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21.09.2016 Editorial

Periods of spook promises are over

By Ghanaian Chronicle
Periods of spook promises are over
21.09.2016 LISTEN

Policy think tank, IMANI Ghana has started the review of the manifestos of the various political parties, especially the front runners in the impending December 7 elections – the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The NPP has officially not released its manifesto, but Imani decided to base its analysis on the promises that have been made by the flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on the various political platforms.

According to the policy think tank, Nana Addo has so far made 29 campaign promises but “only one is quantifiable, 14 semi-quantifiable and 14 non-quantifiable.”

In the case of the ruling NDC, Imani said highlights of its manifesto released by President Mahama indicate that the party would have to spend a whopping $24 billion to execute 75% of them.

“From the ballpark costing exercise performed on the scope of the NDC's planned projects and programs, as detailed in the annexes, the party would need to spend a sum of $24 billion over and above their 5-year spending average if they are to implement 75% of their full manifesto.

“From an analysis of revenue growth, donor appetite for budget financing, and other net positives, $22 billion of the amount would have to be borrowed and added to the debt stock taking this country's debt to GDP ratio above 100,” it noted.

Both NPP and NDC have reacted to Imani's analysis by condemning the policy think tank for making elementary economic analysis about their manifestos.

The Chronicle, however, thinks that instead of being condemned, Franklin Cudjoe and his team should rather be lauded for coming out with this innovation to ensure that the voter is not bamboozled with figures and promises that may not be achievable.

Over the years, the political parties have come out with phantom promises, but they got away with it because there was no third party to checkmate them.

For example, in the run up to the 2000 elections, NPP promised to construct railway lines from the South to the North of the country. The party also promised to transform the various slums into well planned residential areas. Ghanaians swallowed this hook line and sinker and voted for the party, but after spending eight years in government, the railway lines was never extended to the north as promised. The planned residential areas to replace the slums did not also see the light of day.

In the case of the NDC, they promised to build 200 Senior High Schools, 10 Colleges of Education and also introduced one time premium for the National Health Insurance subscribers. Regrettably, none of these promises have been fully achieved after the Atta Mills-Mahama governments have led this country for eight solid years.

So far, only ten or so Senior High Schools out of the 200 promised have been commissioned by President Mahama.

Yesterday, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Education attempted to explain on Adom FM why they have not been able to build the ten colleges of education, but what he said could best be told to the marines.

The least said about the one time premium for the NHIS card holders, the better, yet these are some of the promises NDC used to hoodwink voters to vote for the party in 2008.

Since Majority of Ghanaians live below the poverty line, they would obviously be enthralled by a political party that promises one term premium payment and vote for it.

The NDC saw this loophole and exploited it to their political advantage, knowing very well that they could not implement the policy.

Indeed, if the Imanis of today were present in those days, these phantom promises would have been subjected to proper financial scrutiny and voters properly educated to sieve the bad promises from the good ones.

Since not all Ghanaians have both finance and economic backgrounds, the country needs independent institution like Imani to subject some of these promises to critical scrutiny and accordingly educate their fellow Ghanaians.

The Chronicle is, therefore, advising both NDC and NPP not to see Imani and others who are reviewing these promises as enemies, but rather as partners in development.

Their critique would enable them to fine tune these campaign promises to make them economically implementable, which eventually benefit the entire country.

The time of atrocious campaign promises are over – our politicians should sit down and do their home work well, before coming out with spook promises which they would not be able to implement at the end of the day.

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