Dr. Edward Mahama is the Presidential hopeful of the Peoples' National Convention
By William Yaw Owusu
Saturday, 05 July 2008
Dr. Edward N. Mahama, flag-bearer of the People’s National Convention has promised a ‘Golden Age of Increased Productivity’ as a pragmatic step towards accelerated national development when the PNC gets the mandate in the December poll.
"The PNC will usher in GAIP as contrasted to the current ‘Golden Age of Business’ which is only about buying and selling of imported goods. The PNC believes that income earned should comensurate with levels of productivity in order to create wealth and reduce poverty drastically."
Dr. Mahama made the promise when he took his turn at an ‘Evening Encounter’, a programme designed to offer a platform for flag-bearers of the registered parties to share their vision with the public.
Organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) under the auspices of the Ghana Political Parties Programmes (GPPP) the ‘Encounter’ gives the public the opportunity to be properly informed about all options and proposals being offered by the Presidential aspirants and the political parties.
The programme telecast live both on television and radio, further enables the electorate to discern what each aspirant stands for, what each aspirant intends to do and the direction in which each aspirant intends to take Ghana.
The PNC flag-bearer said the GAIP would focus on agriculture since the sector continues to be the largest contibutor of the country’s gross domestic product where over 54 per cent of the workforce are engaged in that sector and other agric-related business.
He said "agriculture employs 54 per cent of the labour force and accounts for 70 per cent of the activity of the rural population but sadly the sector continues to show poor growth mainly due to the lack on infrastructural development".
He said a PNC administration would involve farmer based associations and other agricultural related stakeholders in the formulation of agricultural policies to ensure that farmers and fishermen are able to increase production on a sustainable basis.
On the National Health Insurance Scheme, Dr. Mahama said the PNC would review, strengthen and expand the NHIS adding "the scheme is currently being implemented on one leg,and this has accounted for the teething problems associated with its administration".
"Under a PNC Government in January 2009, the other leg of the scheme known as Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO) would be outdoored to give full complement to NHIS," he added
Dr Mahama said HMO would focus on strategies to keep Ghanaians healthy so that the NHIS would not be over utilized to bankruptcy, adding "if you buy a car insurance you do not leave the maintenance of the car so that you can get an accident and then claim insurance damages. Instead you make sure that your breaks, wind shield wiper and other parts are in order to avoid accident."
The HMO, he said, would incorporate all current public and preventive medicine approaches such as immunisations, maternal and child health into an active health promotion effort.
Dr Mahama described corruption as a canker that has inhibited Ghana’s development and said a PNC Government would fight it using the President and ensuring legislative and governance checks.
At the personal level, Dr Mahama said the President who is the number one citizen on the land, must be seen to abhor corruption, indicating "that is what my presidency would be ready to provide".
He said "the era of do as I say and not as I do would be a thing of the past provide leadership by example for all to follow", adding that "a PNC government would enforce existing laws and enact more stringent laws to deter people from engaging in corrupt practices."
He said the Attorney General’s Office would be separated from the Ministry of Justice to enhance efforts at fighting corruption at governmental level and also to enable the impartial Attorney General to prosecute all offences both in the private and public institutions without regard to political affiliations.
On education, Dr. Mahama said a PNC administration would expand the school feeding programme by feeding each child at school with a piece of chicken grown locally saying "by this way we will be reducing the unbridled and unfair importation of poultry products into the country to boost our local poultry industry".
He said the PNC would focus on mathematics, science, technical skills and another subject called, ‘Thinking’ to help the children to solve their own problems.
He also said each regional capital would be given a university as well as give scholarships to students and involve the private sector in the provision of accommodation for students to be subsidised by the government.
Regarding energy, Dr. Mahama said that a PNC administration would further explore hydro, wind, solar, thermal, nuclear and bio-fuels adding "in the case of solar, we will advocate a sub-regional project that includes Burkina-Faso, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Niger, Mali and Libya since funding for such a project would be easier to secure because of its mult-national nature".
On the discovery of oil, the PNC flag-bearer said his admininstartion would involve all stakeholders especially communities to be affected by the exploration in the sharing of the revenue in order to avoid the Niger Delta situation in Nigeria.
A PNC administration would introduce a National Drug and Substance Abuse Policy to combat abuse of drugs and also put in measures that would make it impossible for drug trafficking to thrive in Ghana.
He also promised to increase the size of the police service, motivate and equip them with the needed logistics to be able to fight crime especially robbery.
The first flag-bearer to appear on the ‘Encounter’ was Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom of the Convention Peoples’ Party, followed by Professor John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress and then Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party.
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