New Patriotic Party (NPP) vice presidential candidate for 2016 election, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, led a massive five-hour demonstration in the Upper East Regional capital, Bolgatanga, yesterday, attracting thousands of demonstrators.
He responded to cheers from some residents who could not join the protest march which went through some principal streets of the town but were in solidarity. Other national and regional executives of the
NPP such as Ashanti regional chairman, Antwi Boasiako popularly called Chairman Wontumi, deputy Minority Leader, Dominic Nitiwul, former Vice Chairperson, Fred Oware, and Northern regional chairman, Daniel Bugri Naabu participated in the demonstration.
The protesters wielded several placards generally demanding better living conditions from NDC government, reminding President John Mahama of his 2012 Campaign promises, the need to revamp the National Health Insurance Scheme and also address the energy crisis facing the nation that had led to the collapse of a number of businesses.
In an address preceding the protest march, Dr Bawumia observed that President John Mahama and his appointees are always quick to respond to every lecture or public statement he (Bawumia) makes, and yet do not accept his good suggestions to revamp the country’s economy and improve the living conditions of the suffering Ghanaian.
‘The NDC government does not see anything good in all the good economic counsel I have offered at no cost. Yet they accept the same information and ideas I have given, when it comes from a different person or institution. They keep saying we don’t offer solutions to the economic and power problems facing the country and yet when we give, they ignore them,’ he noted.
According to him, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has no intention of improving the economic status of the country and the people; hence, the need for Ghanaians to vote them out in 2016.
The Upper East Regional Chairman of the NPP, Adams Mahama, called on the people of the region never to allow themselves to be deceived by the NDC to vote for President John Mahama because he is a northerner.
‘In 2012 this is what NDC and President Mahama campaigned with; he said northerners should vote for him because he is a northerner and our brother. Many people voted for him because of this and now see how
he is governing the country; see the hardships. NPP knows what it takes to improve the economy of the country and that of the citizenry.
President Mahama promised better lives and better Ghana; these are not what he is delivering. We must vote him out and bring a president that feels the pain of the people he leads,’ he charged.
Suffering Ghanaians running into thousands joined members and leaders of the NPP from all the constituencies in the region to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the current hardship they are going through.
“I thank all of you for showing up here in your numbers. We are going to march to tell the country that it is time for change; we are tired of wahala, corruption, mismanagement and lies. So let us march in unity and let the government know that we are ready for change; we are ready for the NPP and ready for Nana Akufo-Addo”, he said.
They complained about the hardship in the economy, high fees for admission into teacher and nursing trainingcolleges, they also spoke about collapsing NHIS, corruption under the GYEEDA and SADA programmes among others.
Dominic Nitiwul was disappointed in Mahama saying that the ‘president is from the north but he has failed us’.
Nitiwul noted that the hardship was not limited to the northern regions but a nationwide challenge that is eliciting a national call for change everywhere he goes.
Everywhere in the country people are suffering, but this is not the kind of government we voted for, he emphasised.
Chairman Wontumi made fun of the failed guinea fowl initiative under the SADA project, when he told the crowd that they were in the region “to search for the missing guinea fowls”.
“We are here to look for guinea fouls; the money Mahama took from Ghanaians. We know that you are going to help us by voting against John Mahama in 2016″, he said.
From: Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga
This article has 0 comment, leave your comment.