NPP have a Donald Trump mentality about governance - Amissah Arthur

Vice-President Kwesi Amissah Arthur has expressed disappointment in the NPP's style of opposition, claiming his main opponents have never credited government with anything good.

He said while the NPP has developed a mindset that sees nothing good with the NDC, it continues to heap blame on the NDC for all the ills in society.

"I call it a Trumpian" mentality, he referred to US Republican Donald Trump whose controversial politcal views have sharply divided his country.

Amissah Arthur who was speaking to students at the University of Cape Coast said after studying the opposition NPP's manifesto, he is of the firm belief that it is a recipe for economic chaos if the party wins the December general elections.

According to him, out of the 63 economic proposals presented by the NPP in its manifesto, eight of them are revenue-reduction plans and could affect macroeconomic stability especially the fiscal deficit.

"When I calculate the cost of the revenue loss that their manifesto proposes, I get something like GHC 6.2bn if they were running the government," he said.

Despite the cut in revenue, the NPP plans to spend GHC21bn in new expenditures, he analysed and concluded that with a slash in revenue and an astronomical increase in expenditure, the NPP will end up worsening the deficit gap by GHC 27billon.

"Adding 27bn of additional resources that translates to 20% fiscal deficit, that is the most unstable development we will ever see in the economy," he said.

The Vice-President and running mate to President John Mahama condemned the NPP's manifesto as unrealistic.

"[It] will create inflation, major exchange rate instability and create many problems for us. I don't think that manifesto is capable of being implemented".

The Vice-President repeated his view that the NPP continues to "exhibit a weak understanding of economic concepts" as presented in the economic lecturers delivered by their Vice-presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

He said the NPP loves "to pick and choose which [economic concept] makes their case strong".

For examples, the NPP is quick to point out that the NDC has been blessed with oil proceeds but has done little, yet the same NPP deny that they were also blessed with debt forgiveness under the three-year HIPC programme.

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