By William
Yaw Owusu
Monday May
07, 2018
Former President John Dramani Mahama has once again lambasted
President Akufo-Addo and his New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, accusing
them of abandoning the ‘massive’ projects, including roads, he claims he left
behind.
“A lot of the projects we started have stalled. Many
of the hospitals we were building have come to a stop. Many of the schools we
were building have come to a stop. Many of the roads we were building have come
to a stop. But I have one appeal. If there was one project that we started that
is critical to the economic development of the Upper West Region, it is the
Bolga-Bawku Road,” he stated in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital,
during the so-called ‘unity walk’ he is leading the opposition National
Democratic Congress (NDC) to embark on.
Clear
Incitement
He appeared to incite the people of the region
against the sitting president when he said he (President Akufo-Addo) had not
done anything for the people over there.
“If President Akufo-Addo won’t do anything for us in
Upper East at all, we beg him, as for that road, he should continue it and
finish it for us,” the former president said.
Awful
Upbringing
He also appeared to tag President Akufo-Addo and his
administration as intolerant and suggested that some of the NPP appointees
might have had awful upbringing.
“When you
offer any decision they call you all kinds of unprintable names, but I was not
brought up to use unprintable names against my political opponents,” he claimed,
adding, “The language you use in your political discourse is a reflection on
your upbringing. If you were brought up well it must reflect in the language
you use in your political discourse.”
It is clear that Mr Mahama was reacting to comments
countering his recent ‘galamsey’ gaffe when Minister of Lands and Natural
Resources John Peter Amewu, called him a ‘conman.’
Super
Incompetence
He also repeated his “super incompetent” tag of President
Akufo-Addo’s administration.
He said, “There are many other things that this
government is doing in an ad-hoc manner.
“For every programme that is rolled out, there is no
policy, there is no guideline and that is the problem. You (government) just
dream of something,” he said.
No
Show
Mr. Mahama further said that the numerous promises
made by the NPP during the 2016 electioneering campaign had not been fulfilled
and that they were struggling to rule.
“Even the promises that you made before the election
you have not fulfilled. You (government) are struggling. I watched a video
recently and they spoke about 1 million dollars per constituency per year. Now
today, we are told it was a mere thought,” he fired.
“When you talk, they say, ‘we are fulfilling our
promises; we’ve promised to restore nursing training allowances.’ The nurses
tell me that since that first payment they got in September last year, they’ve
not been paid again. But you know the tragedy is that they said [there was
money]. So, you would expect there was some money they knew that they were going
to use to fulfill those promises,” he said.
“What is happening is that all those promises are
being fulfilled using the statutory funds. Whilst you think you are creating
jobs on one side, you are starving the districts of their development budgets.
And, so, the schools and clinics that they are supposed to build and provide
jobs for masons and carpenters and steel benders and others, they (the
assemblies) don’t have that money to provide the jobs,” said the former president.
Statutory
Payments
He said that the government’s decision to cap
statutory funds at 25 percent of all government revenue is counterproductive
and added that it was being done so that President Akufo-Addo could fund his
Free SHS and other campaign promises.
“The government should do a rethink of some of the
sensitive statutory funds, especially NHIS,” he said, adding, “What’s happening
is, all those promises are being fulfilled using the statutory funds. For
instance, take the National Health Insurance. Parliament passed a law... it
says that it will cap all statutory funds at 25 percent of national revenue. So
when they cap it, they give every fund a weight and they take that money out of
the fund and put it into the consolidated fund for consumption.
“For the National Health Insurance, instead of
having GH¢2.2 billion from the NHIS levy that we paid, the National Health
Insurance ends up with GH¢1.3 billion. Almost GH¢900 million is gone. For some
sensitive funds like NHIS, when you are having problems with the sustainability
of the scheme, you don’t take money out of a fund like that. And then you come
back and tell us that the fund is unsustainable so you won’t impose new taxes.
“This year, GETFund has less than GH¢500 million to
do its work and that is why all the educational projects that we were doing
under GETFUND have stalled, because again capping is taking money out of
GETFund. Meanwhile, you have started Free Senior High School. The children
don’t have dormitories to sleep in. It is the GETFund that you would have used
to provide those dormitories and dining halls (for Free SHS). Meanwhile, you
are taking all that money out and putting it in the consolidated fund.”
Interestingly, when Mr. Mahama was president,
payment of statutory funds to the various state agencies were not going through
as they should and as a result, these agencies continued to be starved of the
needed funds for national development.
Second
Coming
Although he has already hit the ground running after
his humiliating defeat in 2016, the former president said he was yet to
announce whether he would contest again for the position of president.
“We have had the opportunity to interact with the
grassroots and I have heard the message they have kept echoing to me. I have
had the opportunity to speak to many people who have the best interests of our
party at heart and sooner rather than later I will make my political future
clear.
“I did not want my decision whether to run or not to
run to affect the reorganization of the party. Now that we have finished the
branch reorganization and I can see that the reorganization of the party is
well on track then probably the time is arriving where I need to make a
decision so the party can have a clear focus on how it is moving forward to
2020.”
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