More prosperity, security awaits Ghana in my second term – Prez Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama Tuesday night promised more prosperity and security in Ghana should he be voted into power for a second and final term.

Convinced that his first term in office has been very productive, during which era he says “major success” has been achieved in spite of the challenges, the president said he has come to appreciate even more the potential of Ghana to provide prosperity and security for all its citizens. 

President Mahama was speaking at the State Banquet Hall in Accra where he gave highlights of the 2016 campaign manifesto of the ruling National Democratic Congress party (NDC) to be launched on Saturday, September 17, in Sunyani.

A section of participants, including the diplomatic community at the NDC manifesto highlights

“With the blessings of the Almighty God and the support of the people of Ghana, I’m confident that my second and final term in office would move Ghana even closer towards the era of prosperity and security”, he said to spontaneous applause by party bigwigs and followers.

The president promised to continue to work in collaboration with the people in order to create opportunities that will generate prosperity for all.

“This is what the agenda for transformation suggests. This transformation entails a move away from over-reliance on commodity exports towards diversification and value addition”, he said, pointing out that all the plans have begun already and would be sustained and accelerated for the next four years.

President Mahama said the NDC has an unwavering belief that Ghana’s greatest wealth is its people and that the nation would continue to rise as the government focused a large part of developmental efforts at harnessing the potentials and ingenuity of the people.

A section of participants at the event

The manifesto titled “Changing Lives, Transforming Ghana”, was crafted on the four thematic areas of: 

• Putting People First
• Building a Strong Economy
• Expanding Infrastructure for Growth
• Transparent & Accountable Governance

Vice President

Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur who introduced President Mahama, had said the NDC had been privileged in the past to implement four manifestos out of a total of seven, explaining that successive manifestos had benefited from corrections and improvements of weaknesses in previous manifestos as against new challenges facing the country and how they could be overcome. 

“Our belief is that our successes are never enough and we can always improve on it. Therefore we strive to do better every time,” he said.

He said since the government launched its “Accounting to the people” progress report on December 15 last year, its opponents had tried to dismiss the development reality and sought to belittle achievements of the government, claiming among others that the government had benefited from more resources than any other government in the history of Ghana. 

Vice President  Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah Arthur

“They have also tried to show that the physical developments we see are not the results of the plans that we have implemented. They’ve also said that the projects have cost more than they should. In a sense, this denial today, this denial that our opponents try to make is similar to the political tricks that they have engaged in and employed since 1992 – political tricks that seek to deny the progress that we have made as a nation under the administration of successive National Democratic Congress governments. 

“I can appreciate the dilemma of the opposition because it’s much easier to deny that anything has happened than to say that there has been progress but that they can do better. .. Change is a word we refuse to concede to the opposition because we consider ourselves to be the real agents of change in our country”, he said.