The New Patriotic Party (NPP) branch in the Ashanti Region has urged President Mahama to refrain from what it calls promising spree, summarily making unfulfillable promises to the people of Ghana.
The party expressed shock that the President was still pledging free shoes for schoolchildren when little had been seen of promises such as the 100 community schools, Cape Coast market, ultra-modern market and a theatre for Kumasi, all pledged in 2012.
The Ashanti Regional Secretary of the NPP, Mr Sam Pyne, was reacting to issues raised by journalists at a press conference organised by the party to address matters arising from the President’s visit to the region.
Last week, President Mahama paid a three-day working visit to the region, where he visited construction sites and factories; inaugurated some projects, and pledged that schoolchildren would soon be given free shoes.
Mr Pyne wondered why President Mahama could not visit abandoned projects sites such as Sofoline road and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Maternity and Children’s blocks and why he (the President) failed to mention the capitation policy of the National Health Insurance Scheme “that is killing the people in the region”.
He described as a sign of impudence the long and winding vehicular convoy, coupled with the mounted public address system that “blurred loudly and irritatingly the song of Daddy Lumba “Yentie obia”, to wit “we won’t pay heed to any advice or criticism”.
He said the President should have known that there had been a ban on noise-making as part of activities marking the 15th anniversary of the enstoolment of Otumfio Osei Tutu II.
“The manner in which the President approached the region smacked of a leader who was clearly detached from the plight of his people and blinded by the milk and honey conditions he and his appointees were enjoying at the expense of the taxpayer,” Mr Pyne alleged.
He said the long queue of vehicles that were part of the President’s convoy and the huge number of rented crowd that followed the President were indications that the “President and the NDC was not ready to listen to the advice of technocrats but ready to chart the same path that brought us the GH¢8.1 billion budget deficit in 2012.”
The Ashanti Regional Communications Director of the NPP, Mr Kwesi Kyei, made a passionate appeal to President Mahama to be circumspect when speaking to the people in the region and Ghanaians in general.