Why NDC isn’t surprised at government’s poor showing on Afrobarometer study

Ghana’s biggest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the latest Afrobarometer survey report that the Akufo-Addo government has performed abysmally is no surprise at all.

The party says the report corroborates widespread public opinion on the abysmal and unimpressive performance of the government.

A statement issued on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 by NDC’s National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi says the development “must be a great source of worry and a wakeup call for President Akufo-Addo and his team who have failed to deliver on almost all their lofty campaign promises.

The statement said the relative to government’s performance in 2017, the 2018 report shows government has failed in all fronts of national life such as the direction of the country, management of the economy, job creation, corruption, security, and matters affecting the youth.

“This damning verdict comes as no surprise to us in the NDC, because we have always known that beyond his cacophonous rhetoric about fighting corruption, President Akufo-Addo is not a man who can walk his talk when it comes to the fight against corruption. And this fact is very evident from the pervasive and endemic corruption that has engulfed his government today.”

According to the NDC, the adverse findings of the report “is clear confirmation of the unbearable cost of living and excruciating economic hardships Ghanaians are reeling under as a result of the bad and insensitive policies of President Akufo-Addo…”

Read the full statement below

PRESS RELEASE BY THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS ON THE LATEST AFROBAROMETER SURVEY.

4th December, 2019.

The National Democratic Congress has taken note of the eighth Afrobarometer Survey report released by the Center for Democratic Development Ghana (CDD-GH), which has rated the performance of the Akufo-Addo government very poorly.

We note from the latest survey report, that the Akufo-Addo government has performed abysmally in all fronts of our national life such as, the direction of the country, management of the economy, job creation, corruption, security, matters affecting the youth among others, compared to their performance in 2017.

This latest report corroborates widespread public opinion on the abysmal and unimpressive performance of this government which must be a great source of worry and a wakeup call for President Akufo-Addo and his team who have failed to deliver on almost all their lofty campaign promises.

The following facts are prominent in the latest Afrobarometer survey report:

1. The percentage of Ghanaians who think that the nation is moving in the right direction has seen a huge decline from 85% in 2017 to 59% in 2019, showing a gargantuan drop of 26%.

2. The percentage of Ghanaians who say that government is managing the economy well has seen a steep decline from 71% in 2017 to 51% in 2019, showing a whopping 20% drop.

4. On corruption, the report shows a 17% rise in public perception about the level of corruption in Ghana between 2017 and 2019. 53% of Ghanaians are of the opinion that corruption has worsened in Ghana under President Akufo-Addo compared to 39% in 2017. Also, 83% of Ghanaians are of the opinion that President Akufo-Addo and his officials are very or somewhat corrupt. The approval rating of Government’s performance in the fight against corruption has dropped from 67% in 2017 to 40% in 2019, representing a huge decline of 27%.

This damning verdict comes as no surprise to us in the NDC, because we have always known that beyond his cacophonous rhetoric about fighting corruption, President Akufo-Addo is not a man who can walk his talk when it comes to the fight against corruption. And this fact is very evident from the pervasive and endemic corruption that has engulfed his government today.

5. On fighting crime, only 43% of Ghanaians think President Akufo-Addo is doing well, which is a drop of 23% from 2017 when 66% of respondents said he was doing well in fighting crime.

This again does not surprise us the least, given the lawlessness and impunity with which NPP thugs have behaved since 2017 and the many incidents of violent crimes including kidnappings and murder which remain unresolved to date.

6. On government’s performance in addressing the needs of the youth, only 47% of Ghanaians said President Akufo-Addo is doing well. This represents a 15% drop from 2017 when 62% said they were doing well.
Once again, the rising despondency among Ghanaian youth over the many failed promises of the Akufo-Addo government lends credence to this finding.

7. Also, the approval rating for government’s responsiveness to job creation has declined significantly from 41% in 2017 to 29% in 2019.

This confirms the abysmal performance of the Akufo-Addo government relative to the creation of sustainable jobs despite their flowery rhetorics.

8. For the first time in the history of the Afrobarometer, majority of Ghanaians, specifically 26%, believe infrastructure is their topmost priority. Sadly however, only one (1) out of six (6) Ghanaians say that the Akufo-Addo government is responding to their priority needs of Infrastructure.

The above is testament to the fact that President Akufo-Addo has been highly abysmal in the provision of critical infrastructural development despite having over GHS210 billion in resources since 2017.
More importantly, this is a clear vindication of President Mahama and the NDC who carried out the biggest investments in infrastructure in the fourth republic in all sectors of the country.

9. Furthermore, the report shows, that the most common form of deprivation experienced by most Ghanaians in the previous year is the lack of cash in their pockets. About 72% of respondents went without cash income at least once during the previous year, including 28% of Ghanaians who did so “many times or always”.

This is clear confirmation of the unbearable cost of living and excruciating economic hardships Ghanaians are reeling under as a result of the bad and insensitive policies of President Akufo-Addo. Quite obviously, Ken Ofori-Atta's phantom and obtuse claim of having put GHS12.2 billion in the pockets of Ghanaians only exists in his dreams.

10. On Free SHS, while 87% of Ghanaians believe that the Free SHS Programme is good, 50% of Ghanaians think the policy should have targeted the poor and needy, while 55% of respondents believe that government should have put in place the needed structures before implementing the policy.

These germane concerns go to reinforce the position of the NDC on the need to improve on the implementation of the Free SHS Programme. And this, the next NDC-Mahama Administration will do by; abolishing the double-track system through the massive expansion of Secondary Education infrastructure which we began while in office; streamlining placement of students; enhancing the quality of Secondary Education through the provision of learning and teaching materials, prioritizing teacher motivation, just to mention a few.

11. Additionally, the survey shows that trust in President Akufo-Addo has declined from 73% in 2017 to 58% in 2019, representing a drop of 15%.

Moreover, trust in the President is likely to decline further given the fact that, out of the 58% of Ghanaians who expressed different degrees of trust in the President, only 33% said they really trust the President. The remaining 25% of Ghanaians said they don’t really but “somewhat” trust the President and this should be a great source of worry to the President and his government.

This huge decline in trust in the President is as a result of the fact that, President Akufo-Addo's character has failed the test of time. Ghanaians have seen through the effort to shield the President from the wrongdoings of his government. Ghanaians have seen the profligate lifestyle of President Akufo-Addo and his bloated government as hardship continues to increase. They have seen how he has increased borrowing after promising to reduce same, with very little to show for. They have witnessed how he has imposed more taxes on them after promising to move Ghana from taxation to production. And above all, the Ghanaian people have seen how President Akufo-Addo has become an enabler and promoter of corruption and criminal conduct by his government officials and party members.

12. Finally, on the claim that trust in “opposition parties” is low:

It is worthy of note, that there are over 20 opposition parties in Ghana. Hence, this matrix cannot by any shred of imagination represent an accurate indicator of the level of trust in the NDC as a political party, as is being suggested by the NPP.

Secondly, it is instructive to point out, that opposition parties do not control or manage the resources of state. And, unlike President Akufo-Addo and the NPP who have been governing in the period under review, opposition parties are yet to start campaigning and make public their policy proposals.

In any case, assuming without admitting that this matrix is anything to go by, it only shows that Ghanaians have high expectations of opposition parties in general and expect us to be more critical of and effective at exposing the misrule of the Akufo-Addo government.

This matrix does not in any way change the fact that the performance of the deceptive, corrupt, nepotistic and inept Akufo-Addo government has been abysmal and retrogressive on all fronts, as confirmed by the latest Afrobarometer report.

Signed.
SAMMY GYAMFI
(National Communication Officer)