The 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Monday, October 24, 2016, began his 5-day tour of the Volta Region with a clarion call to residents of the region to help change President Mahama’s government on December 7, and return the country onto the path of progress and prosperity.
According to Nana Akufo-Addo, “the time has come for us to put people in office who are capable of giving this country a really effective and efficient government, so that we can make progress in our country.” The NPP flagbearer made this known when he addressed Togbui Agamela IV, the acting Paramount Chief of the Peki Traditional Council, in the South Dayi constituency, which was his first port of call in the Region.
“The President is going around telling everybody that in his next term, he is going to create jobs. In his next term, he’s going to concentrate on agriculture. Everything is in his next term. He doesn’t tell us anything about what is going on now. “He’s been in power for 8 years, and apart from the green book, we don’t know what else he’s been able to produce,” Nana Akufo-Addo said. He assured the Chiefs and people of Peki that “it is possible for us to develop rapidly if the correct policies are put in place.
We have outlined many of these policies, which are to do with reviving our agriculture, reviving our industry.” Nana Akufo-Addo reiterated his commitment of helping to establish a factory in each of the 216 districts across the country “in order for the districts to be the centre of economic activity and growth.”
On the rationale for setting up the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme, Nana Akufo-Addo explained that, “we (in the NPP) want to change the way the monies of our country are allocated. The monies are not getting down to assist the people to deal with the issues confronting them.” “That is why we have proposed that, from the 1st budget of our government, every constituency in the country is going to be allocated directly the equivalent of $1 million a year to deal with basic infrastructural needs of the constituency.”
The NPP flagbearer also assured of the effective implementation of the Free SHS policy, as well as the revival of the National Health Insurance Scheme, which, he described as “one of the greatest social programmes, not just of Ghana, but in the whole of Africa.” The NHIS, however, “in the hands of President Mahama and the NDC is being compromised.
The NHIS is in serious decline, and it is my hope and intention that, if the people of Ghana bring the NPP back into office, we are going to revive the NHIS to make it work for everybody, as was the original intention.” Nana Akufo-Addo appealed to the people of South Dayi to throw their support behind him and the NPP, so development, jobs and wealth can be brought to every part of the country without discrimination.
“I have come to you here in Peki, and in other areas of the Volta Region to ask for your support. It has not been forthcoming to us in big numbers in the Volta Region. But, I was happy to hear you (Togbui Agamela IV) say that I shouldn’t assume everybody is an NDC member here. That is a very reassuring statement for me.
I am also hoping we will get many people who will say they are not NDC, and will help the NPP come back into office,” he added. Nana Akufo-Addo, in concluding, assured the Chiefs and people of the Volta Region that “the NPP will not be the origin of any disturbance in our country over these elections”.
He urged the Electoral Commission to also play its role as a fair and impartial referee, as “this will enhance the peace and stability of our country.”
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