory and other policies.
Mr Mahama noted that all the programmes the NPP had spelt out did not have policy guidelines, which was a recipe for unsustainability of such programmes.
“It is as if the NPP is running a government as you go because for every programme that they roll out there is no policy or guidelines; at least take it easy and fulfil your promises sustainably,” he stressed.
Bolgatanga-Bawku project
The former President also stated that if the current government would not continue the various projects started under the Mahama regime, it should at least for the sake of the people of the Upper East Region consider completing the Bolgatanga-Bawku road project.
He said he was highly elated about the fortitude, enthusiasm and resilience displayed by the supporters of the party in the region and expressed the hope that in 2020, such attitude would be translated into votes to bring the NDC back to power.
Unity walk
The walk attracted hundreds of supporters of the NDC. In attendance were former ministers of state, former and current parliamentarians and former DCEs. Notable among them were Mr Mark Woyongo, Mr Albert Abongo, Professor Avea Nsoh,Mr James Tiigah, Mr Cletus Avoka, and Mr Daniel Syme.
The MPs for Bolgatanga Central and Bolgatanga East,Mr Isaac Adongo and Dr Dominic Ayine, both addressed the supporters prior to former President Mahama’s address.
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