Amandla endorses Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as Ghana’s President on December 7
Ghana goes to the polls on December 7, 2020 to elect a President and Members of Parliament for the next four years. The polls on the presidency is historic, because it’s the first time a sitting president and an immediate past president are vying for the highest political position in the country. Both have vast political exposure and experiences under their sleeves. The sitting President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was one time a Member of Parliament and served as Attorney General and Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Kufuor government. Former President John Dramani Mahama was a Member of Parliament, Deputy Minister, Minister, Vice President, and President under the Rawlings and Mills’ governments. Both have been crisscrossing the country selling their visions of Ghana to Ghanaians. But we are less concerned now about visions, campaign rhetoric, and party manifestos. Our lessons in objectivity lies on the performances of the two gentlemen as Presidents.
Amandla’s choice is the incumbent president who has demonstrated his resolve to lift Ghana up the economic ladder of growth and achievement. As well, we endorse a parliament with an NPP majority.
The NPP administration has proven that it is more of a social democratic party than the National Democratic Congress (NDC) with respect to social interventions. We are referring to the epic and historic free Senior High School (SHS) system and the revival of the once comatose National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) initiated by former NPP government under President John Agyekum Kufour but collapsed under NDC governments. The NHIS is currently widely accepted by several health providers. It is also being fine-tuned digitally to enable national identity card holders to access the facility. Further, to facilitate efficient healthcare deliverability, the NPP government instituted drone services and supplemented it with purchase and distribution of 275 ambulance vehicles to each constituency in the country.
Other intervention programs such as “Planting for Food” “One District, One Factory,” “Nation Builders Corps” and several others have seen increased food production and job creation.
Former President John Mahama, the flagbearer of NDC under his thematic theme “Ghanaians have short memories,” has been promising heaven on earth in his second coming. He has been disingenuous in his promises, for it was under his presidency that legislation against the use of motorcycles (Okada) for commercial purposes was enacted, yet he has somersaulted and promised to legalize its commercial usage if and when voted back into power.
So far, Nana Addo Dankwa has shown maturity in his campaign. His rhetoric is matured and has been about ideas. He appears to be more focused on his target of winning another four years.
We have admired the tenacity and iron will of the President and his Vice President in their continuous effort to implement even more pro-poor programs while some in the party and the opposition have been so critical, afraid that the government was taking on too much against a weak economy. In addition to confronting the dreadful COVID-19 pandemic Akufo-Addo and his government have tenuously held on to maintain the economy and reduce the people’s hardships with stimulus offers that have indeed made an impact.
Amandla thinks that former President Mahama has been exposed to the corridors of power in the Fourth Republic of Ghana more than anyone but his abysmal performance as leader of the country pales in comparison to the sitting President. Nana Addo and his government have proven their mettle and must be given the nod to seamlessly continue their work in the next four years. Mahama’s performance in government and the people’s response in the 2016 elections should have given him a clue to retire gracefully. His decision to pull an Oliver Twist is a pathetic attempt to end an otherwise successful political career.
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