Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has said the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has worked hard as a government under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and are committed to continuing to serve the good people of Ghana.
Dr Bawumia believes the party will have to necessarily break the eight years governance cycle in order to protect its efforts, vision and legacy. However, he stated that this agenda will not be easy.
“It has not been done before in our history but I believe that if we are united, we will break the eight. United we stand, divided we fall. Our success will depend on how well we conduct ourselves going forward; a strong united party with a focus on highlighting our successes while countering the desperate, misleading and misguided NDC propaganda. Rather than taking down each other, we must focus on taking down the NDC who will be a disaster for this country” he advised.
The Vice President made these remarks at the annual National Delegates Conference of the NPP last Sunday in Kumasi, Ashanti region.
The Conference was on the theme: “Our Resolve, Our Determination and Commitment to Ghana’s Development”.
Solid record
Without any hesitation, Dr Mahamudu said the NPP has a solid record of achievement in the Fourth Republic and has become the most important driver of the Ghanaian vision and development agenda.
He emphasized that the NPP led government has been responsible for the most important policies which in his view touch every Ghanaian in every corner of the nation, mentioning the NHIS, the school feeding program, the free antenatal services, free SHS, the free TVET program etc.
“It is important to acknowledge that we in the NPP have not solved all the problems facing Ghanaians but we have solved many problems and we have a plan we are working to. After-all, we are only in the first year of a four-year mandate which was given to us at the end of last year” he indicated.
COVID-19 economic impact
According to Dr Bawumia, the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the cost of living virtually everywhere in the world including countries like the US, UK, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire, etc and Ghana has similarly been affected.
“So if our performance on the key macroeconomic indicators (inflation, interest rates, depreciation, external reserves, trade balance and jobs) during the worst global pandemic in 100 years is better than your performance without such a pandemic how can you say your economic management is better? he queried the opposition NDC.
Notwithstanding the global economic adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on economic growth, debts and deficits, at the macroeconomic level, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia argued Gross International Reserves are at $10.8 billion (4.9 months of import cover compared to $6.9 billion (3.5 months of import cover) in 2016; for the first time in over 10 decades, the trade balance (the difference between what we export and what we import) recorded a surplus for four consecutive years from 2017 to 2020 and the record of creating over 750,000 jobs is vastly superior to the record of the NDC government which froze public service recruitment.
