Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has entreated Members of Parliament (MPs) of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to continually arm themselves with the “great success stories and achievements” chalked by the Akufo-Addo administration.
This, he stressed, will help dismantle any propaganda and lies churned out by the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Vice President Bawumia also charged the NPP majority caucus to strengthen the bonds between Parliament and the Executive as the two bodies work hand-in-hand to help fulfil the promises made to Ghanaians and further earn their trust to continue governing the nation.
Dr Bawumia made the appeal at a workshop for the Majority Caucus and members of the Executive on Saturday at Mpraeso in the Eastern Region.
Reminding the MPs that they are an integral part of the success of the Executive and by extension the NPP administration, Vice President Bawumia urged them to always remember the key communications role they play and work extra hard to respond appropriately to any attempt to downplay the achievements of the Akufo-Addo administration.
“The propaganda machinery of the NDC will be oiled using their representation in Parliament. Every conceivable government policy or intervention will be furiously attacked. They will question the government’s promises, they will question the government’s achievements and they will question government’s intentions. They will unleash these attacks both on the floor of Parliament and outside the floor.
“There is no better group to respond to these attacks, to set the records straight and to match them ‘Boot-for-Chalewote’ than the Majority Caucus of Parliament. Fortunately, we have enthusiastic leaders and members of the Majority Caucus and what is needed is the requisite cooperation and exchanges between you and the Executive,” he indicated.
Reducing Suffering
Listing over 50 policies, programmes and social interventions introduced over the past four and half years designed to reduce the suffering of the citizenry, Vice President Bawumia emphasized that the NPP government continues to do a sterling job with the limited resources at hand.
He urged the MPs and all-party communicators to arm themselves with the facts to enable the telling of the good stories.
“We need to tell our story. We need to let Ghanaians know how we have been able to reduce, not completely eliminated, but reduced the hardships. The hardships were there before we came into office in 2017, but we have done so much. This is an area we should not shy away from.
“In the area of social interventions, our Government has been just marvellous. I can list at least 50 policies and interventions that we have made to reduce suffering of our people. NABCO for the graduate unemployed, 50% of all operators at the toll booths are persons with disability, Ghs2m each for the Presidential Empowerment of Women and Men with Disability, clearance of goods at the port through the paperless system has been made much easier and reduced so much suffering of importers.
“We have managed the exchange rate to an extent that it is the lowest depreciation for the first term of any government in the Fourth Republic. Today drivers who want to get licenses find it very easy. You can easily renew your NHIS on your phone, easily get a passport, students are no longer paying utility bills, no more guarantors for student loans, scholarships have increased by 70%. We have reduced and abolished 15 separate taxes. Even Kayayei have benefited; we have eliminated the daily Ghs1 toll they used to pay.
“We have restored Teacher and Nursing Trainee allowances, and currently there is no backlog of nurses who have finished and are sitting at home, but before they were sitting at home for four years. Today there is no backlog.
“Today if you are a pensioner, 10 days after you go on pension, you can start receiving your pension benefits.
“In addition to all of this, you have Free SHS, and Free TVET. These are all policies that we can sit down and enumerate and show how we as a government have reduced suffering. We have not eliminated suffering, it is continuously going to be a work in progress, but we can say with all confidence that we have done the best with the resources at hand, to reduce the suffering.
Facts
Vice President Bawumia further charged MPs and party communicators to engage in public discourses based on facts and not propaganda.
“In your discourses in Parliament and outside of Parliament, you should not only be interested in having your way. Your way should be based on facts. The minority is entitled to their opinion but they are not and cannot be entitled to their own facts.
“With the right set of facts, you are expected to challenge the NDC’s propaganda and educate Ghanaians on NPP’s sterling economic performance to an end of establishing, as a matter of fact, that the NPP administration has managed the economy better.”
Difference between NPP and opposition
According to Vice President Bawumia, it is important, to delineate the clear difference between the NPP and the opposition in the area of governance and the management of the economy.
“We have carved a niche and reputation as a political tradition with ideas for the development of the country. The expectations of objective Ghanaians of the NPP are totally different from their expectations of the NDC. It falls back on the Majority Caucus and the Executive to carry Ghanaians along,” he stressed.
Don’t allow NDC to deceive Ghanaians with lies-Annoh-Dompreh
On his part, the Majority Chief Whip and MP for Nsawam/Adoagyiri in the Eastern Region, Frank Annoh-Dompreh tasked his colleague MPs
and party members not to allow the NDC to deceive Ghanaians with lies.
According to him, “The NDC will come in their numbers in an attempt to sway and collapse the foundation of our set policies which they cannot
formulate. They will adopt crooked strategies and cook up unbalanced lies to meet their unrealistic and achievable expectations”.
He said NDC’s alternative is empty and embarrassing and said Ghana deserves a better opposition.
Mr Annoh-Dompreh pointed out that the Akufo-Addo led government’s impact on the lives of the ordinary Ghanaian would vindicate the NPP.
“For unlike them, we are more than competent to create, sustain, and propel the visions and aspirations of Ghana onto higher heights when we put our minds and bodies to the task”, he added.
