The National Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddie Blay has described as empty and unconvincing the recently launched manifesto of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Mr. Blay says the promises in the NDC manifesto are unrealistic and a ploy to lure unsuspecting Ghanaians to vote for them in the December polls.
“If you look critically at the NDC manifesto, it is empty, a rehash of old promises in their manifestos of 2008, 2012 and 2016. It does not reflect the reality on the ground.”
The NDC on Monday, September 7, 2020, launched its manifesto dubbed the “People’s Manifesto” with a litany of promises to fulfil if it wins the election.
The NDC in its 2020 manifesto among other things, promised to extend the free Senior High School (SHS) policy to private schools in deprived areas.
The party also promised to absorb 50 percent of fees for all tertiary students across the country as well as maintain the Nation Builders’ Corps (NABCo) established by the governing New Patriotic Party.
But Mr. Blay says these promises already exist.
“John Mahama and the NDC are talking about maintaining free SHS and NABCo. Are these not the same people who bastardised the free SHS policy and run a series of campaign against it? Is this not the same NDC who criticized NABCo and said it was a populist programme aimed at attracting votes? Now they want to maintain it in the unlikely event they win the election of 2020”.
He added that “we can’t trust John Mahama and the NDC. They plunged this country into darkness for four years. We endured dumsor and it was God’s grace that Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP came to rescue Ghanaians. This same John Mahama was President when nurses and teacher trainee allowances were scrapped, today it has been restored. What shows that he will not cancel it if he comes back’?” Freddie Blay asked.
The NDC in its manifesto also promised to build an airport in the Upper East Region if it wins the election.
But Mr. Blay says this promise is an afterthought adding that: “this promise of an airport in Bolga was not part of their manifesto. They had to put it in there after the NPP under the competent leadership of Nana Akufo-Addo promised to build an airport in Cape Coast”.
Freddie Blay is of the view that the NPP under Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia has performed better than any government in its first term.
“In our first term we brought Free SHS which people said was not possible. In our first term a number of factories have been built which many people said was not possible. In our first term over 300 dams have been constructed in the five regions of the North that people said was not possible. The economy is strong and resilient and another four years will transform our dear country,” he added.
