2024 NPP Manifesto: Thoughts and Reflections

The flag bearer of the ruling NPP, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, launched the party’s 2024 manifesto on August 4, 2024, and made several promises aimed at garnering support for the party’s quest for victory in the December polls.

As a background to the manifesto, he provided data on what the party inherited at the beginning of 2017 and juxtaposed it with the current state of affairs.

He also stated that the then government was beset by high levels of official corruption, including, as he termed, “create, loot and share” schemes used as vehicles of judgment debts against the state.

However, he problematically did not supply data on Ghana’s rankings in global corruption perceptions. As expected, he also did not mention any current government corruption scandals.

The point here is that if we choose to make a comparison, we must be fair.

That said, the NPP’s 2024-manifesto outlines several interventions to revitalise the economy and advance good governance, some of which are in sharp contrast to the current government's policy direction.

 These include the abolition of E-Levy and betting tax and the reduction of the number of government ministers to 50.

Interventions

First, his promise to have a maximum of 50 ministers is commendable, a clear indication that the NPP flag bearer means business. However, Ghana can do with a still lesser number.

 For example, Nigeria, with a population of 218.5 million, had 44 government ministers under President Buhari (2019-2023) and currently has 45 under President Tinubu.

Second, the pledge to reform taxes and reduce the financial burden on Ghanaians is welcome. However, certain tax policies outlined in the manifesto may be economically problematic if not carefully implemented.

For instance, a proposed tax amnesty for payment of taxes during the previous years and waiving interest and penalties for failures to file taxes in previous years could significantly reduce government revenue over the next few months.

This is because many individuals and companies would have no incentive to pay their taxes and would instead wait to benefit from future tax waivers.

Third, the proposal to reduce the cost of living through food-security by up-scaling the production of staple foods is welcome. Currently, Ghana spends billions of dollars on agriculture-related imports.

Over 55 per cent of Ghana’s rice consumption is imported. Attainment of food-security would not only ease the pressure on Ghana’s foreign exchange but will also create jobs.

However, the promise lacks details of WHAT, HOW, WHEN, SOURCE OF FUNDING, and COST OF IMPLEMENTATION. Additionally, there are outstanding questions about some agricultural policies, including ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’, ‘One-Village-One-Dam’, and ‘One-District-One-Warehouse’. These have been criticized as literally wasting taxpayers’ funds.

Fourth, the promise to provide better healthcare for all by completing all Agenda-111 hospitals to ensure that every District gets a District Hospital is commendable.

Also, the promise to recruit more doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, with improved conditions of service is welcome. Not only would this improve Ghana’s doctor-patient ratio etc., but it would also curb the exodus of healthcare professionals.

Presently, about 50% of all Ghana-trained healthcare professionals leave the country. However, the hint that the provision of better healthcare for all hinges on the completion of all Agenda-111 hospitals is an admission of unfulfilled past campaign promises.

Agenda-111 hospitals are one of many unfulfilled NPP 2020-manifesto promises. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Vice-Chairman of the NPP’s Manifesto Committee, states that the Akufo-Addo administration has achieved a 70 per cent success rate in fulfilling its 2020-manifesto promises.

The NPP’s political opponents would see things differently, believing that some NPP promises were not delivered. If the NDC is elected the NPP’s uncompleted projects will likely suffer the usual fate of uncompleted projects in Ghana: they will be abandoned.

Fifth, the pledge to implement Affirmative Action for gender parity is laudable. However, there is a lack of clarity and transparency in some related measures, for example, the award of government scholarships to promote gender parity.

There are numerous instances where recipients of government scholarships do not meet the conditions for the award as set out by the scholarship secretariat.

There is a need for clarity and transparency. Although Ghana's female representation in Parliament is significantly lower than the global and sub-Saharan averages, with women holding only 14.5 per cent of the 275 seats (40 out of 275), compared to 26.7 per cent globally and 27.1 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa, the manifesto does not address this issue.

Additionally, it does not mention the current female representation in public office, which is below the minimum target of 30 per cent. Rather, the manifesto focuses on establishing a "Women in Diplomacy" programme for Ghanaian women to assume more leadership roles in international organizations.

However, it is essential to prioritise boosting women's representation within Ghana before scaling-up the experience globally.

Conclusion

Finally, the manifesto’s commitment to good governance by reinitiating the process of electing MMDCEs through universal adult suffrage to deepen decentralisation and enhance local governance is commendable.

Furthermore, the plan to delink the creation of Districts from Constituencies to prevent automatic increases in the size of Parliament is also welcome. The current practice of creating new constituencies seemingly willy-nilly compromises the independence of the Electoral Commission while promoting executive-gerrymandering.

Therefore, the proposal is a good one. However, the proposal to reinitiate the process of electing MMDCEs should be carefully considered to prevent previous failures in 2019.

The NPP’s 2024-manifesto outlines several interventions to revitalise the economy and advance good governance, some of which are in sharp contrast to the current government's policy direction.

The writer is a Political Scientist