6-Years Of NDC: A Complete Disaster

The last six years of the National Democratic Congress government has been described as a complete disaster and a reversal of the socio-economic forward march of the nation.

Views sampled among a cross-section of Ghanaians indicate that the majority are in a consensus that the NDC as a political grouping has always been a disaster whenever it is entrusted with the management of the affairs of the nation, with the last six years being the worst in the nation's government history.

Others particularly find it ridiculous the spirited attempt by President John Dramani Mahama and his functionaries to distance themselves from the first four-year record of the NDC government, with spurious claims that the government has been in office for only two years.

General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, wants Ghanaians to understand the fact that the current NDC administration is now in its seventh year in office and so must be assessed based upon its record in the last six years.

Also, NPP National Youth Organiser, Sammy Awuku, does not understand why some journalists would join President Mahama and his functionaries in seeking to deceive the masses into believing that they have been in office for only two years.

“It is only a lazy journalist who will say that President Mahama has spent two years at the Presidency,” he charged on Peace FM yesterday.

"Was Dr. Omane Boamah not in government from 2009? Was Okudzeto Ablakwa not in government from 2009? Were they not in government? Or at that time, was it an independent government that was in power?” Mr Awuku further questioned.

Indeed, this sits well with President Mahama's own statement at the 2012 Presidential Debate orgainsed by the Institute of Economic Affairs.

"The NDC government has done a lot in four years. Our constitution gives presidents two terms. Take it that I am the spare driver or caretaker. Prof. Mills, of blessed memory, started the process and I am finishing his unexpired term. I believe the NDC government deserves a second term to be able to build on the foundation that it has laid in these four years,” Mr Mahama told the nation ahead of the 2012 general elections.

In an interview with the New Statesman, Mr Kwabena Agyepong could not understand why a government that in 2012 asked for another term to build upon a so-called foundation it had laid in the previous four years could now look Ghanaians in the face and claim they have spent just two years in office in building a foundation for the national economy.

“To tell the nation that the entire six years was used in building this rickety foundation, in itself, is a clear self-admission of complete waste of precious time and resources of the country,” Mr Agyepong stated.

In an earlier interview on AdomTv, the NPP General Secretary noted that the last six years of the NDC administration had been characterized by massive corruption and systematic loot of the nation's resources, gross incompetence and mismanagement and lack of clear direction for the nation's development.

He described the government as the luckiest in the nation's history, in terms of the quantum of resources at its disposal, and insisted that the people cannot see the level of development that matches the resources dissipated by the government.

“We shall hold their feet to the fire and make sure Ghanaians are aware of how the country's resources are being used,” Mr Agyepong stated.

Touching on the oil revenue, he said that the government had refused to be transparent with the actual revenues being generated from the oil exploration and how much had accrued to the Heritage Fund.

He stated that the Mahama-led NDC administration “has been a government of failed promises” and “is only interested in elections instead of the management of the economy”.

During their press conference last week, the Minority in Parliament also showed with clear evidence how the NDC administration had been a disaster in the management of the national economy.

Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Minority Leader, explained that at the time the previous NDC government was leaving office in 2001, the GDP growth rate of the country was 3.7%. The New Patriotic Party, under former President Kufuor, grew it to 8.4% at the time of leaving office in 2009.

Inheriting an economy growing at 8.4%, without oil, on its return to power in 2009, the NDC, now under the leadership of President Mahama, has, however, reduced the economic growth to a projected 3.9% in 2015.

The Minority noted with regret that the last six years saw the cedi being declared the worst performing currency in the whole world, having suffered about 200% depreciation within the period. In the 8-year NPP administration, under former President Kufuor, the cedi depreciated by 53%.

From an interest rate of 25 per cent, the NDC government, under the presidency of Mr Mahama, has pushed the rate to 30%, even though the previous NPP government reduced it to 25%, from the 42% it inherited from the previous NDC government.