The pot has resorted to calling the kettle black again. President Akufo-Addo has mischievously decided to hoodwink Ghanaians to shed off his personal inconsistencies and flip flopping and hang them on John Mahama unsuccessfully at Bibiani over the weekend. On a campaign tour to the Western North region last week, Akufo-Addo realizing the region is a stronghold of the opposition National Democratic Congress decided to try his usual deception to turn the people against their preferred choice but to no avail.
Specifically Akufo-Addo launched attack on the NDC flag bearer and his party for opposing the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme in 2003, the introduction of his haphazard Free SHS among others. Akufo~ Addo however, mischievously failed to tell exactly what the NDC’s issues were with those policies and what remedies the party has brought or promised to formulate to remedy the ills identified in them.
Akufo-Addo’s inconsistency has always been well documented. It was Akufo-Addo who led a bloody demonstration dubbed ‘Kume Preko’ against the introduction of the Value Added Tax in 1995 and stalled its implementation until his rebellion was defeated with sound reason for the VAT implementation in 1998. Years later the VAT that he opposed became a major source of income when he came to government in 2001.
Today that VAT is what he has increased to raise funds for his sakawa family and friends projects. The VAT underpins the GETFUND which he collateralized for needless loans.
Akufo~Addo again promised Ghanaians desperately to build 350 Senior High Schools in the first 18 months of his administration. He has not delivered them four years into his tenure and has turned to ananse stories to justify his failure. This is not flip flop by sakawa standards!
Failing to investigate and prosecute the stinking PDS scandal which he fraudulently visited on the people, made money from and banished it into hiding is not only dishonest but illogical. A consistent man in this case should have gone ahead to cut off the snake’s head when he kills it. In Nana Addo’s case the head of the PDS snake is left for it to hopefully revive.
Perhaps the most ludicrous inconsistency must be the 2020 NPP Manifesto show in Cape Coast. A day to the outdooring of that worthless manifesto, Akufo-Addo granted interview on ATL Fm where he categorically said the government cannot construct an airport in Cape Coast simply because residents have requested for it. He further noted that the decision to construct such an edifice ought to follow laid down processes including feasibility studies.
However, in less than 24-hours the President’s vice Bawumia promised during the manifesto launch that the people of Cape Coast can be assured of their own airport and harbor if the NPP wins the December polls. So this is a consistent man who put a policy in a document to be presented to the people but went ahead to tell the same people he did not plan anything like that. It must be hallucination at best.
The flip flopping as a character is in the DNA of Akufo-Addo himself. The Akufo-Addo government flipped in announcing this year as year of roads because it said there was a Sino-Hydro loan coming only to flop in delivering the roads. Even the Paramount chief of Tumu Richard Babini Kanto IV recently exposed this inconsistency to the face of Bawumia to convey to Akufo-Addo.
“Your excellency this time around all we want to see is action and no longer assurances because the road is a major deciding factor in this December polls,” the chief said in condemnation of the inconsistent promises made by the government to his people which he found out were not even captured in the last budget of the government.
In what will become the defining evidence of flip flopping by him, Akufo-Addo announced in December, 2019, all depositors of the banks he and his cousin Ofori Atta collapsed would be paid by the end of 2019. Nothing happened; it appeared to be a funny presidential joke that unsuspecting citizens took serious. Having failed to pay as promised, the next announcement of the government on the issue came seven months later when the receiver of collapsed banks, Eric Nana Nipah of KPMG, proclaimed on Citi Fm that all affected depositors shall be paid by 31st July, 2020. Nothing of the sort happened until September when John Mahama firmly promised to pay all affected depositors within a year.
Interestingly, the government that was issuing 5 year bonds suddenly found cash to pay depositors instantly. If this is not flip flop, one can imagine what it should be.
In June this year, in one of his fellow Ghanaian addresses, the inconsistent President announced to the whole nation that he was going to build 88 regional and district hospitals this year. His cousin surprisingly went to parliament later to contradict him saying the 88 hospitals cannot be built this year. Earlier in the year when the covid pandemic entered Ghana, the same President announced he has provided USD100million to fight it. A week later his cousin in charge of Finance appeared in parliament to say that money did not exist but rather parliament should approve borrowing money from outside sources.
The Free SHS he claimed Mahama opposed was already started by Mahama in a progressively sensible way, targeting the most critical aspects first.
This was contemplated by the finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta on Citi Tv early into the desperate implementation of Akufo-Addo’s catastrophic version which threw the country’s education system into chaos. Ofori Atta in subtly admitting they have goofed suggested the rich be made to pay for their wards fees while the policy targets the poor.
Many sound voices appealed to the President to take a second look at the manner of its implementation but he remained adamant. Instead of heeding to sound advice, he plunged the program into a further absurdity, introducing the double track system. Only God knows if he will not bring triple track if he is allowed another term.
For the Health Insurance Scheme, the people will be wondering if it is working under Akufo-Addo. His claim of paying all debts owed to health service providers has always been disputed. We should be wondering on what basis Akufo-Addo wants credit for a program he is gradually killing.
His claim that the NDC opposed NHIS in 2003 is not true. Indeed the NDC piloted the program in Tema in the 90s. From the pilot they learned useful lessons which they warned the Kuffuor government about with the intentionof making it better for Ghanaians.
As for Mahama’s free primary health care, Akufo-Addo recognizes it as a game changer, and had to bastadize it to reduce its effect on the December polls.
Mahama recognizes that a healthy nation is a productive one so primary health must be the concern of all.
Even Akufo-Addo claimed he has implemented Free SHS, something he had no policy framework for, how much more a well-researched and thoroughly considered primary health care requested by the people?
Akufo-Addo can continue flip flopping and attribute it to Mahama; by 10th December, 2020, the coin will be flipped then he will see who will flop on the ground.
By Cyril Duodu & Attractive Mustapha / Disclaimer: Opinions published on this website do not represent the views of Daily Mail GH
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