Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Monday, October 10, 2016
“So let me speak the words of David to our
Goliath...
‘You come to me with a sword, with a spear and with
a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the
armies of Israel (Ghana), whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver
you into my hand, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel
(Ghana). Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with
sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our
hands.’ 1 Samuel 17:45–47.”
This was the concluding speech of the presidential
candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, during
the party’s manifesto launch in Accra yesterday.
Nana Akufo-Addo said President John
Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) government are using state
resources to induce the electorate in order to remain in office.
According to him, the NPP is going into
the December 7 general election to face an opponent (NDC) that has
“unrestrained and unprincipled” access to state resources and would do anything
to bribe the electorate to have its way, but urged Ghanaians to remain
steadfast and reject them (NDC bigwigs), despite the heavy inducements.
Battle Is The Lord’s
Sounding biblical, Nana Akufo-Addo, quoting
1 Samuel 17: 45, said David gave encouraging words to his followers to
demystify the perceived might of his opponent - Goliath - in the Holy Bible.
He added, “They” (referring to the NDC
gurus) “have more money than us, but the battle is the Lord’s. They have more
outboard motors, more roofing sheets, more laptops, more sewing machines to
give away, but the battle is the Lord’s. They have more giant-sized billboards
than us, but the battle is the Lord’s.”
He described himself as a “small and
honest man with a big heart,” and asked the people to give him the mandate to
reverse Ghana’s dwindling fortunes adding, “We shall treat the mandate you give
us with respect.”
Patriotism Lessons
Nana Akufo-Addo said President John
Dramani Mahama is not a person to give lessons on patriotism.
He said he had heard the president
described opponents who questioned the economic mismanagement of the country as
unpatriotic, but said that would not stop him from pointing out the government’s
faults.
“I have heard the President of the
Republic make the breathtaking claim that the economy is not in crisis. He went
further to say that those who say the economy is in crisis have bad eyesight. The
president says that those who say the economy is in crisis are unpatriotic. Let
me state clearly and without any equivocation that John Dramani Mahama cannot
teach me any lessons in patriotism,” the NPP flag bearer pointed out.
According to Nana Addo, the government he
will lead is not looking for ‘catchy phrases’ or ‘meaningless slogans’ but
rather it is offering solutions that will take the country out of what he
called ‘the current economic crisis,” adding, “I am looking to build a country
that has equal opportunities for all its citizens.”
“I can’t go out and use the tax payer’s
money to claim that I am accounting to the people to campaign as somebody has
been doing. I don’t have to go around the country to rediscover Ghana like
somebody has been doing. Since 2012, I have been going to all the districts, promising
to help create jobs; so I have been around and I know where everything is in
Ghana and what the situation is in Ghana.”
He
said, “All true lovers of Ghana know that the circumstances of our existence
these past eight years is not the Ghana that our forebears fought for. The
Ghana of the past four years is certainly nothing like the Ghana the current population
of Ghanaians aspire to.”
The president, the NPP leader noted, might
be operating from a different world hence, his inability to see the hardships
Ghanaians are going through.
“President Mahama might not recognize the
suffering of the people of Ghana and might not be hearing their cries, because
he has sadly insulated himself from the reality on the ground. He has probably
not met young Godwin. He did what every child is urged to do: he went to
school, he studied hard, he got good grades, he chose to go to the School of
Hygiene and he finished three years ago. He is still sitting at home, he hasn’t
got a job. No one who has been through the School of Hygiene for the past four
years has been placed in our health system. I have met many of them and
thousands more like him; young, vibrant Ghanaians who want to work, but cannot
find jobs, because President Mahama has ran our economy into the ground,” he
lamented.
Nana Akufo-Addo promised that job
creation would be the main agenda of the NPP administration under him.
Family & Friends
“If the president would only look a
little closer behind the veneer that closets him, just a little behind his
immediate circle of family and friends, he will see and feel the agony of
Ghanaians.”
“If he looked a little closer even at the
rank and file of his own party, he would recognize that this is, indeed, an
economy in crisis. Maybe the president should talk to young Awal Mohammed, who
was, until this past week, the deputy Director of Communications of the NDC
Zongo Caucus. He does not sound to me like an unpatriotic young Ghanaian. If
the president looked a little closer, he would see the army of desperate young
unemployed who are in despair,” Nana Addo charged.
Kalyppo
The highlight of the event was the
sipping of the fruit drink – Kalyppo – by almost all the dignitaries; it was
supplied by a benevolent Ghanaian.
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