'Rendition of failed promises'

Frontpage, Feb 26, 2010
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Minority in Parliament has described the State of the Nation Address which President Mills delivered to the House yesterday as “a rendition of catalogued failed promises”.
For the one hour and 10 minutes that the President used to deliver his 24-page message, the Minority gave him a taste of the heckling and jeering that sometimes characterised debates in the House.
But it was the President’s sense of humour and display of tolerance that saw him through the address which, according to the Minority, was not what they had expected to hear from him.
“Where is the money in our pockets?” they questioned him intermittently to remind him of the promise he allegedly made during the campaign period of the 2008 general election.
The trick seemed to have worked, as the President gave an instant answer, denying that he ever made such a promise during the campaign which brought the National Democratic Congress (NDC) back to power.
On another occasion, President Mills responded by saying that those who criticised him for being slow should do him a favour by adding “but sure”, drawing hilarious laughter from the packed audience which had filled both the Press and the Public galleries.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic soon after adjournment, the Deputy Minority Leader, Mr Ambrose Dery, said ìt was surprising that the President still seemed to be in a campaign mood.
He said last year President Mills had stood before the House to give a litany of promises which could not be fulfilled and said it was unfortunate that he could not realise the disservice that he had done to his administration.
“Ghanaians need action and not vain promises,” Mr Dery said, and noted that notwithstanding the usual assurances to reconcile the nation, the President’s silence on some actions by people near him had rather muddied the waters.
He said the constant lambasting of the Minority by the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Mr Koku Anyidoho, had not helped to bridge the gap between the government and the Minority, saying the Minority was disappointed that Anyidoho had not been called to book.
A former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Joe Ghartey, noted that a substantial part of the address was a repetition of last year’s.
He wondered why the President had now taken a U-turn over some of the issues the NDC opposed when it was in opposition and referred to the comment in the address in which President Mills said the NDC had not opposed the passage of the Representation of the People Amendment Act (ROPAA) when it was in opposition.
Mr Ghartey also wondered why the President was now running away from the NDC campaign promise to put money into the pockets of Ghanaians now that he had been given the mandate to rule the country.
He asked people to be wary of the promises of politicians and make their choices during elections based on issues to ensure the growth of the country’s democracy.
The NPP MP for Evalue-Dwira, Mrs Catherine Abelema Afeku, said she was disappointed that the President had not been able to fulfil his promise to ensure 40 per cent women representation in all aspects of governance.
She said she was disappointed that President Mills could not take advantage of his recent Cabinet reshuffle to correct that anomaly, adding that she became more disappointed when the President failed to mention a single issue about women in his address.
Mrs Afeku stated that a sense of insecurity was gradually creeping into the country, explaining that the hitherto serene atmosphere in which people were not afraid to express their opinions was gradually fading out.
For the NPP MP for Subin, Mr Isaac Osei, the President’s assertion that the state of the nation was good was not right, since the picture he (the President) had painted was actually not the one on the ground.
“May be he is now too far from the people and does not actually know what Ghanaians are saying,” he said, adding that the mere shouting of slogans such as “so far so better” would not put money in the pockets of the people and food on their tables.
What the NPP MP for Okere, Mr Dan Botwe, could say was, “My brother, Ghanaians want action and not words. We have seen what the government was not able to deliver during the past one year. Ghanaians deserve better and we expect the President to fulfil his promises, instead of building castles in the air.”
But some NDC MPs disagreed with the assertions by their colleagues in the Minority and said the address had touched on all aspects of the socio-economic life of the people.
The NDC MP for Adenta, Mr Kwadwo Adu-Asare, said the address gave hope to the youth in the country, saying the initiatives outlined, particularly in the agricultural sector, would provide jobs for them.
He said for once Ghana’s rice imports had been reduced and would continue to reduce because of the sound policies put in place by the government, explaining that that was a sure way of putting money into the pockets of the youth and reducing the country’s import bill.
Mr Adu-Asare noted that the emphasis on finding a solution to the perennial water problem facing some communities in the country was good news, especially so because of the acute water shortage that his constituency had been experiencing since time immemorial.
The NDC MPs for Juaboso and Odododiodoo, Messrs Sampson Ahi and Jonathan Nii Tackie-Comme, respectively, said Ghanaians had now seen the difference between the NDC and the NPP, adding that notwithstanding the bad state of the economy which the NDC inherited from the NPP, the former had been able to put the country back on the path of growth within a relatively short time.
He, therefore, called for patience on the part of the people to enable the government to continue to put measures in place to fix the economy.