NPP practising ‘sheer propaganda’ — Haruna Iddrisu

The Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, has stated that it is "sheer propaganda" for the New Patriotic Party(NPP) to accuse the National Democratic Congress(NDC) of "borrowing recklessly" when in actual fact, the governing NPP intends to use funds reserved by the NDC to implement its flagship programmes.

Mr Iddrisu pointed out that if, indeed, the NDC had borrowed recklessly and left the national coffers dry, the NPP would not have had the intention of, for instance, using reserved funds under the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) to finance its flagship programmes.

Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund

The GIIF was established by Act 877 of 2014 as a sovereign investment fund to lead, promote, facilitate, fund and backstop the development of, and investment in infrastructure in the country.

Addressing students of the Bolgatanga Polytechnic Chapter of the Tertiary Educational Institutions Network (TEIN) of the NDC last Saturday when he inaugurated its 13-member new executive , Mr Iddrisu, who is also the MP for Tamale South, intimated that "it is now clear that the NPP lack ideas to govern and yet criticised the NDC baselessly".

"If you will not praise us for leaving behind some money for you in the GIIF, then please do not condemn us", he stressed.

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Budget

He indicated that the 2018 budget that announced a reduction in electricity tariffs, corporate taxes by 25 per cent, among other interventions promised, were to "throw dust in the eyes of Ghanaians and does not add up economically".

Mr Iddrisu argued that at the time the NPP wanted to reduce electricity tariffs, they should not forget the huge debts of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Volta River Authority (VRA) but rather consider defraying those huge debts first.

Borrowing

According to the former Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, if the NDC had not borrowed to improve on infrastructure at the Tamale Airport, commuters going to and from the three regions of the north would have been hampered as a result of the recent break down of both the Yapei and Buipe bridges.

He intimated that similar borrowings were done to improve on the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Ridge Hospital in Accra, the construction of polyclinics and regional hospitals, including other infrastructure in other sectors such as education and roads.

Mr Iddrisu described as unfortunate the criticisms levelled against the NDC by the NPP as "reckless borrowing" when indeed there were proof of what the funds borrowed were used for.

Free SHS

Touching on the implementation of the Free SHS policy,the MP pointed out that it was also important for the NPP to examine the various interventions in the education sector that were still in arrears such as the Capitation Grant, the Ghana Education Trust Fund(GETFUND) and the Ghana School Feeding Programme.

He observed that adding the Free SHS policy would only add to the arrears in the education sector and compromise the production of quality SHS students in the country.

Mr Iddrisu, therefore, entreated members of the Bolgatanga Polytechnic Chapter of the TEIN to win more members into the NDC family and work hard to bring the party back to power in 2020.

MPs

Other MPs that addressed the TEIN students include, the MP for Bolgatanga Central, Mr Isaac Adongo, MP for Tamale North, Mr Alhassan Suhiyini, MP for Bolgatanga East, Dr Dominic Ayine, MP for Chiana Paga, Mr Rudolf Amenga-Etego, and the MP for Builsa South, Dr Clement Apaak.

They reminded the TEIN students that as social democrats, their responsibility was to focus on marketing the NDC party as the best alternative to the NPP in the 2020 general election in order to ensure a wholistic development of communities in Ghana.They described the NPP as a party that thrived on youth, vigilantism, lawlessness, propaganda, selective in whatever they do and engaged in witch hunting.