Bawa Sumaila Reflects the Clueless Leadership of the NDC

If, indeed, as Mr. Bawa Aminu Sumaila, the Akuapem-North’s aspiring Communications Officer – they used to call them Propaganda Officers – claims, the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has borrowed nearly three times as much money as the previous John “European Airbus Payola” Dramani Mahama regime, this is all squarely in keeping with the fact that the operatives of the New Patriotic Party have far and away outperformed the largely kleptocratic and witheringly clueless previous Mahama regime by at least a three-fold magnitude. It is therefore inexcusably outrageous for a politically wet-eared and diapered Mr. Sumaila to be making the patently absurd claim that the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party has a diddly little to absolutely nothing substantive to show the general Ghanaian public for such humongous borrowing (See “NPP Has Borrowed GH₵ 500 bn Against NDC’s GH₵ 200 bn but Has Nothing to Show for It – Aspiring NDC Communications Officer” Modernghana.com 8/8/22).

Now, the very title of the news item being herein discussed is contradictory and farcically ironic, because the critic also asserts, rather amateurishly, that the only national development projects that the Akufo-Addo Administration can boast of are the landmark and unprecedented implementation of the Fee-Free Senior High School Policy Initiative and the massive construction of toilet facilities across the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District areas of the country. Now, what this aspiring National Democratic Congress’ Communications Officer needs to tell the general Ghanaian public regards precisely why the previous Mahama regime had so scandalously failed to implement the Fee-Free Senior High School System and/or Policy Initiative. It is very obvious that this critic has absolutely no meaningful response to offer the Ghanaian public, except his criminally vacuous or bunkum claim that on the eve of its exit from Jubilee House, the Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress had left a lot of money in the coffers of our nation’s treasury.

Now, what is really the use of leaving a lot of money in our nation’s kitty, if the government that allegedly left behind such a humongous amount of money woefully failed to successfully pursue even a single minor social-intervention program, such as the School-Feeding Program that was originally implemented by the John Agyekum-Kufuor-led government of the New Patriotic Party? It is also rather pathetic for the aspiring Akuapem-North NDC District Chief Propagandist to disdainfully accuse the present Akufo-Addo government of only being able to boast of having massively constructed toilet facilities all over the country. Maybe somebody ought to remind Mr. Sumaila of that jaded age-old saying that “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” You see, much of the present sanitation problems wracking, as well as wrecking, the health and sanity of the Ghanaian citizenry have been primarily and squarely because the entire leadership of the National Democratic Congress has prioritized the wanton and reckless stealing of our national-development wherewithal and resources over everything else.

Which was also primarily why even as recently as 2014, the Mahama regime had an extremely difficult time reining in a largely localized cholera epidemic. Indeed, as has already been extensively commented upon by scores of political pundits and national security experts, had the COVID-19 Pandemic occurred under the leadership mantle of former President Mahama, Ghanaians would be counting their dead in the hundreds of thousands, and not the dozens, as has been the case with the relatively far more foresighted and socially and environmentally responsible Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party. At this juncture, I very much prefer to leave a reckoning of the full details of the national-development milestones notched by the present unprecedentedly progressive Akufo-Addo government to the local stalwarts and operatives of the New Patriotic Party on the ground, as it were, for the instruction and enlightenment of the voting Ghanaian public in the runup to the 2024 General Election.

If, indeed, as Mr. Sumaila claims, the present Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party has a diddly little to absolutely nothing to show for its massive borrowings on the national-development front, this is undoubtedly because the bulk of the national-development loans that should have been invested in new quality-of-life improvement projects and ventures, have had to be literally sunk into the inevitable resuscitation of such vital social-intervention programs as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which was criminally and unconscionably bankrupted by the departing Mahama-led regime of the National Democratic Congress.

It is also quite heartening and elating to hear these nation-wrecking aspiring NDC party executives wanly describe the national security climate under President Akufo-Addo as being akin to that which eerily prevailed under the late Chairman Jeremiah “Jerry” John Rawlings-led juntas of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC), as well as, of course, the faux-democratic establishment of the National Democratic Congress. You see, these NDC hoodlums are having an extremely difficult time perpetrating the sort of wanton atrocities which were pretty much the norm until the auspicious election of the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party. Now, who said one does not deserve to reap what one has sowed and nurtured to fruition?

*Visit my blog at: KwameOkoampaAhoofeJr

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

August 9, 2022

E-mail: [email protected]