A pressure group, Concerned Voters Movement(CVM) has urged Ghanaians to be patient with President Nana Akufo-Addo as he is committed to fixing the socio-economic problems that he inherited from the John Mahama administration.
“It is important to point out that, majority of the problems that people are putting pressure on Akufo-Addo’s Government to fix were the problems caused by the incompetence of John Mahama’s Government”, the group stated.
CVM in a statement signed by its Founder and President, Mr Razak Kojo Opoku noted that President Akufo-Addo has fixed many of the problems he inherited from former President Mahama in his first term.
The statement said the President is on course in fixing the rest of the problems in his second term.
“We would like to appeal to Ghanaians to be patient with Akufo-Addo’s Government for they are capable and committed to addressing all the problems in the Country one after the other,” Mr Razak Kojo Poku stated.
According to him, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government under President Akufo-Addo has done so well in the following areas,
1. To help reduce unemployment in Ghana by creating millions of jobs for Ghanaians under programmes, policies and initiatives such as NABCo, One District, One Factory; NEIP, MASLOC, YEA, Planting for food and jobs, Rearing for food and jobs, One Constituency One Ambulance, Business Resource Centres, recruitment of thousands of nurses and other health professionals, recruitment of thousands of teachers, and employment of permanent staff at the various State Institutions and Government Agencies.
2. Abolishment of over 16 killer Taxes that were introduced by Mahama’s Government.
3. Solved the problem of five years prolonged Dumsor under Mahama’s Government which resulted in the collapsing of thousands of businesses, loss of jobs, and investments.
Currently, there is an ongoing routine maintenance and replacement of old equipment aimed at finding lasting solutions to the energy challenges in Ghana.
4. Solved the banking/financial crisis. Under Mahama’s Government, the whole banking and financial industry completely collapsed. Through the prudent and competent management of President Akufo-Addo’s Government, over GHC21 billion spent to clean up and saved the banking and the financial industry, this patriotic move by President Akufo-Addo seriously helped to save millions of people’s deposits in the various banks.
The banking/financial sector clean-up has helped to ensure soundness, safety and stability of the financial sector in Ghana.
5. Reduction in the rate of borrowing. Under Akufo-Addo’s Government, Ghana is witnessing the lowest rate of debt accumulation.
The increase in debt stock since President Akufo-Addo took office has been kept under 100% unlike John Mahama’s Administration where the average was kept at 255%.
Under John Mahama’s Government, Ghana was spending over GHC10 billion every month to service the national debt which was more than the amount set aside for Government recurrent expenditure.
6. Galamsey was one of the very serious issues that President Akufo-Addo inherited from Mahama’s Government.
President Akufo-Addo in his first term fully committed himself to addressing the Galamsey issues but sadly John Mahama and NDC were busy urging some vulnerable people to do Galamsey and even promised the Galamsey community that, the NDC would further aid them to continue with the Galamsey if John Mahama comes back to Power. This highly irresponsible conduct of NDC leadership during the 2020 Campaign frustrated the efforts of President Akufo-Addo in the fight against Galamsey.
Fast forward to 2021, President Akufo-Addo once again has fully committed his Government to address the Galamsey issues once and for all.
7. Several kilometres of Roads, major interchanges, and railway infrastructure are under construction and at various stages of completion under Akufo-Addo’s Government.
In fact, President Akufo-Addo’s Government is second to none when it comes to roads and railway lines infrastructure. These roads under construction are evenly distributed across the Country.
8. Allowances for Teachers and Nursing trainees which were cancelled by Mahama’s Administration have been fully restored by Akufo-Addo’s Government.
9. The National Identification Project (Ghana Card) which was abandoned by Mills/Mahama’s Government has been fully implemented by the Akufo-Addo’s Government.
10. Akufo-Addo’s Government has formalized the Ghanaian economy through Digitalization and Digitization policies.
There was none of such policies during the era of NDC Administration.
Several benefits have been made from the digitalization and digitization projects of Akufo-Addo’s Government including but not limited to Mobile Money Interoperability, Paperless Port, Digital Address System, Zipline Medical Drone System, digital 5/90 Lottery Platform 959, etc.
11. Akufo-Addo’s Government has ensured the proper and effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis through the free distribution of water and electricity to Ghanaians for several months plus making available COVID-19 Vaccines to Ghanaians.
12. Akufo-Addo’s Government has properly and effectively managed the Policy Rate, Inflation rate and other indicators of the economy. Policy rate and inflation rate were 26.4% and 16.4% respectively under John Mahama’s Administration. Now Policy rate and inflation rate under Akufo-Addo’s Government are 14.5% and 10.3% respectively.
13. Akufo-Addo’s Government has further enriched our multi-party democracy and freedom of speech through the passage of The Right to Information Act 2019(Act 989), and the Act 989 is aimed at deepening press freedom, free speech and free access to information. There is nothing like culture of silence under Akufo-Addo’s Government. Through President Akufo-Addo declaration of “Be Citizens Not Spectators” has given the confidence and total freedom to Ghanaians to freely express their views on national issues and the performance of Akufo-Addo’s Government without fear or favour.
14. Judgement debts which were the avenue for creating, looting and sharing under Mahama’s Government have been totally blocked under Akufo-Addo’s Government.
15. Akufo-Addo’s Government has helped to educate millions of Ghanaian children through the implementation of Free SHS Policy.
The concerns and expectations of Ghanaians are very legitimate but CVM would like to passionately appeal to the conscience of Ghanaians that, President Akufo-Addo is not sleeping on his job, in fact, President Akufo-Addo has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that, he is very committed to addressing the concerns and expectations of Ghanaians.
Let’s support President Akufo-Addo to succeed with our patience and tolerance.