A Festival Of Shameless Deceit And Palpable Lies

Indisputably, a presidential encounter with the press is very necessary in governance since it is a vehicle that carries the people along in the whole governance process. People get to know how political leadership is handling the predicaments of the people and of course the president of the day could use such a program to tell the citizenry the state of the nation. It is summarily part of transparency in governance, a necessary ingredient in any enviable democratic dispensation.

President Nana Akufo Ado had his turn of the presidential encounter with the press on Tuesday 18th July, 2017. It was a fine opportunity for him to tell the citizenry how he is gone and is going so far as he steers the affairs of the state. Happenings in that program, made some us think that it was a waste of resources because it was not different from the many platforms the NPP has been organizing which they normally end up by churning nothing but palpable lies. Though I am not part of the Ghanaian Diaspora, I will not be fair to myself, if I don't "whine" over that feast the government had over lies.

First and foremost, government was very selective in the invitation of the media. Obviously, the program was dominated my multimedia and one could see that some of them wasted the time of Ghanaians by asking infantile questions. How on earth could somebody use that platform to be talking about the dressing of the president? Is that what the good people of Ghana wanted to know? I can't think far!! It is just an indication of rehearsed "praise singing" and of course, my good friend Hon Hamid Mustapha would certainly prefer such journalists who were ready to lead the praise singing the many more objective and discerning journalists who never had the opportunity to question the president. I was expecting the invitation to be extended to all regions and all media houses. It does appear that most of the journalists were picked from Accra and Kumasi. I lie?

Secondly, I earlier anticipated that Nana Ado is extremely incapacitated to speak on issues of the economy. though he graduated with Economics from the University of Ghana he has always demonstrated his inability to appreciate basic economic issues and hence always give way to the "pathological liar" Mr. Bawumia now popularly called "Borromia" to spew out figures from his own nonexisting economic theories.

When president Nana ran away from the question asked by Bernard Alve of citi fm, I knew the vice president was coming with lies. Nana Addo has a lot of respect for Hon Ken Offori, his cousin but it is becoming conspicuous that Ken and Bawumia are cooking their economic figures from different kitchens. In Bawumia response to his so called area of specialization, borrowing, he indicated with authority that the budget deficit stands at 9.4%. Unfortunately this figure cannot be found anywhere per the statistics of the finance minister. In his budget presented somewhere March, that budget deficit is 9.4%. Which figure do we take now?

The vice president also said that though his government has so far borrowed much, it is going to reduce the dept profile. I think the vice president has compromised his credibility and has non left so far as economic analyses are concerned. That was too embarrassing a statement to make. You cannot play with the intelligence of Ghanaians all the time.

Again, the president himself does not seem to understand projections, intentions and achievements but that is absolutely unpardonable. All the projections of the NPP were taken to be achievements.

The president clearly stated that teacher trainee allowance is restored but contradicted himself that it will start in the coming school year. Something that is yet to be done cannot be said to have been done. Well, that can only happen in the NPP led by Nana Akufo Ado. You said you have achieved in the implementation of free secondary education when you know that you are yet to start implementation. Who will tell this clueless government that, policies are designed, implemented, monitored, and evaluated before you can say that you have achieved or failed?

From all indications, the president is not on top of issues, he does not know what is going on, and depends so much on the inaccurate information from his Vice president and his family cabinet appendages.

In a country that is characterized by lawlessness leading to the death of many patriotic citizens, the president says that we are safe!! The increasing rate of armed robbery and murder cases in the country were issues the president circumvented around. For the shame arising from the insensitivity, lack of compassion and competence shown particularly in the area of security, it was not surprising when the president blew his nose around like a horn without touching on the substantive issues.

On the issues of galamsay, he says he is very much committed to the fight and I loud him for that position. Let me be quick to add that he was not able to tell us of his approach to the fight. In my view, the approach of government is very poor and we are already seeing the manifestations on the security. The armed robbery that continues to increase on daily bases is partly traceable to this illegal mining menace. This is because many are now jobless.

A government that made so much noise on job creation should have rested on the arm of job creation to fighting this illegal mining. That would have given alternatives to these jobless young people. So far how many jobs have been created by government? More than 80,000 have lost their jobs because of government lazy approach to engage its political bootlickers. Those who lost their jobs are in pain and that is their reward for a change of government.

Beyond the political cacophony and unrepentant campaign rhetoric, what can the ordinary Ghanaian boast about? Have prices of goods and commodities decreased?

Is there a decrease in transportation cost?
Are jobs being created?
Can the ordinary citizen go about with his daily activities without any fears?

Is the government protecting the public purse with the unprecedented elephant sized government?

The questions go on and on.
Mr. President, you called your kitchen cabinet and some few journalists to wine and dine with them. Your encounter was very poor. That was obvious in the demeanor of your own spokesperson who selectively handpicked journalists for some few questions yet you still gave him a lot of indefensible issues to defend. You wasted the public purse on your feast over lies and deception. You must be ashamed!!!!

Denis Andaban