Former President John Dramani Mahama has no better records when it comes to the fight against corruption, the Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buaben Asamoa, has said.
He described Mr Mahama as a walking embodiment of corruption.
He was reacting to criticisms against the President Akufo-Addo by the Presidential candidate of the NDC in last year’s elections. Mr Mahama had said the current President has failed in almost every aspect of the local economy and also in providing good governance.
He also noted that the President’s fight against corruption is not the best.
But addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday November 11, Mr Buaben Asamoa who is also a former Lawmaker for Adentan said “former President Mahama talks about corruption. He is asking Ghana to give him-the walking embodiment of corruption-the mandate to come and fight corruption. His solution to corruption fighting in his critical actions paper of 2012 was that he would lead by example.
“This example had to be investigated by his own President for doubtful Aircraft procurements, is implicated as Government Official One in the Airbus bribery Scandal and signed off on $1.2 billion to deliver a project eventually done for $4.6 million, a difference of 26,000% savings. This example was swallowed by alleged organised judgement debt shenanigans. He can talk about corruption, but he has not the faintest inkling of integrity to combat it.
“His attempt at dealing with employment is totally laughable. Researchers assert that since the NDC collapsed what was left of Dr Nkrumah’s state industries and public service expansion in the 1980’s, it was the NPP under President Kufuor which started active state support of employment creation through the Presidential Special Initiatives and the National Youth Employment Programme. Former President Mahama bastardised these programmes with ghost names and dubious modules leading to flying Guinea Fowls. Graduates were organised under an unemployment umbrella and the IMF stopped him from recruiting.
“In spite of his long stay in power, aspirant Mahama is yet to learn any lessons about public sector finances for job creation. In his speech, he complains about a gap in financing of the public wage bill.
“Then he states the creation of one million jobs in the public sector. How is he going to fund those jobs? Has he so soon forgotten that public sector jobs do not turn a profit but rather facilitate other sectors of the economy? Without clear revenue, how is he to generate and pay three shifts of public sector workers?
“In some ways, the near impossible promises show an unprepared John Mahama selfishly seeking your mandate by exploiting your current difficulties. The issues are real but John Mahama and the NDC are not the solution. The CDD post-election 2020 survey is clear. All told, only 35% of the people surveyed voted for the NDC because of performance. The voter reduction against the NPP was for the NPP to react positively. Therefore, from 60% to 70% of voters expect changes in the NPP style of governance in order to continue to break the eight rather than change to NDC and set us back.
“The NPP Government will continue to respect our democracy. We will continue to respect the will of the people. We will continue to respect the peoples’ rights and support the discharge of their obligations.
“We will continue to respect the dignity of the people. We will continue to push for substantial changes to the world financial architecture so we can also help our people out of distress. We will continue to champion programmes that support the delivery of crucial infrastructure, and create jobs and incomes. We will continue to offer clear visionary leadership that not only diagnoses problems, but seeks to resolve them. We will continue to offer hope and belief in the Ghanaian and Ghana.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana