Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Friday, September 2, 2016
It is becoming increasingly clear that
the delay by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in launching its manifesto
is meant to ‘steal’ some new ideas from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), hence the
pressure on the presidential candidate of the NPP to release his party’s
manifesto.
The pressure on the NPP is coming from
some party chieftains and the NDC’s surrogate groups.
They are asking the main opposition party
to launch its manifesto ostensibly to copy some of the contents and make them
their own, according to inside sources.
The ruling party postponed its scheduled
manifesto launch in Sunyani, the Brong-Ahafo Regional capital, last weekend
because it reportedly wanted to have access to the NPP manifesto, but the
opposition party has become adamant in launching its own manifesto due to the
NDC’s record of ‘stealing’ ideas.
DAILY GUIDE learnt that
September 17, 2016 has tentatively been arrived at but the launch might not
even come off, as it waits for the opposition party to come out with more fresh
ideas in order for it (NDC) to incorporate them into its manifesto.
However, the NPP says it’s not in a hurry
to unveil its manifesto because of previous experience.
NDC Surrogates
Two pro-NDC groups - Strategic Thinkers
Network (STRANEK) and SONETCO Institute - which claim to be socialist
ideological think tanks, have been pushing the parties to release their
manifestos and these are being done subtly to suit the cause of the NDC, which
apparently wants to have access to the manifestos of other parties for the
purpose of copying.
In a statement signed by one Nii Tettey
Tetteh, STRANEK asked the parties to stop what it called the ‘feet dragging’ and
release their manifestos.
SONETCO Institute, in its statement
signed by one Eugene Eshun-Elliot said, “The long and loud silence from NDC and
NPP on this key electoral business is regrettable and it is a big blow to our
democracy, touted to be the beacon of Africa.”
NDC ‘New Ideas’
The Mahama-led NDC is said to be fine-tuning
its manifesto by incorporating ‘new ideas’ but critics say they have nothing
new to add except to plagiarize their opponents’ ideas.
Interestingly, the ‘new ideas’ they are
purportedly incorporating are the policies and programmes that the NPP and its
presidential candidate have been espousing as the campaign towards the December
7 general election heats up.
For instance, when Nana Akufo-Addo went
to the Western Region and promised to create another region out of it to be
known as Western North Region due to the region’s large size that hampers
proper administration - the NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Bodi, Samson Ahi,
who doubles as a deputy minister for Water Resources Works and Housing, quickly
said the Mahama government was going to implement that policy.
Strangely, his own NDC deputy general
secretary, George Lawson, came out to say the Western North Region promised by
Nana Akufo-Addo was not in the books of the ruling party.
Last week when Nana Akufo-Addo said in
the Upper East Region that an NPP government would introduce a ‘1 village 1
dam’ policy, the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna,
swiftly claimed that the policy was already being implemented by the
government.
"We are already doing what Nana Addo
is promising; he is promising and we are fulfilling under a programme called
Ghana Commercial Agricultural Project (GCAP)," the minister said.
An NDC apologist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, a journalist,
said the NPP’s policy was not ‘feasible,’ yet the party claims it is already
implementing it.
Classic Scenarios
The public pronouncements that directly
connect the NDC to the fact that they want to ‘spy’ on the NPP manifesto and
turn it into their own have become evident.
Koku Anyidoho, NDC deputy general secretary
said, "Nana Addo is still sleeping and dreaming, that’s why he’s making so
many impracticable promises of providing one dam for every village in Ghana. If
Ghanaians don’t take care, very soon, the opposition leader will promise ‘one
region one Ghanaian.’"
Kofi Adams, National Organiser and
Campaign Coordinator for John Mahama, also said, “It is like whatever good
thing the NDC is doing, the NPP candidate (Nana Akufo-Addo) has devised a
strategy to say that ‘I will also do it.’ The one village one dam is not
possible. It is just part of his promise galore. Where on earth will he get the
source of water from? Are we going to get the water from rainfall or the
streams that have dried up? So, Nana Addo’s promise is not practicable.”
Stealing Slogans
The current NDC’s “Changing Lives!
Transforming Ghana!” slogan being used for President Mahama’s re-election bid was
couched by the NPP in 2012 and this has left the NPP bewildered at the brazen
attempt to steal its policies.
The NPP slogan for the 2012 election was
“Transforming Lives, Transforming Ghana,” and all the NDC appears to have done
is to substitute the word ‘Transforming’ to ‘Changing,’ which it bastardized in
the heat of the 2012 campaign without any shame.
NDC Manifesto
In 2012 the NDC’s manifesto was titled
“Advancing the better Ghana agenda,” but abandoned it for the NPP’s
‘Transforming lives!’ which it has gleefully turned into ‘Changing lives!’ for
the 2016 contest in December.
The NDC is noted for taking other
political parties’ slogans without due credit. It did it to then Convention
People’s Party (CPP) presidential candidate Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, in the run-up
to the 2008 general election when it ‘hijacked’ Papa’s ‘Yere sesa mu’ (We are
effecting a change) slogan for then candidate, Professor John Evans Atta Mills.
NDA vs SADA
When the NPP said it would introduce the
Northern Development Authority (NDA) to help bridge the development and poverty
gap between the people of the three northern regions and their counterparts in
the south, the NDC quickly brought on board the Savannah Accelerated
Development Authority (SADA).
Upon assumption of office, the NDC tried
to implement SADA but the funds were misappropriated by officials in-charge of the organization and
its activities were characterised by allegations of corruption.
Free SHS
Also, the NPP said in 2012 that it was
determined to implement a policy called Free Senior High School for all second
cycle students to access free education when elected, but the NDC said it was
impossible only to turn around in early 2014 to say it was going to implement
the same policy it ridiculed.
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