He said this, Tuesday evening, when he took his turn at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Evening Encounter Series with Presidential Canditates to share his vision and policies if elected president in the 2016 elections.
In what he describes as “unacceptable”, the two-time former General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) said, the major political parties, the NDC and NPP have since 1992, pursued similar policies which has only increased the poverty gap. According to the lawyer-turn-politician, in order for the “Ghanaian Dream” to be realised, he is making a new pact with Ghanaians which he calls “Apam Foforo” – the New Covenant.
To buttress his point, he gave a litany of examples to show why the two major political parties have failed to improve the lives of Ghanaians in the past 24 years.“Just look around you, despite all the shouting about poverty, declining, recent statistics show that 30 percent of the population is poor, with 19 percent extremely poor.
“We also have a creeping urbanization, sanitation and housing crises. For example, just imagine, 53 percent of households in Accra is said to occupy a single room. Inflation is up to 19 percent with interest rates at 35 percent, and the cost of living is so, so high for the ordinary Ghanaians”
“Five million Ghanaians do not have access to toilets; Ghana is second in Africa after Sudan for open defecation and second in cholera after Nigeria; over 29,000 Ghanaians were affected by Cholera in 2014 and our national capital had 20,000 cases resulting in a 120 deaths.” He stated.
In a 30 minutes address, the Black Sniper, shared his policies for the economy, health, education, energy, women, PWDs, children and the aged and agriculture among others. In the agriculuture sector, he spoke of the enormous potential of the almond tree which Ghana can leverage on to earn up to $300 billion.
In what can be described as his flagship energy policy in addressing Ghana’s energy energy problem, He said his government will leverage on wind energy which has the potential to produce 9,000 megawatts of energy for domestic use and export power to neighbouring countries.
Meanwhile, the date for the NPP’s presidential candidate, Nana Akuffo Addo’s session on July 5 has been postponed to unconfirmed date.
