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Finally, the
NPP's agenda is revealed (Part I)
By Dr. Michael J.K.
Bokor
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Folks, the NPP is still focused on condemning the
Mahama-led administration but is unable to give
Ghanaians any clear indication of how it will solve
the country’s challenges of development. There are
hints that the party is unsure how or when to
present its manifesto to Ghanaians.
The reason? Listen to
Peter Mac Manu (campaign manager for
Akufo-Addo):”The party has decided to delay the
release of its manifesto to avoid its being
plagiarized by the governing National Democratic
Congress (NDC)”. Your reaction is as good as mine.
A
sneak peek into that “hidden manifesto" reveals two
main items to tell us what the NPP has up its
sleeves:
1.
A Nana Akufo-Addo government will formalise the
economy by expanding the tax and production base for
all to share its burden and bounties. According to
Dr. Bawumia, in the first year of Akufo-Addo’s
presidency, every Ghanaian would be issued a
National Identity Card to kick-start the process. He
said as a matter of policy, "We will give businesses
who employ fresh graduates tax breaks and create an
enabling environment for the private sector to
flourish by abolishing killer taxes." (See
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/NPP-will-formalize-the-economy-for-all-Bawumia-444932).
2.
Akufo-Addo said elsewhere that “a Nana Akufo-Addo
government from 2017 would focus on expanding
industry and modernising Ghana’s agriculture”,
adding that: “These are going to be the main themes
for the next four years.” According to him, this
twin-track of rapid industrial expansion and
increase of agricultural productivity is what will
generate the hundreds of thousands of jobs that the
teeming masses of unemployed Ghanaian youth
need.(See
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Work-hard-to-change-this-gov-t-Nana-Addo-to-supporters-444961).
Folks, that is the framework of the NPP’s agenda for
developing Ghana if its plea for the voting down of
the John Mahama-led administration is heeded by the
electorate on November 7. Anything new for Ghanaians
to enthuse over? I don’t see it. Maybe, the
impulsive urge to restore allowances (for teacher
and nursing trainees) or to not impose taxes on
pensions and allowances or any other aspect?
We
will discuss these agenda later; but for now, we
turn attention to what we consider as the roadblock
that the NPP is erecting for itself. In the past two
days, two of its prominent members have given us
cause to wonder whether all is well with that
political camp; or whether they are still wrapped
around their “all-die-be-die” agenda to use
scaremongering as their main political tool. They
are refusing to turn a new leaf to use decent
methods for politicking and continue to invoke
violence instead. Here are two new instances:
1.
OPERATION LET-THE-BLOOD-FLOW
Maxwell Kofi Jumah has declared an “operation
let-the-blood-flow” as part of mechanisms to prevent
rigging in the upcoming presidential elections. He
is therefore advising the opposition NPP to forget
about campaigning, printing of T-shirts and be
vigilant by employing violent tactics to prevent the
ruling government from rigging the elections.
In an interview with Kwame
Tutu (the “Morning Show” host on Rainbow Radio
87.5FM), Jumah said, it will be a waste of time for
the NPP to embark on serious campaigns when the NDC
and the EC are planning to hand over victory to
President Mahama on a silver platter. According to
him, “the NPP is winning the elections at all cost;
therefore, they will employ all means possible to
protect the ballot”. (See
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/2016-polls-Jumah-hints-of-operation-let-the-blood-flow-445222).
Certainly, a huge cloud of paranoia is hanging over
this NPP camp, which is making it difficult for it
to do proper political mobilization and win the
goodwill of the electorate. Jumah’s choice of
militancy, when there is no need for it, is a clear
manifestation of the doom-gloom atmosphere. If he
and those blowing this useless hot air think that
they can roll up their sleeves to cause trouble,
they should know that they are nothing but pesky
bugs to be squashed. Doing so within the confines of
the law is simple. No elaboration here.
2.
NPP TO DECLARE ELECTION RESULTS
Peter Mac Manu, the NPP’s campaign manager, is
reported to have said that the NPP will establish
its own election-monitoring enclave with the sole
purpose of announcing election results ahead of the
official declaration by the Electoral Commission. As
such, the NPP is poised to do as it likes because it
is certain that Election 2016 is a done deal for
Akufo-Addo. (See
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/NPP-will-declare-2016-election-results-Mac-Manu-445397).
In
a rather bizarre about-turn, this Mac Manu is now
saying that he instead said his party was going to
collate their results in along with the EC. In an
interview with Citi News, he clarified his
statements in Takoradi saying, “We are going to
collate our own parallel results, what we call
parallel vote tabulation.” (See
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/I-said-we-ll-collate-results-alongside-EC-Mac-Manu-445480).
As
we have already seen from our monitoring of the
rhetoric on Election 2016, the NPP has widely and
wildly taken to social media and the mass media in
Ghana to present itself as a better alternative for
the incumbent. As it did before Election 2012—taking
a two-year head-start advantage in campaigning but
ending up reaping the whirlwind of the wind that it
had sown all along—so is it doing now. Its energy is
being dissipated more on arm-twisting tactics,
threatening to cause mayhem and harping on issues
that don’t add value to itself; issues that scare
the electorate and set the stage for a repetition of
its Election 2012 woes.
Rather interestingly, its Akufo-Addo is jumping from
one spot to the other in the international arena
where Ghanaians are, accentuating his hatred for the
Mahama-led administration without telling Ghanaians
what he has to solve problems that he is effusively
criticizing as evidence of the incumbent’s failures.
Ghanaians may be complaining about hardships but
they won’t tolerate violence as a means to put
Akufo-Addo in power. That is why all the threatening
going on will not work well for the NPP. It is clear
that the NPP camp has lost its bearing, which
explains why just anybody at all therein can make
any pronouncement at all without regard to law and
order. Such rogue politics won’t put Akufo-Addo in
power.
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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Mohammed Ali, a personal
note remembered
Commentary, June
05, Ghanadot
- For my part, I kept the memory. It
told me something about myself, my counjtry and my
world at a young age, even
if it was of the personal kind. I got the
opportunity to persuade the man who shook the world.. ....More
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GOVT WITHDREW
THE HYBRID BILL
Commentary, June
06, Ghanadot - Clearly, we are faced with a
muddling through decision process, with
something drawn from the garbage can again to
hoodwink us; but with certainty on the part of
some of us that they don't really know what they
are doing. . . .....More
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Democracy and
accountability under attack in today’s Ghana
Commentary, June 07,
Ghanadot - We have got to be better than this. By 2008 we
had the distinction of being a country with one of
the highest indices of press freedom in the world.
Today, we are discussing the possibility of social
media being blocked for the upcoming elections. Is
this real? We are falling into the embrace of
Uganda, Congo Brazzaville and God forsaken Chad? Do
we have a constitution that guarantees universal
freedom of expression or don't we? ....More
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Tarzan asks: Who is afraid of Charlotte Osei?
Commentary, June 07, Ghanadot
- The
November 7 date was pushed by the political
party representatives (including the NPP) on the
Electoral Reform Committee set up by the EC
after the 2012 December elections. Like most
reforms proposed by the political parties, the
EC agreed to the November 7 date. Why is the EC
being vilified for simply implementing a
proposal made by the political parties?
.....More
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