Protect and Consolidate The Base
DEC 21, 2020
The recent presidential and parliamentary elections in Ghana have, unexpectedly, laid bare the urgent need for any NPP government, particularly, that of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to protect and consolidate the NPP core-base i.e. if they’re really serious of governing beyond 2024 to continue with their strategic development of every corner of the country and to safeguard the equitable distribution of resources and the judicious use of taxpayers’ money.
Why this observation?
Since the inception of the 4th Republic, the NPP base has made tremendous sacrifices of their local demands and needs and have arguably guaranteed the security and peace of the country both in opposition and in government. They suffered an enormous infrastructure deficit in their communities under Rawlings’ two-term presidency (not to mention his 19 years rule prior to that). The succeeding Kufuor’s two-term government focused on getting the country out of its massive debt stranglehold it inherited from the P/NDC governments, and then afterwards concentrated on its signature transformative achievements like the National Health Insurance Scheme, Capitation Grant, School Feeding programmes etc. for the benefit of the whole country and, therefore, never fully addressed this deficit. Even the Inland port and International Airport promised that have the potential of spurring on local private entrepreneurship and developments, never practically materialized. Things even got worse and deteriorated further under the wasteful 8 years of Atta Mills/Mahama government where there were no meaningful developments in the country as a whole and even for those few that sprang up in the capital, expenditures were allegedly overblown. Then came Akufo-Addo’s government where the base again was made to sacrifice their local demands and needs in order for the government to focus on catering for the whole country with its transformative, forward-looking policies.