The flag bearer of the People’s National Convention (PNC) for 2016 elections, Dr Edward Mahama, has described the State of the Nation address delivered by President John Dramani Mahama as a long speech of politics of deceit.
He said speeches meant to deceive people were often long but do not contain any substance that the people could hold on to and remember after their delivery. Dr Mahama, who was reacting to the State of the Nation address by the President, therefore, wondered whether the President was being fed with the wrong information at the Flagstaff House by his advisers and ministers.
Quality health delivery
Regarding quality health delivery, for instance, he said the Ministry of Health’s reaction to the meningitis outbreak was clearly less than desirable, since a proactive health system could have prevented it from killing as many as 100 people.
He said for the President, therefore, to claim credit for a health system that was not responsive to the practical health needs of the people was nothing but politics of deceit.
He said the National Health Insurance Scheme(NHIS) had collapsed because since November 2014, the health providers had not been paid, hence beginning from this month (February), he had stopped treating sick people under the scheme.
Politics of deceit
Dr Mahama said what the President did by inviting few people to showcase the fact that the health-delivery system was working also amounted to favouritism and discrimination, which did not augur well for our democracy.
He stated that until the majority of Ghanaians were affected positively by the policies and programmes of the government, the selection of a few beneficiaries was nothing but deceit.
Right thing
He urged the government to do the right thing by taking the people seriously and feeling passionate about helping them to come out of their sufferings and predicaments.
Concerning road construction, Dr Mahama said some of the roads mentioned by the President as having been done had never experienced any improvement for the past 20 to 30 years .
Dr Mahama distributed some CD-ROMS on the deplorable state of some of the roads in the country to prove his point, accusing the government of sending contractors on roads, when there was a by-election or general election, as a ploy to win votes and immediately after, abandoned the road contract to the vagaries of the weather.
Talensi by-election
He said, for example, that during the Talensi by-election, the government started the construction of a road in the area only to abandon it after it had won the by-election.
He observed that because the road was hastely and badly done, after two or three rains, the road had reverted to its bad state of disrepair once more.
He said examples abounded in the Eastern Corridor road stretching from Yendi through Wulensi, Bimbilla to Kete Krachi, where works on portions of the road were undertaken during elections and abandoned thereafter.
Lip services
Dr Mahama, therefore, called on people in the rural areas to wise up and stop voting for parties who paid lip service and toyed with their future with the only aim of winning votes.
Dr Mahama observed that there was a pent-up feeling of frustration among the youth and nothing should be done to precipitate in Ghana, in particular, and Africa at large civil strife similar to the Arab Spring.
Useful energies
He said the energies of the youth were like atoms that ought to be channelled into useful ventures, otherwise it could explode and tear the country apart.
He explained that that was the more reason he had come up with a campaign theme, ‘’ New beginning new deal and new force to turn the useful energies of the youth from age 18 to 35 into productive ventures ‘’.
He said currently, the country was producing annually 55,000 graduates from tertiary institutions only 5,000 of whom secured gainful employment and the rest roaming the streets without jobs, which is like an atomic bomb ready to explode.
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