I am writing in response to an article written by Mr. Ennin Boaffour explaining why Ghana should give the NPP four years to continue with their economic and political mess. First I would like to state that the article is not worthy of any serious analysis, and for that matter, response. Because it lacks facts and objectivity that is needed for those purposes.
If I had seen that piece in any other paper, I wouldn't have worried myself at all rejoining it. However, the ghanaweb page has become one of the important websites as far as news and other information about ghana are concern.
Believe it or not, I have received several emails from many people, some of whom foreigners seeking information about Ghana. Those people had my email through the various writings I had posted on the ghanaweb page. It is therefore important that even if we are going to expose our partisants stands, which most of us are guilty of doing, we should endeviour to have our facts right before we engage in that enterprise.
For if we fail to be factually correct, we may not only be miseducating ourselves, but also misleading many people. One of the factual errors in Mr Ennin's article is that he put togather the PNDC regime and NDC government as if the two are the same. The PNDC and NDC are not the same both in terms of character and personal. The PNDC ruled between 31st 1981 until the time the 1992 constitution came in to effect. The PNDC is a military regime, several members of the PNDC joined other parties including the NPP (NPP's minister of agricultural Quashiga) when the ban on politcal parties was lifted some where in 1991.
The NDC ruled Ghana for 8 (1992-200) years and not 20 years as Ennin would want the whole world to believe. Therefore Mr. Ennin is dead on this. He also made several claims that he did subsentiate with facts. He claimed that the NPP is working hard on the economy. Mr. Ennin, where are the facts to prove your case? Have you compared the economic achievements of both parties? sure you didn't, because if you had, you would not have made such a fallacious statement. Here are some facts for you, since the NPP become to office about 4 years ago, the price of fuel have gone up 2 hundred percent, the price of cememt went up 150 percent, even price of Kenkey, Accra's feverate dish went up 100 percent. So where is the NPP hard work. Not only have prices of basic things in Ghana wantonly went up to the detriment of poor Ghanaians, but this is the most economically enerpt government in the annals of Ghanaians history. They came to power without any viable economic plan. After power was handed over to them, they had on option but to run to the Brotton Woods institutions (World Bank and INF) for economic strategy. They rushed in to accepting HIPC without carefully assessing the economic implications on Ghanaians. Now, after 4 years of HIPC we were told that even if we reach the decision point, we are not going to get a subsential debt relief. Recently, the UN made an assessement of the HIPC innitiative and concluded that HIPC will have very little if any effect on the development of the countries that accepted it.
Mr Ennin also shameless claim that NPP did better in promoting democracy in Ghana, forgetting that the very constitution that is now operational in country was enacted and signed for by the very people he claimed to be conspiraltist and murderers. Can Mr. Ennin tell me a single institution that strength during the 4 years NPP? There is abolutely not a single one. The only thing that was strengthened was the walls of Mr. Kuffour's house. Institutions of democracy such as the courts, Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, and the Serious Fraud Office were all politicized and made purpets of the NPP. The NDC may be bad, but at least during the NDC regime, the NPP won two landmark case, a clear case in point was the 31st December celebration, and the NPP vrs GBC on campaign broadcast. The NDC never appointed judges to the superior courts just reverse an earlier decision. Although it has an interest in those cases. On the hand the NPP undermined the whole judicial process when they quickly appointed favourable judges just to reverse an earlier decision against their government in case of Tsakata vrs the fast track court. Subsequently, they proceeded to chunck the supreme court with pro-NPP judges. This is clear case of attempts by the NPP to undermine the independence of judiciary and hense our democratic experiment. During the NDC regime, CHRAJ investigated Ibrahim Adams, Osei Ofusu, and others for corruption. Today the same institution could not investigate Bamba for corrupt practices, it can not investigate Dr Apreku for using state funds to refurnish his campaign offices, and it can not ask the president why he used public funds to renovate his home. Is this improvement on our democracy? certainly not.
Even institutions such the UN are begining to report on the decay of the social and economic situation in Ghana.
According to the 2004 UN human development index, Ghana dropped from number 127, which it held many years to number 177. That is 50 points drop just in the spate of 4 years. Our health care is deteriorating, deseases such guine worm that were long eradicated have began reemerging. It took the former US president, Jimmy Carter to remain the NPP goverment of the outbreak of the desease. Anti-corruption organisation are now ranking us close to countries such as Nigeria. I will turn my attention to campaign promises, since bane of any political party is the extent to which it was able to keep faith with it electors. The NPP have consistently failed to honour any of its campaign promises.
1. They promise Ghanaians 100,000 jobs every year, they failed.
2. They promised to abolish the Cash and Carry system, they failed.
3. They promised free education, they are now privatizating education and asking University Students to pay full cost.
4. They were against the IMF and World Bank while in opposition, today they are the darlings of those institutions. Finance Minister Osafo-Marfo was even awarded the best reformer, even though he could not distingush between a supplier's credit and loan agreement. He also supervised the largest loan scams in Ghanaian history. Mr. Ennin, so how many time do you want the NPP to lye to you before you notice? To some of us 4 years is enough, we can not afford more.
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