President Mahama’s first 120 days in office is full of 'cocktail of failed promises' - NPP

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has described the first 120 days of President John Dramani Mahama's government as an uninspiring one that is laced with failed promises and retardation across the various sectors.

Apart from being accused of what they referred to as "executive lawlessness", the party also said President Mahama was superintending over a government that preached inclusiveness but was practicing divisiveness. 

At a press conference held at the NPP headquarters in Accra on Thursday to respond to President Mahama's national address in which he gave an account of his first 120 days in office, the NPP stressed that the reset agenda promised by the NDC had become a breakdown of governance system and businesses. 

The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, who addressed the press, accused the President of exercising "executive lawlessness" leading to the sacking of numerous civil servants and replacing them with persons affiliated with the NDC. 

"We now have two Ghana - one for the NDC and one for other Ghanaians. This was not the reset President Mahama promised Ghanaians, he stressed. 

Among the key issues he raised as constituting the basket of failed promises were failure to decisively deal with illegal mining; resurgence of power outages; failure to implement the 24-hour Economy policy; and failure to reduce import duties. 

The Minority Leader expressed reservation about what he described as the gradual collapse of businesses, weakening of the private sector, attack on the judiciary, and fragile security in the country. 

Galamsey 

During the peak of the campaign for the December 7, 2024 elections, there was heightened call by environmentalists, CSOs, the Media Coalition Against Galamsey, and some labour unions for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to declare a state of emergency over the galamsey scourge. 

Environmental activists and other stakeholders also mounted pressures on the NPP administration to revoke the law that permits mining in forest reserves (L.I 2462), but that did not happen. 

In the heat of the campaign, the NDC presidential candidate (President Mahama) promised to repeal L.I 2462 when given the mandate. 

He also promomised to ban mining in forest reserves and take steps to restore the country’s degraded landscape. 

At the press conference, Mr Afenyo-Markin said it was worrying that after 120 days on office, President Mahama had failed to keep his promise on dealing with galamsey. 

"Illegal mining has flourished in the full glare of the President; foreigners involved in galamsey are deported instead of being prosecuted; he criticised former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for not doing much about galamsey, but he is now giving excuses. He has failed to declare state of emergency," he said. 

Dumsor

Additionally, he said after inheriting stable power supply, President Mahama had plunged the country into darkness, although he promised to improve on the power sector. 

"We have witnessed persistent power outages these 120 days of President Mahama, and we do not even know where our Minster of Energy and Green Transition is. We are using torchlights to search for our Energy Minister, but we cannot find him," he said.

The Minority Leader said the erratic power supply situation in the country has forced some businesses to fold up while others were also suffocating. 

Mr Afenyo-Markin also said the 24-hour Economy policy the President promised Ghanaians had become mirage.

He said instead of building up on the one district, one factory (1D1F) industrialisation policy the previous government had implemented, President Mahama had abandoned it and was also not implementing the 24-hour economy.

Education and social policy

The Minority Leader said although President Mahama made a plethora of promises in the education and social sector, not much had been done in redeeming those commitments.

He cited commitments such as no-academic fee for all first year tertiary students, free tertiary education for persons with disability, and distribution of free sanitary pads to school girls as some of the failed promises.

“These were headline-grabbing pledges intended to ease burdens on students and parents. But how many of these have been truly fulfilled? The reality is stark: not a single first-year university student has received a fee-free education under this policy so far,” he said. 

Lean government

Mr Afenyo-Markins also alleged that despite the promise by President Mahama to run the leanest and most efficient government, more persons had been appointed to political positions than expected.  

“This government has gone to great lengths to create the impression that it is cutting down on expenditure by appointing fewer ministers.

They parade this move as an act of prudence and fiscal discipline, but in reality, it is nothing more than political theatre designed to deceive the Ghanaian people,” he said.

He indicated that “the supposed reduction in ministerial appointments had little to no impact on the ballooning cost of government.”