The 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged Ghanaians not to pay heed to the skeptics who have always made it a point to bastardise policies and programmes announced by him.
According to Nana Akufo-Addo, “anytime I bring an idea, my political opponents will say ‘he cannot do it’, only to turn round, use the backdoor, and try to implement it.”
The NPP leader explained that “this talk of ‘it can’t be done’, anytime a new idea is proposed by me, is not one that bothers me. It is those who have no vision or clue of how to develop policies to help the Ghanaian people who peddle such stories. These people, clearly, have no business in leadership.”
Nana Akufo-Addo made this known on the final day of his tour of the Central Region on Monday, June 20, when he paid a courtesy call on the Sarkin Zongo of Winneba, Chief Sulemana Salaga, on his tour of the Effutu constituency.
Reiterating his commitment to the establishment of the Zongo Development Fund, Nana Akufo-Addo urged the residents of Winneba Zongo not to be sidetracked into believing that this pledge cannot be fulfilled, citing examples of policies he introduced in the past, which was described by “experts” and political opponents as not doable.
“When I said I was going to implement the Free SHS policy, Mahama said it cannot be done. But, later he turned around and tried to implement it,” he said.
Again, the NPP flagbearer noted that “the same way I proposed the Northern Development Authority to help the three Northern Regions, so as to help bridge the developmental gap between the North and South, there was the usual talk of ‘it cannot be done’, ‘he can’t do it’. Again, he (President Mahama) tried, through the creation of SADA, to implement my idea. He failed woefully at it.”
Nana Akufo-Addo, therefore, urged Ghanaians not to be hoodwinked by this propaganda, as it is a clear evidence of persons who have no vision of how to bring progress to Ghana.
According to him, “it is only a good leader who can spot the problems and propose policies to solve the problems to the benefit of Ghanaians.”
Ignore the anti-Moslem propaganda
In this election year, Nana Akufo-Addo admonished residents to be wary of the anti-Moslem propaganda that will be waged against the NPP by appointees and functionaries of the NDC.
“As usual they will come with their usual politics of ‘NPP does not like Moslems’, but I am urging you to ignore them. In 8 years of President Kufuor, nothing was done to indicate that we did not like Moslems. Under my tenure of office, nothing of that sort will be done,” he assured.
He explained that if he or the NPP did not like Moslems, there is no way that he would have selected Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to be his running mate, just as all other flagbearers of the NPP before him had selected Moslems as their running mates, including the late Alhaji Aliu Mahama, Vice President to President Kufuor.
“This is all propaganda. Do not listen to them, and, also, urge the young men and women under your care to ignore such talk. Let us vote for the person and party who can do the work and bring wealth and prosperity to the people,” he added.
An Akufo-Addo government, he added, will also reintroduce the payment of allowances to Islamic instructors, which were in existence under the Kufuor government, but had been scrapped by the Mahama government.
“Because of the good management of the economy by President Kufuor, he was able to pay these allowances. However, they have been cancelled by President Mahama because of the mismanagement of the economy. When I win the elections, I will reintroduce it,” he added.
In concluding, he urged the Zongo community in Winneba to be mindful of the fact that “the hardship and poverty that has drenched the entire country does not only affect the Zongo community, or Christians. It is affecting all of us in Ghana. So those who come to you in the name of politics of division must be ignored. Those kinds of politicians are not after your welfare. I am here to do a job for all Ghanaians so we bring progress to all.”
