Deceit, falsehold are Mills` secret to power -former Minister

A Former DEPUTY Minister in the Kufuor administration has accused President J. E. Atta Mills of winning political power on the wings of political deceit and outright falsehood.

Mr. Osei Assibey Antwi, former Ashanti Regional Deputy Minister said the President and His party hoodwinked Ghanaians to vote for them by making promises that they knew they cannot fulfill and have no intention of meeting.

He mentioned the now infamous declaration “I will reduce fuel prices drastically”, made by then NDC presidential candidate, Prof. Mills, on his various tours in the run-up to the elections in 2008. the former Minister recounted how the then candidate Mills took a swipe at ex-President Kufuor, for not being caring by not reducing fuel prices at the time, and said seven months into the administration of Prof. Mills' NDC administration, fuel prices have rather escalated, with persistent shortage of fuel, including pre-mix fuel.

“Instead of reducing the prices of petroleum products and supplying pre-mix fuel to our fisher folk who were influenced to vote against the NPP on the grounds that there were problems with the supply of the commodity, the Mills government hiked the prices of fuel products and supervised weeks of pre-mix fuel shortage, unheard of in the country's history,” said Osei Assibey Antwi.

The former Ashanti regional Deputy Minister credited the NPP with prudent and pragmatic policies such as the National Health Insurance Scheme, National Youth Employment Programme and the School Feeding Programme, and said the NDC government upon assumption of power has realized that these are good and far reaching social interventions which have benefited the majority of Ghanaians, and they do not have any alternative to these programmes.

He said what is worrying is the development where staff and workers of these institutions are being victimized by being dismissed from their posts, not for any malfeasance but rather because they were employed during ex-President Kufuor's regime.

Osei Assibey Antwi said the NDC, when campaigning in 2008, rubbished the micro economic achievements of the NPP government, such as reduced Inflation, low interest rates, stability of the cedi and reduction in borrowing rates, and added that within seven months into the NDC government's infantile and amateurish management of the economy has eroded all the gains made by the Kufuor administration.

“Today, the dollar is galloping in value against the cedi with the exchange rate at $1 to GH¢1.50, banks have increased base rates, inflation is on the rise, interest rates have gone up, and even then the banks are reluctant to give out loans whilst commodity prices have gone through the roof. Is this the party which promised economic haven just some seven months ago?” he queried.

Osei Assibey said the NDC government is suffering from economic bankruptcy and impotency in management and policies, and the earlier it publicly acknowledged this, the better it will be for all Ghanaians.