All hands on deck required to fix NPP’s economic chaos — Mahama

The flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has said the NDC will inherit the sick economy created by the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and that would require all hands on deck to fix.

He, therefore, appealed to Ghanaians to be modest in their demands when the NDC assumes office next year.

Mr Mahama was speaking at a town hall meeting in Ho on Friday as part of his two-day tour of the Volta Region.

“We will open the books for you to see how ailing the economy is before we all agree on what path to take to repair the damages,” he added.

As a measure to save money for the nation, Mr Mahama said the staff strength at the Office of the President would be reduced and the assemblies would be empowered in their various duties, including the collection of property rates, in the broader national interest.

The property rates would enable the assemblies to undertake their own development projects and improve social services, he explained.

The former President said the NDC was committed to fulfilling the desires of the people and would actively involve the people in national development plans.

He touched on intra-city transport services and reaffirmed the NDC’s stance to legalise and regulate the operations of tricycle taxis (Mahama Can Do) in urban centres.

That, Mr Mahama said, would ensure that they operated under much safer conditions with insurance covering their business.

Meanwhile, he said, the NDC would make agriculture more attractive with greenhouse projects, irrigation schemes, mechanised farming on a large scale, and farmers’ cooperatives.

On education, the NDC would build more E-blocks for senior high schools (SHSs) to encourage more admissions, while the Ohawu Agricultural College would be upgraded into an agricultural university, he said to the deafening loud applause from the massive crowd.

Courtesy call

Earlier in the day, Mr Mahama paid a courtesy call on the Volta Regional House of Chiefs where he said the NDC would take advantage of the Volta Region’s comparative advantage in tourism and invest in the sector which bore high prospects for the region.

He said the NDC would pursue a vigorous plan to build a modern market in the border town of Aflao to boost ECOWAS’ trade liberalisation scheme along the frontier.