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Ghana is an oil producing country but there is nothing to show for under President Mahama’s tenure.
“It looks like Ghana is so resourceful, yet I cannot see how it can fail so abysmally under President Mahama’s watch. In fact, I have difficulty pinpointing any monumental success story by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in its tenure of administration,” the parliamentary candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Klottey Korle Constituency, Mr Philip Addison, has observed.
Mr Addison, affectionately called Lawyer Addison, is facing stiff competition from Dr Zanetor Rawlings of the NDC and Mrs Eva Lokko, the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) candidate.
The contest in the constituency is of interest to many political watchers and is expected to be one of the hotly contested seats in the Greater Accra Region.
Living standards
According to the private legal practitioner, the government had received $40 billion in loans but did not have enough to show for by way of improving the living standards of the people.
With such an amount, he said he was confident the NPP would have done so much for the benefit of the people.
He was speaking to the Daily Graphic after he had donated blood at the Graphic Communications Group Limited blood donation exercise last Thursday to help stock the National Blood Bank l.
In Mr Addison’s view, the NDC had exhibited incompetence, said he which has brought in its wake economic difficulties for the Ghanaian.
The economy, he insisted, was in tatters and that the NDC had lost focus in solving the problems confronting the country.
“Seriously, I will have to sit and think of the successes of the NDC. It is difficult because the NDC has failed to build on the track record of the NPP, including social intervention policies,” he said.
Rather, he said, corruption was rife, scarce resources were carelessly and recklessly being spent and the power crisis (dumsor) was still raging.
NPP’s track record
“We want to come back and improve on our track record with the transformational agenda to improve the lives of the people positively, as well as work to ensure that the difficulties facing the country will become things of the past,” he said.
Based on the track record of the NPP under the eight-year (2000-2008) rule of President Kufuor, Mr Addison said he was hopeful the Ghanaian electorate would return the party to victory.
He urged the electorate to “give us the vote, give us the opportunity again and things will get better”.
Problems in constituency
He admitted that the NPP had a lot of problems in the constituency but said there was now unity and enthusiasm among the rank and file.
He described his chances of winning the Klottey Korle seat as ‘very very bright’, stressing that “strongholds of the NDC in the constituency are voluntarily coming to our meetings because there is no improvement in their standard of living.
“Our doors are open to receive everybody; no exception at all and we are holding regular electoral and cell meetings, doing house-to-house campaigning, as well as organising fun games to mobilise support for the NPP as a whole.
Motivation
On what motivated him, Mr Addison declared: “It is not so much about being an MP but fighting for principles and my belief in justice and what is right always.”
He indicated his resolve “to help my people to come out of the quagmire of poverty through advocacy and other practical measures”.
He said the constituency, though in the heart of the capital, was faced with numerous fundamental challenges, including flooding and sanitation issues, low standards of education and high unemployment that need to be fixed.
Threat of Zanetor, Lokko
Concerning the threat posed by Dr Rawlings and Mrs Lokko, Lawyer Addison declared: “They do not pose a threat at all. Zanetor is contesting the seat on the wings of his father, former President J.J. Rawlings.”
“What you must bear in mind is that nobody knew the fathers of all the previous candidates who contested the seat and won it. They contested on their merit and I am standing on my own merit to win the seat. Remember that one goes to Parliament alone to deliver the mandate of the people and that is the major difference and challenge,” he stated.
Source: Graphic.com.gh