NDC postponed its manifesto launch to take cue from NPP manifesto – Buaben Asamoah

The Director of Communications of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buaben Asamoah believes that the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) wants to plagiarise its (NPP) manifesto for the 2020 general elections. 

According to him, the decision by the NDC to postpone its manifesto launch from August to September was to enable the opposition party to copy policies from the NPP manifesto.

Mr Buaben Asamoah, who was addressing a press conference in Accra on Monday afternoon, August 31, 2020, said the deliberate decision by the NDC to postpone its manifesto launch was a clear indication that the party did not have anything better to offer the Ghanaian people.

Background

The NPP launched its manifesto for the 2020 general elections on August 22, 2020, at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in the Central Region.

However, its main contender for the 2020 general elections, the NDC, had set Monday, August 31, 2020, as the date for the launching of its manifesto. This was announced by the party’s National Communication Officer, Sammy Gyamfi on August 24, 2020.

But the General Secretary of the party, Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah, in a statement said the party had set Monday, September 7, 2020, as the date for the launch of the party’s manifesto in Accra for the December 2020 general elections.

According to Mr Asiedu-Nketiah, the decision to postpone the launch to September 7, “is to enable the National Executive Committee and the Council of Elders to approve the policy principles and strategies promised in the Manifesto."

Why the delay?  

But for Mr Buaben Asamoah, even before the NPP had thought of putting its manifesto together, the NDC had told Ghanaians that it had started collating ideas from the Ghanaian populace to enable the party to prepare its manifesto and wondered why the party still could not launch its manifesto as promised.

According to him, the only reason keeping the NDC from launching its manifesto was because the party had no substance in their manifesto and wanted to take time to read the NPP manifesto so that they could polish their own.

He said the NPP manifesto offered hope and had been prepared to catalyst the development and transformation of the country.

Mr Buaben Asamoah said it would be suicidal for the Ghanaian voters to hand over the leadership of the country to the NDC which had nothing to offer, pointing out that the NPP manifesto had clearly spelt out what the party would do in its next government.

No more experimentation

He said, for instance, that the mobile money interoperability which caused the current government some US$400 million was to be executed by the opposition NDC government for more than US$1 billion.

That, he said, was due to the incompetence of the NDC government, noting that the short period of the NPP government led by President Akufo-Addo had brought so much development in the country.

He said former President John Dramani Mahama, who is also the flagbearer of the NDC, “simply cannot do it” when he is elected as President.

Mr Buaben Asamoah explained that Mr Mahama had had everything opportunity to serve the country and during his tenure, he did not bring any development to the people of the country, saying “Candidate Mahama does not stand for anything.”

He said “We cannot afford to go back to the days of experimentation” and that Mr Mahama’s idea that he had learnt his lessons in opposition and wanted to be given a second chance could not be trusted.

According to him, governance was not a process of experimentation and that Ghana cannot trust its leadership to Mr Mahama, stressing “Ghana and Ghanaian lives cannot be used for experimentation.”

He has, therefore, asked Ghanaians to reject Mr Mahama’s plea to be given the second chance opportunity to rule the country since “the country is not looking for a maintenance officer but a leader.”