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So, where is Dr. Bawumia's response
to Mr. Terkper's budget statement?
By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Folks, when I read a news report yesterday that the NPP's
Dr. Bawumia would respond to the budget statement presented
to Parliament by Mr. Seth Terkper (Minister of Finance), I
had a huge hunch that the response would be nothing other
than the "emotive language" feeding the NPP's "Concert
Party" enactments. Boy, I did I feel right?
I have looked around to see what exactly Dr. Bawumia said
about that budget statement and can't say that I was
disappointed at what I discovered and read from the
beginning to the end. It met my expectation to the full.
Here is why:
1. "Bawumia speaks: Mahama has created "toxic mix of
incompetence and corruption" (See more at:
http://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2015/December-2nd/bawumia-speaks-ghanas-economy-has-plummeted-in-many-areas.php#sthash.fEu7u6ns.dpuf)
The usual scratching around for "statistics" to beef up the
rogue politics and a lame comparison of what transpired
under Kufuor's 8 years and John Mahama's 4 years!! What will
the NPP under Akufo-Addo do differently?
2. "'Lives destroyed under NDC Govt—Bawumia". (See
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Lives-destroyed-under-NDC-Govt-397953)
A play to the gallery as if no one suffered any hardship
when Kufuor was in power!!
3. "Propaganda cannot manage Ghana’s economy—Bawumia tells
NDC". (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Propaganda-cannot-manage-Ghana-s-economy-Bawumia-tells-NDC-397972)
As if what he is leading the NPP to do is not propaganda
(against the NDC and the government).
MY COMMENTS
As usual, Dr. Bawumia has hyped nothing but the NPP's
ill-temper and desperate attempt to whip up emotions instead
of reason to help people know what it will do differently if
given the mandate.
In truth, any response to such an important government
policy hub should not only point out the flaws in it but
should give us an alternative so we can see things from a
wider angle. We have been given the detailed budget
statement to read so we could pinpoint specifics for any
argument and suggest options if we find certain aspects to
be flawed or unrealistic.
What specifically did Dr. Bawumia present as the NPP's
alternative budget statement (even if just for the records)?
NOTHING apart from emotions. Unfortunately, countries are
not built on/with such useless emotions.
Folks, I will continue to say that these NPP people don't
know how to do productive politics. They pick up
opportunities to advance only to drop them and relapse into
their cocoon of rogue and "book" politics. They pick up the
ball only to drop it. How can they reach out successfully to
informed Ghanaians looking for alternative positions on
crucial national issues to make up their minds toward
Election 2016?
The truth is that the NPP people have found "emotive
language" as a political weapon of choice to cause
disaffection instead of presenting concrete and substantial
proofs for the people to reason about. In our kind of
situation, when people are aroused emotionally to make
political decisions and miss the chance to assess issues
critically, they put in office those who worsen national
problems instead of solving them.
The NPP's kind of politics is fixated on sentimentalism,
which explains why their easiest means of public outreach is
wrapped around insults and dogged ethnocentricism. Such a
political camp is doomed!! It has no future, especially as
the citizens become more enlightened to sift the grain from
the chaff.
Those who will regard Dr. Bawumia's effusions as anything
for the NPP to approach the electorate with will be laughing
at the wrong side of their mouths at electoral decision
time.
The solution? Give the people alternative aspects of the
government's budget statement for them to see what you will
do better, not to continue hammering on what is already
obvious---that the government is facing challenges. What
will you do differently? That is what the people are asking.
Don't continue flogging the dead horse, Dr. Bawumia and Co.
But will they ever do anything differently? Such people!!
I shall return…
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
• Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor
to continue the conversation.
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