Fellow Ghanaians Look at the NDC Picture

About two weeks ago, I wrote an article outlining why the NDC should not be voted into power. I titled the article “Fellow Ghanaians see the bigger picture”. I have in this article given details of why their plans will not move Ghana forward and this time, I want you to look at this picture as you line up to vote again on the 28th of December.

As expected, my previous article drew commendations from a section of Ghanaians and also drew condemnation. Some saw my article as treasonous and even questioned my credentials as a PhD even though I failed to see the relevance. What I wrote then was not borne out of malice but stemmed from experience and careful study of the party manifestos and public pronouncements by leading politicians in our country.

I have always viewed the fact that we have two strong political parties, who are almost matched in popularity, as good for Ghana. It means that political parties have to sharpen their game and perform when in office. This point in time though, I have the view that the NDC do not have the solution to Ghana's problems. They have not shown enough contrition for past misdeeds and they still harbour this unexplained dislike for anybody successful.

My careful study of the NDC manifesto shows it to be well laid out with pictures and colour but that is as far as it goes. The contents lack specificity in a lot of areas and it might as well be a textbook on economics, government, politics and agricultural science. A manifesto is the public declaration that a political party makes by presenting its past record and the policies it plans to adopt in future. The NDC manifesto presents nothing much of their past record but is so much preoccupied with the NPP that it mentions it 42 times. In comparison, the NPP manifesto mentions PNDC/NDC only 9 times.

The picture I saw as I studied the NDC manifesto, which I want to share with fellow Ghanaians, forms the bulk of this article. I will concentrate on areas of the economy, education, health, the judiciary, and more importantly, the media. I will also touch on the language of bitterness and vindictiveness that runs through the manifesto.

Foreword by Presidential Candidate
The foreword claims that the current government has failed on the economy, employment, environment, health, education and the utilities. The only substantiation given was an unnamed report attributed to the WHO that ranked Ghana as the second most filthiest in West Africa and the fourth most filthiest in Africa. When it comes to the economy, no such quote is given from any of the international financial or economic bodies such as the IMF or World Bank comparing the NDC era to the NPP era. Quoting statistics from an impartial and independent world body would have lent credence to the claims.

The Foreword also mentioned that the NDC is not against wealth accumulation but “all our efforts must be geared towards protecting and supporting the vulnerable, the disadvantaged, the marginalised and the have-nots in society”. I do not think anybody will argue against these aims but they also have to realise that creating the climate for wealth creation and helping the poor are not mutually exclusive. Having successful individuals and private businesses in an economy is good because they are the source of tax revenue and jobs. Government cannot do it all alone. Besides successful people in society serve as role models to the youth that fills them with ambition and high aspirations.

An NDC government plans to measure their success without actually spelling out any objective criteria. Those spelt out are all wordy and subjective and would be difficult to measure. There is a saying that: 'if you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there'. I suggest it would be very easy to claim success where no objective criteria are given. Furthermore this promise is undermined by the fact that the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit they plan to set up will be located in the office of the President with input from civil societies. How independent would this unit be in evaluating the success of an NDC government?

Message from the founder
One can still detect the 'revolutionary' speak which begrudges anyone who is successful. The language employed belongs to the 20th Century, during the Soviet-era, where the so-called ordinary man was pitted against the so-called elite. Even Soviet Russia has moved on and embraced market economics. Russia had vast deposits of oil and natural gas but they were only able to explore it when market economics was introduced after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Currently the only countries where such language is used are Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela – some good company!

The founder's message contains phrases like “struggle by ordinary people for political space and voice” being threatened by the rule of a “morally bankrupt and visionless elite that has transformed arrogance into an art, glorifying corruption in style….” He then goes on to say that: “people of this country will not surrender their independence and abandon their struggle to restore hope….”.

As I read these words, I asked myself: 'isn't it arrogant of the NDC, that polled less than 50% of the votes, to claim to be the mouth piece for the ordinary Ghanaian, whoever, he/she may be?”. After 19 years in power, who benefited – the ordinary Ghanaian or the Rawlingses? Who has joined the wealthy he detested and who is still struggling to make ends meet? Who has become privileged and who is still downtrodden? Whose children have dropped out of school and darting between cars to make a living and whose children are living in comfort overseas? Fellow Ghanaians, I leave you to be the better judge.

The first 100 days of NDC rule
The manifesto proposes certain actions over the first 100 days of an NDC government. These actions, some borne out of vindictiveness, will bring chaos, and in its recklessness, could torpedo the Ghanaian economy. Incidentally they do not include the promise to reduce prices of petroleum products in the first 100 days, which Prof. Mills threw in after the first round. You can see how opportunistic they are prepared to be, irrespective of any damage that this will cause the economy. What are some of these actions?

1. They propose to send to parliament legislation on various tax and tariff measures to relief Ghanaians. They did not state exactly what they propose to do except to say further on that that they will broaden the tax bands. The claim to want to reduce the tax burden on the poor is however undermined by their aim to shift emphasis from direct taxation to indirect taxation. This is contrary to the stance of all left of centre parties in the developed world, for instance the US Democratic Party and the UK Labour Party. Indirect taxation is another name for VAT and Sales tax. Left of centre parties believe, and it is true, that indirect taxation does not contain any mechanism that discriminates between the poor and the rich and thus is unfair to the poor. Progressive governments the world over rather use direct taxation to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor and not what the NDC proposes. So fellow Ghanaians, I tell you that they talk the social democratic talk but they propose otherwise. The unfortunate poor or the ordinary Ghanaian is again being used as the vehicle to come to power.

2. They also aim to review and reconstitute membership of commissions and boards. They plan to base this solely on competence (but never said who will judge this). If they are really serious about this, they should have committed themselves to advertise all public executive positions and to set up an independent Public Appointments Committee. They are proposing none of this. Go into the manifesto further and you realise they are only paying lip service. In connection with Public Corporations, they plan to create “specialised bodies” to exercise ownership rights of government. Therein lies the deceit. This is just a ploy to replace those who they think are NPP cronies with NDC cronies in the first 100 days.

A further pointer to lack of sincerity is when they acknowledge the existence of conflict of interest when Ministers and Members of Parliament are appointed to positions of Chairmen or membership of boards of Public Sector Companies. On first reading, I thought they were going to rule it out completely. Rather they will not make these appointments “as far as practicable” thus not ruling it out.

3. Another objective to be realised within the first 100 days is to take bold steps to deal with filth in our urban areas, yet no actions or measures are offered.

Anti-corruption measures
For a party that has made so much noise about corruption, the measures offered are timid and not specific. No proposals are offered to increase transparency in the workings of government, ministries or the civil service except to say that they will re-organise some existing institutions. They further promise not make excuses for corrupt officials. What excuses are they talking about? They might probably be referring to President Kuffour's challenge to those with evidence of corruption against any of his ministers to bring them forth for him to deal with them. This is in accordance with natural justice. Rather than do just that, NDC functionaries prefer to make unsubstantiated allegations followed by challenges to the individuals to sue them in court. This has been a deliberate and calculated ploy to paralyse the workings of government.

For a party that has left no one in doubt about their abhorrence of corruption, and with their avowed unwillingness to offer excuses, I expected that they will make a bold statement on this. For instance they could have given the undertaking to either sack or suspend any minister against whom corruption allegations are made. They rather did not make any proposal to minimise the incidence of corruption in the first place but preferred to talk about punishment when the 'horse has already bolted from the stables'.

The Media
The NDC manifesto refers to the Media as the “4th Estate” and accepts their role in society. One way in which they could have shown their total commitment to the unfettered operation of the media (given their history) was to have commended the abolition of the Criminal Libel law. The last NDC government used it to harass a lot of Journalists. Commending its abolition would have indicated to cynics like me that there has been a monumental shift in their relations with the media.

Even at this time that they are claiming this conversion, you can still see their perennial suspicion of the media come to the fore in their manifesto. Their intention is to “maintain a principled relationship with the media, constantly reminding each other that what is right under one government does not suddenly turn wrong when government changes hands”. Rather tellingly, they did not add the reverse that: “what was wrong under one government does not suddenly turn right when government changes hands”. The reason I have thrown in this was the arrest of some journalists, using the criminal libel law, when they wrote about Frank Benneh and the allegations then that he was dealing in drugs to benefit the NDC. The NDC government then thought it was wrong but now they see it as right when it applies to the NPP government. In fact they see the righteousness in this to the extent that they have repeated claims of NPP involvement in drug trafficking in their manifesto. Do you see the reason why they could not bring themselves to talk about the reverse?

The Judiciary
The NDC observes in its manifesto that there is widespread executive manipulation of the Judiciary. To prevent this they propose to close some loopholes. Some of the measures include empanelling of all Supreme Court judges on all cases to avoid a perceived bias. The problem with this is that the Supreme Court will either take long to rule on cases or will only entertain fewer cases at a time. In either case, justice would not be seen to be served where there are urgent cases requiring resolution. They also propose to put a cap on the number of Supreme Court Judges. To demonstrate sincerity, they could have offered to freeze the present number and to cap it at that. Not specifying a number means that they are allowing themselves the option of only putting in the cap after they have appointed more Supreme Court Judges they deem sympathetic to their cause. What would this then amount to? Not the same executive manipulation they are complaining about?

Appointing Supreme Court Judges is the prerogative of the government in power and I will not be worried by an NDC government exercising that right. What worries me most is their assertion that today in Ghana “justice can be bought by and sold to the rich”. In one sweeping statement, they have discredited the entire Ghanaian judicial system and done the institution an irreparable damage. Is it wise for a party aspiring to power to make this statement? Can anyone imagine the sort of tension that would exist between the Judiciary and the Executive should the NDC win power?

Human safety and security
Under human safety and security, the NDC manifesto lists a number of social ills currently afflicting Ghana – drug trafficking, highway robberies, armed robbery and audacious burglaries. These are all well pointed out but are followed by a lot of weasel words on how they will tackle these problems with nothing concrete spelt out. Then out of the blues they proposed specific aims to investigate the killings of the Yana and Mr Issah Mobila. Whilst investigating these murders is in order, why put this in a manifesto to politicise it? What about investigating other murders – such as those of the women of Accra and Rokko Frimpong – which their party founder claims to know the perpetrators? What about investigating those who disappeared during the PNDC era? You do not solve social ills of the kind they talked about by just investigating a small number of high profile murders.

Narcotic Trafficking
The NDC has in recent years made much noise about narcotics trafficking and has gone to the extent of accusing the NPP government of complicity. Whilst the NPP government has cooperated with the British Authorities and installed scanners at KIA, which has improved detection and arrest, what are they offering? Again nothing much except to warn that the NDC government would not hurry to transfer those serving sentences in foreign jails to serve their terms in Ghana. How much of a deterrent this is, I am scratching my head to find out. What will a convicted drug trafficker prefer – a western jail with all the facilities or the cockroach-infested Nsawam prison? Even in the case of transferring prisoners, their record does not support what they are saying. They were the government that refused to remove the diplomatic immunity then enjoyed by Frank Benneh for him to be tried in Switzerland. Rather they got him transferred to Ghana and now he is roaming about a free man.

The economy
Their presentation on the economy is largely theoretical. They propose to be guided by the convergence criteria of the ECOWAS monetary zone, which is not different at all from that of the NPP government.

The manifesto then went on to give a litany of the failures of the NPP government – high indebtedness, inflation at 18% and growth at a 5.8%. The only record of theirs that they quoted was the level of debt which stood at 41 trillion Cedis in 2000 as opposed to 90 trillion Cedis now. They shied away from other indicators like rate of inflation that was 41% at 2000 and Bank of Ghana base rate that stood at 47%. A better way to make comparison of economic performance was to have compared IMF or World Bank Country report for Ghana in 2000 and now. They dare not do that for it would have exposed them as having been incompetent when in charge.

They also bemoan the current level of indebtedness, but quoting a raw figure does not educate the public much. It would have been sincere to put it in some context (e.g. were the loans for investment or consumption or what ratio of GDP does it represent?). This would have given the Ghanaian the proper picture. If the NPP government has grown the economy from US$3.9 billion in 2000 to $16.3 billion in 2008, then doubling the national debt is actually a reduction in GDP terms.

Whilst bemoaning this level of debt, they did not promise never to go for loans when they come into power. They are making massive spending promises that our economy cannot provide. Will they rely on loans to implement them? In fact they have answered in the affirmative when they plan to “mobilise funds from bilateral and multi-lateral sources for on-lending to eligible businesses”. They also describe Ghana as having become a beggar nation under the NPP government. Are they promising not to seek grants and aid from abroad should they come into power? Ghana still rely on donor partners to finance 40% of its annual budget – are they planning not to avail themselves of this because it will turn us into a beggar nation? I bet not and herein lies the deception.

Then they dropped the bombshell – shifting the reliance on direct taxes to indirect taxes. They claim this will relieve the poor but this is not true. There is no mechanism in indirect taxation that discriminates between the rich and the poor. This exposes their avowed concern for the poor to be just hollow words.

On job creation, an NDC government plans to encourage labour intensive programs and give support to Contractors who will adopt labour intensive methods in the execution of projects. This is not compatible with their goal of making Ghana a middle income nation. Labour-intensive employment is low skill, low-pay and fraught with a lot of Health and Safety issue (i.e. industrial and construction site accidents). Whilst most of the world is moving towards a highly educated and highly skilled workforce, an NDC government is planning a workforce that will use brawn instead of brains. Some way to achieve a better Ghana!

Health
On health they criticised the present NHIS regime in their manifesto even though they claim it to be their brainchild. They plan to improve it by offering universal coverage because the current method of financing (using the NHIL levy) makes it unfair on those who have not registered. Membership of their scheme is to be via a one-time registration premium. For them to be able to cover the over 22m Ghanaians, either the NHIL levy has to increase considerably (thus not relieving the poor as they claim); or the one-off registration payment would have to be so high that only few can afford (defeating their aim); or the state would have to spend massively from resources it does not have; or perhaps, this is another deception.

Education
With regards to education, an NDC government proposes to convene an all-party conference on education. This is commendable for I believe education and health should be taken out of politics all together. But before I settled in my commendation, they took it back by stating their aim to revert to the 3-year SHS education, describing the current 4-year proposal as “expensive”. This is baffling given the inadequate preparation the 3-year duration gives to students. This was criticised by a number of University Vice-Chancellors and was the main reason for the introduction of the Level 100 stage at the universities. Again in their vindictive mode they took the current reforms as an affront to the system they left behind and are prepared to revert to a system that failed so many of our children. It is not surprising that they are planning to create employment for them in industries employing labour-intensive methods!

What I have painted above is my review of what an NDC government will mean for Ghana. Their manifesto is more a critique of current government policies rather than a positive offering to Ghanaians that will change our lives. Their spending plans are on such a grand scale to be believable. Where will they get the money to offer universal health insurance coverage and build 230 constituency offices for each MP? They plan to help the ordinary man but their policies will not ensure that. Their much touted job creation agenda is focussed on the low end of jobs – labour-intensive employment which is always of low quality and hence low-paid.

This is what I meant when I appealed to Ghanaians to look at the NDC picture. I hope you vote wisely and for an ever improving Ghana on 28th December. Merry Christmas. God bless our homeland Ghana

Dr Frank Ohemeng
United Kingdom