Sammy Gyamfi, NDC National Communications Officer
• The Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference has criticized government
• They are worried especially about corruption and the failure to combat it
• The opposition NDC are happy that neutral voices like the Church is speaking up
National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, Sammy Gyamfi has stated that a recent critical statement by the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference on ongoings in the country was a welcome development.
According to him, it was important that neutral voices like that of the Church stood up and spoke out against hardships that the citizenry are having to endure in the country.
President of the Catholic Bishops umbrella body, Most Rev. Philip Naameh, a gathering of the GCBC held in Wa, capital of the Upper West Region, spoke in critical terms about issues of governance in the country.
One of the most stinging points being about how the President’s pledge to protect the public purse has all but become an illusion.
Reacting to his views, Sammy Gyamfi stated on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News that the Bishops had delivered a verdict on the misrule and misgovernance of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-Mahamudu Bawumia government.
“He made a categorical statement that the promise made by then-candidate Akufo-Addo, now President Akufo-Addo to protect the public purse has now become an illusion.
“We are not talking about an association that is offering generalized advice to politicians. These are people just like many Ghanaians who had high expectations of the NPP and then-candidate Akufo-Addo and his vice Bawumia.
“They were told that they should vote for the NPP and that the NPP was going to fight corruption head-on, that the NPP was going to make life better for them and improve their living conditions but today, the contrary is the case,” he added.
He accused the government of pursuing policies that led to the high cost of living with the ever-soaring prices of basic commodities whiles Ghanaians became poorer and poorer by the day.
He parried a position by NPP’s Yaw Buaben Asamoa to the effect that the views of the GCBC president were generalized saying it was “not general advice but a specific condemnation of the misrule and misgovernance of the NPP Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration.
“For us in the NDC, this corroborates what we have been saying all along and we are happy that neutral respected voices like the Catholic Bishops Conference are now coming out to speak up about these issues, this is what we expect to see,” he stressed.
The 2020 theme for the Catholic Bishops Conference is “Fratellituti and COVID-19: pastoral challenges and opportunities in Ghana.”
What the GCBC president said on corruption
“Though poverty stares us in the face, it appears lost to those with power. The expressed commitment of the president of the republic to protect the public purse, a promise that citizens welcomed, seems to be an illusion now.
“Are those managing the public purse not concerned about waste and misapplication of resources that belong to all Ghanaians? Can this be referred to as irresponsible use of power or the lack of compassion and empathy?”