The spokesperson for the Leader of Movement for Change (MFC), Mr. Solomon Owusu, has indicated that the 24-hour economy policy is not an original idea of the former president John Dramani Mahama.
According to him, the innovative policy is an integral part of Alan Kyerematen’s Great Transformational Policy (GTP) agenda.
He proclaimed that Mr. Alan Kyerematen’s GTP agenda for Ghanaians already has a 24-hour economy in place, adding that the existing initiative positions Alan Kyerematen as the pioneer of the 24-hour economy concept in the country.
He noted that December 2, 2023, may go down as one of the days that Ghana politics took on a different dimension when, against all odds,the leader of the Movement for Change,Alan Kyerematen,an independent presidential candidate come 2024, pulled close to 600,000 human beings into the street of Kumasi,the capital of the Ashanti region, for what was described as a national unity walk.
The walk, which started from Bekwai Roundabout, ended at Kumasi City Mall, where the leader of the movement,Alan Kyerematen,addressed the crowd. In his address,Mr.Kyerematen, consistent with his movement’s theme of ensuring a government of national unity where consensus would be built around policies,agreed with former President John Mahama’s manifesto promise of a 24-hour economy.
During the engagement of the supporters of the union, Mr. Alan did not stop at the point of agreeing but rather went ahead to ask a very simple question: “How would the 24-hour economy be achieved by the former President?”.
This is how civilized nations have developed. They ask probing questions that will expose the true intentions of what people say as to whether they mean it or if it is business as usual.
The idea of a 24-hour economy as the next leader of the country is posited is a good idea, and it will be a mark of low thinking politically for anyone to say that is not a good idea. Clearly,ever since John Mahama threw the mantra into the system, he, together with his party communicators and the NDCC party functionaries, are struggling to answer the question of how.
In a rather interesting turn of things,whereas the NDCC supporters trimmed the portion of the speech that said the 24-hour economy was good and used that to praise John Mahama,the NPP, through its sycophants led by one Maurice Ampaw, who seem to be the reason most people have decided not to pursue law anymore, have decided to insult the leader of the movement for change for agreeing with the manifesto promise of the former president.
In fact, sitting on Wontumi television and looking helpless, Ampaw, who could not hold back the pain in him on seeing the numbers Mr.Alan Kyerematen pulled on the street of Kumasi,deviated from his own question and rather entered the fray of tribalism by questioning the Asanteness in Alan. All of a sudden,the Apostle of De-Akanisation or De-Asantenisation of the Npp got back his brain and started preaching Re-Asantenisation of the Npp. He tried to make the point that the NPP was for the Asantes and that no true Asante person would leave the NPP.
First of all, for Alan to disagree with the position of the 24-hour economy would have meant he did not believe in his own Great Transformational Plan that deals with the stability of the macroeconomic environment,agricultural revolution,industrialization,enhancement of security, decarbonization, massive infrastructure development, etc. The end product of the various plans contained in the GTP is a 24-hour economy, and so how was Maurice Ampaw expecting Alan to disagree with the manifesto promise of the former President?
Again, how was Maurice Ampaw expecting Alan to disagree with the 24-hour economy when one of the pillars of the movement for change is to build a government of national unity where ideas from all walks of life will be embraced to develop Ghana?
The movement for change has called for Ghanaians to look beyond the NPP and NDC duopoly and rather think of how best we can assemble all the brains in the country for national development. In the movement lies consensus building.So the behavior of the Npp and the Ndc since last Saturday goes to affirm the position of the leader for the movement for change that if this country is still going to be left in the hands of the Npp and the Ndc,this country will never have a common position on policies because for them,everything must be looked at through the lenses of the Npp and the Ndc. Maurice Ampaw clearly might have taken a cue from the flagbearer of the NPP, who immediately heard of the 24-hour economy,cited chop bars as operating a 24-hour economy, and so felt it was a bad idea.
The NPP and the NDC must know that the levels of hardship in the country do not call for their usual antics but rather a sober reflection as to why we are where we are today and how best we can all work together to turn things around.
At this material time, Ghanaians need to end political arrogance, where things that are supposed to help the country will be bastardized all in the name of partisan politics. History must guide us to understand that it was this same NDCA and NPPA partisan politics that led Professor Mills to reverse the four-year SSS system to three years. We have turned everything into NDCC and NPP, and it is time we reversed this curse to rescue the nation. Our poverty levels have remained the same, and like Einstein said, “If you continue to do the same thing over and over again,you will continue to get the same result.” Ghanaians have been voting in the same pattern for the last 31 years and have been getting the same results. If we want to continue to embrace poverty,then we must make the status quo remain. I, however, strongly believe that Ghanaians have seen that indeed all the beautiful and working countries have achieved their feet because there was a transformational leader, and in Alan,they find such a leader.