Promising To Make Untenable Promises Is Itself Untenable – Bawumia To Mahama

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Running Mate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the December General Elections, says President Mahama is at the helm of a party NDC that has a track record of making promises and constantly breaking them.

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was speaking at the Bolgatanga Polytechnic on Saturday during a youth forum organized under the auspices of the TESCON chapter in the polytechnic, when he made these comments.

Taking on the President on his constant pessimism of the NPP’s pledge to make Secondary education free beginning September 2013, Dr. Bawumia said “the free secondary education promise is not a promise we just made, it is a promise which has been fully costed and we have put out the figures. So it is not true when you hear his Excellency the President saying that our promise of free secondary education is untenable and that they in the NDC would not make untenable promises

I say to his Excellency, the President that his promise not to make untenable promises is in itself untenable. What did the NDC promise us and what are they promising us? They promised us in 2008 that they were going to institute a one-time premium for health insurance. Well, we told them then and tell them now that that promise is untenable. They promised to rid our cities of filth within a hundred days, that promise has been untenable so far and they promised to provide jobs for all youths, a promise they have woefully failed to deliver on”, he said.

The NPP Vice-Presidential candidate compared the pessimism being displayed by the NDC now to the pessimism the same party displayed a decade ago when the NPP decided to scrap the cash and carry scheme and replace it with a well managed National Health Insurance scheme. He noted that despite the constant criticisms and protests by the NDC concerning the NHIS including a walkout by the then NDC opposition from parliament, the NPP was able to institute the NHIS to the admiration of many.

Dr. Bawumia took his time to walk the audience through the state of the economy bequeathed to the Kufuor administration by the NDC in 2000 and the state of the economy left to the NDC in 2009 to make the point that the NPP had the track record of delivering even under difficult circumstances.

He indicated that the NPP in its eight year rule, grew the economy by an annual average of 62% in dollar terms, the NDC since 2009 have grown the economy by an annual average of only 5.5% in dollar terms and stated that even without oil, the NPP would have still implemented free secondary education because the NPP knows how to grow an economy and make things work.

The former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana indicated that the NDC were caught up in a mindset of negativity and pessimism not only because they had a track record of failing to deliver on their own promises but also because they had misplaced priorities.

“If Ghana cannot afford to spend 1.3% to introduce free secondary education but can spend 1.3% to pay dubious judgment debts to woyome and others, then we certainly need to get our priorities right. We in the NPP have decided to prioritize free secondary education and the improvement of the lives of the Ghanaian and that is what we would do”, he said.