Re- John Dramani Mahama and NDC are deficient in policies and programmes

I usually don't begrudge people when they express their opinions on national issues and political parties, it is their view and opinions which they are entitled to, but I think this particular article written with an intent to deceive the masses and malign the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and former President John Mahama with unsubstantiated claims and views needs to be addressed in the right context. This article is a rebuttal to a previously written and published article with the above headline.

In the one-sided, deceptive article written by one sycophant, puppet bootlicking writer for the NPP, whoever the writer is, shamelessly stated that former president John Dramani Mahama and the NDC lacks policies and programmes required to propel this country. The author disingenuously cited the Okada issue to buttress his weak, lame and mischievous point.

On the issue of the Okada and Pragia, it should be made clear to the author and all those who care to know that, the Okada and Pragia operators are already in the system whether we like it or not. The NPP government has failed to provide them with alternative jobs, as a result they are still in the system operating without any form of regulations and guidelines. They are currently operating without license or any form of former training and monitoring whiles the government looks on unconcerned. Their activities have been infiltrated by some criminals who uses motorbikes to engage in all sorts of criminal activities and yet claim to be Okada drivers when in actual fact they are not, they currently jump traffic and cause avoidable accidents, yet the government seem unconcerned. So if the former President has decided to legalise their operations and give them trainings so they operate within the confines of the law and regulations where they can be monitored and guided, he must be applauded.

The writer has failed to address the ostrich approach being adopted by the NPP towards the Okada and Pragia menace, but feels comfortable in attacking a man who has expressed his determination to decisively and courageously deal with the problem, what an irony. The NPP is adopting “see no evil, hear no evil” attitude to the issue, this is cowardice and irresponsible leadership, whiles John Mahama has shown his resolve to deal with it, that is responsible leadership.

Besides showing courage and determination to deal with the Okada and Pragia menace, the NDC and John Mahama have the best policies required for developing countries, and that is infrastructural transformation.

Since 1992 to date, the NPP cannot point to a single Secondary School, hospital, university they have built from the scratch and completed. All the Secondary Schools, hospitals, universities and markets built under the Fourth republic were by the NDC.

Folks, let no one deceive us that infrastructural transformation is not a policy, it is the most important and useful policy for a developing country like Ghana. In Development Studies, there are five key stages that a developing country must follow through in order to achieve sustainable growth these are, traditional society, preconditions to take-off, take-off, drive to maturity and age of high mass consumption (Rostow, 1969). The “preconditions to take-off” entails the installation of physical infrastructure, such as roads, schools, hospitals, markets and ports.

For a developing country to achieve its potential and transform into an advanced country, it needs modern infrastructure that links everyone together and provides a strong foundation to provide education, health care, clean water, power and communications so that business can thrive and jobs can be created for the youth. Infrastructural development is extremely crucial because no developing country can advance with deficient infrastructure.

After winning the 2012 general elections, former president John Mahama embarked on massive planned and sustained infrastructural development in order to achieve the “precondition to take-off and take-off” status and lay the foundation for achieving a successful Ghana, because the country had spent decades dabbling in haphazard approaches that has led us to nowhere, and a new paradigm shift was required. Between 2012 and 2016, former president Mahama intentionally focused on infrastructural development, building hospitals, ports, power generation, markets, and schools and constructing roads as well as technological and energy infrastructure in an unprecedented level in order to position Ghana for social and economic transformation in actualising the Rostow theory for national development.

In view of the above, it is extremely misleading for anyone to claim that the NDC and John Dramani Mahama lacks policies and programmes for Ghana. In fact, whiles the NPP dabbles in sloganeering, and haphazard approaches that has led us to nowhere, the NDC engages in the application of precise and successful frameworks that have been adopted by other countries to move from developing status to developed status.

Indeed the NDC has the best tried and tested policies and programmes for Ghana, the development and advancement of Ghana can only be possible under the NDC and not the NPP.