NDC fights IMANI, IEA, CDD
IMANI Ghana, a renowned policy think tank has expressed complete disgust at the desperate attempt by the ruling National Democratic Congress to undermine its credibility by labeling it as an appendage of the opposition New Patriotic Party.
Felix Kwakye Fosu, an NDC youth activist, accused IMANI-Ghana, the Institute of Economic Affairs and other civil society groups of pursuing agenda to promote the cause of the NPP.
Also confirming the position of the ruling party on the activities of the policy think tanks in the country, Kojo Twum Boafo, Executive Director of the Free Zones Board, has labeled the groups like the IEA of suffering “credibility deficit.”
“The IEA has joined the ranks of CDD: credibility deficit department (group); they are not neutral,” Mr Twum Boafo ridiculed the think tank, while urging the leadership of the NDC to boycott any presidential debate should the group organize one ahead of the 2012 elections.
The comments from NDC activists, especially the one from Mr Kwakye, has attracted a strong reaction from the Executive Director of IMANI, Franklin Cudjoe, who has described Kwakye as “an advanced bootlicker and a mere useful idiot”.
He told Joy News his comments may be harsh but the truth needed to be told.
According to Mr Cudjoe, the arguments that IMANI was deliberately chipping away the achievements and credibility of the NDC as part of an agenda to boost the chances of the opposition NPP in the next elections were rather risible.
“We broke the debate over the STX [Housing deal], we did our own work independent of the NPP… look at all the cogent [issues we raised], have they been able to refute anything that we said about STX”?
He insisted the virtual insults heaped on fellows at the institute were unwarranted and unjustified.
But Mr. Kwakye says the response from IMANI “betrays the level of intolerance that exist within some of these groups.”
“I didn't just single out IMANI, they, CDD, IEA and other civil society organisations are allies of the NPP who have been working for the NPP,” he insisted.
Grounding his argument, Mr Kwakye told Joy News' Sammy Darko that while these civil society organisations are aggressively working and questioning every decision of the government, they didn't do same when the NPP was in power.
“Those civil society organisations have been unfair to us for so long, they have been unfair to us in the NDC for so long,” he maintained.
“IMANI has taken strong exception to your comments,” Sammy Darko told him, to which he replied; “I also take strong exception to their bias over the years and I also think that they should be more neutral in their work so that we know that they really stand for civil society work and not that they've become an appendage of the NPP.”
According to him, the NDC believes in the objective judgment of Ghanaians and does not need the Centre for Democratic Governance, IEA or IMANI as allies since they don't contribute in anyway the national developmental these organization.
The Institute of Economic Affairs on Monday August 15, 2011 denied a publication by the Ghana New Agency that the NPP then ruling party abused incumbency in the 2008 general elections.
The report GNA sourced the from the website of IEA headlined “IEA slams NPP for abuse of incumbency in Election 2008” indicated that the NPP used state resources for their campaign to the disadvantage of the opposition parties especially the then opposition NDC.
According to IEA they never authored or released such a report on their website as it is being alleged by the GNA.
But the Ghana News Agency which expressed shock and dismay at IEA for removing the report it had posted on its official website since March 21, 2009.
The GNA maintains that the report was sourced from the official website of the Institute of Economic Affairs.
However, speaking on Asempa FM's Ekosii Sen programme, Felix Kwakye Ofosu noted that the position by the policy think about the suppose report on abuse of incumbency by the erstwhile Kufour administration in 2008 is just to please the NPP.
He said the CDD, IEA and IMANI all hide under the guise of civil society organizations when in fact they are working for the NPP, hence lack credibility to be the arbiter Ghanaian politics.
Felix Kwakye Ofosu stated that he was amazed at the denial by IEA when it is a fact that “the NPP's campaign in 2008 was the most lavish, the most ostentatious and the most expensive campaign in our history”.
The NDC Youth activist questioned the competence of the officials manning the organization allowing their website to be hacked into if indeed their claims are true.