President John Dramani Mahama has pooh-poohed Nana Akufo-Addo’s streak of promises ahead of the elections in December, saying those tactics to hoodwink voters are outmoded.
According to President Mahama, Akufo-Addo’s over-hyped one district one factory, and one village one dam up north, are not only an archaic way of politicking, but they are also ideas that government is already implementing.
“In the free school programme, when you came down to the figures and the nitty-gritty, he found it very difficult to explain.
It is the same thing that is happening here. You just throw out a promise that is yesterday’s campaigning in those days, my father’s time. You just throw out something and people just pick it one village one dam they don’t know if it is a dug out or a barrage dam or a proper irrigation dam they don’t know.
But then just that you say one village one dam, one village one factory what kind of factory. Is it a car assembling plant ? is it the kind of factories that we know? Is it electronic appliances, textiles and garments or small and medium enterprises? If it is small that is happening already.
If you talk about those factories, people’s perceptions of factories defer. He has to clarify,” he said on Good Evening Ghana on Tuesday.
Nana Akufo-Addo has promised to build factories in all the 216 districts in the country to reduce unemployment, and also build irrigation dams for villages up north to boost agriculture.
However, the NPP Presidential nominee, has been chastised by the governing National Democratic Congress over the ideas which some have said are not realistic.
President Mahama said on Good Evening Ghana that, his government is already building dams under the SADA programme and empowering the private sector to build factories.
“This thing about one factory per district came up under the rural enterprise project. It’s not a new idea; it’s a very old idea. If you are talking about small and medium enterprises, like gari making factories, small processing companies, and the use of gratis machines, that is happening already.
So the promises are not new. What we call a dam in the north is a dug out and every village has a dug out, it’s a pond, we use to drink from it in the north when there was no water. But now that most of the communities have water the dug outs are used for livestock watering.
“If he is talking about dug outs, SADA is doing dug outs for villages. The problem we face now is not the dug outs; its de-silting them. Most of the dug outs are silted. And so SADA is having a programme to de-silt the dug outs so that they can accumulate more water for the cattle and other animals to be able to get water. So the work that is going on in the north is massive and so if you come and one village one dam, you’ve really not said anything;” Mahama added.
Mahama listed a number of dams which government has built as well as those it has revamped including those at Tamni [in Bawku], Brenam, Vea irrigation project, Tunu irrigation project.
“In campaigning, you put up a programme and your programme speaks to what you intend to do over the next four years if you are given the mandate.
And there are linkages in everything that you do, things do not stand in isolation and so if you just pick one this one that what does it relate to? It must be linked to something and so I’m sure when his manifesto comes out we would understand what those linkages are.”
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