Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led regime is interspersed with sweet promises and bitter experiences

Let me start with the sweet promises of Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia when both were eyeing the Presidency and seeking second term and I conclude with some bitter experiences of this regime that Ghanaians are witnessing now.

The sitting President Akufo-Addo and the NPP engaged in mouth-watering 1:1 (one to one) promises in the lead up to the 2016 general elections such as one District one Factory (1D1F), one Village one Dam (1V1D), one million Dollars one Constituency (1$M1C), Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), etc. to woo Ghanaians for their votes.

President Akufo-Addo was on record to have said that Ghana was sitting on money and yet Ghanaians were suffering because of mismanagement of the economy. This President also made Ghanaians believe that he was not corrupt and would not be corrupt and bemoaned some incidences of corruption-related issues under the erstwhile President Mahama's regime.

Also, Dr. Bawumia before becoming Vice President said that Ghana had a lot of money, but the money was sitting at the top without coming down to the people. He also stressed that that was the case because he was a deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BOG) before joining the NPP openly as their running mate.

Dr. Bawumia did not chastised the former President Mahama as an ‘incompetent nice man’ but also said Ghana was borrowing too much with little to show for. He also emphatically stated that Ghana did not need to borrow to build quality roads and fix other developmental challenges as the necessary resources are available to do so domestically.

Finally, when Ghanaians gave Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia the nod, the former told Ghanaians to be citizens but not spectators and any member of his government who might want to make money should rather go to the private sector instead.

Although the first term of President Akufo-Addo was rocky and unimpressive in terms of delivery of promises, he further made a promise to halt the ragging galamsey operations by putting his Presidency on the line for that matter.

Unfortunately, the above-stated sweet promises of Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia-were interspersed with very bitter experiences so far. In order of increasing bitterness levels (less to more bitter), President Akufo-Addo said he was in a hurry and shambolically implemented the NPP's flagship free SHS, as well as 1V1D, and PFJ programs. Ghanaians are experiencing the negative impacts of these poorly implemented programs, which turned out to be a big disappointment to many.

The issue of corruption fight under this Nana Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led regime has surprised many because corruption scandals have rather ballooned with involvement of government officials despite the establishment of the Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP). For instance, the corruption scandal-riddled National Cathedral project, which is currently stalled is another serious sin of this Akufo-Addo-led government.

Despite putting his Presidency on the line, President Akufo-Addo failed flatly in the galamsey fight because of his own ‘Presidential Galamseyers’ exposed by Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng in his anti-galamsey report delivered to the President who shelved it until it was leaked to the public.

This mismanagement of the economy coupled with the unbridled borrowing by the former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, expensive external Presidential travels, as well as a bloated government of over 100 Ministers worsened Ghana’s economy leading to a U-turn decision to the IMF for a $3 billion loan facility.

This $3 billion loan facility from the IMF has led to the most bitter experience of this Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led government. As part of the conditionalities of the IMF loan, the Akudo-Addo-led government made Ghanaians to go through a highly callous and widespread Domestic Debt Exchange Program (DDEP) including Pensioners who could not even get their interests on their matured coupon let alone their principals back. This made many of the Pensioners to picket at the Finance Ministry days on end to demand payment of their own money invested in 'safe' government bonds.

Apart from this painful and cruel DDEP measure to satisfy IMF conditionalities, the plights of many young Ghanaians got worsened due to the loss of their well-paying jobs through the banking sector clean up which collapsed most of the indigenous/domestic banks in the country.

Such failed sweet NPP promises interwoven with bitter experiences so far created by the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led regime is a significant lesson for other political players to learn from. Thus, Political Parties should be more candid and sincere when they mount political platforms to campaign.

On December 7, 2024, Ghanaians have a perfect chance to massively vote this unimpressive and disappointing governing NPP regime out of power for good.