Many people are pretty casual about making promises. As a result, promises are frequently made at the top of a hat with no real intention of keeping them. Nana Akufo Addo and his party promised Ghanaians the moon. A promise is a promise. In power, Akufo Addo and his folks have started applying rating scales, believing that breaking a big promise is inexcusable, while a small one is acceptable.
Remember, trust is built through a series of experiences shared with others. When promises are broken or people are misled, the bond of trust are breached and the masses lose trust in leadership.
In opposition, Akufo Addo, his Vice and their propagandists distorted the truth by exaggerating their lies, spinning the truth and withheld key facts. They told expensive lies about John Mahama and his appointees and made serious allegations against them which have still not been substantiated. This has weakened their credibility and going to affect their future endeavours. Half the truth is often a whole lie. Lying comes in many forms. They have terribly disappointed their followers. The President’s credibility rating has dropped sharply. What he does now is- spinning by presenting selected facts that support his propaganda and withholding key facts. Everything the President says is treated as suspect because of his lying habit.
Because of how John Mahama carried himself in office and operated with complete integrity, what he says is taken at face value and his intentions are always assumed honourable. He takes great pride in the standards he set for himself, and the office he occupied. After leaving office, he sleeps well at night knowing that his conscience is clear. As for his predecessor, Nana Addo, just when he thinks he’s deceiving Ghanaians, he will soon realise that he is only deceiving himself. He should not think he can get away with his lies. Lying has become his habit, forcing him to spend billions of our taxes, his precious time and energy to keep his cooked stories straight.
John Mahama proved that he is a solution oriented person. Instead of blaming his predecessors as the current President is doing, he took responsibility.
He didn’t intimidate people with his position and wasn’t boastful about how great he is. The only time John looks down on anyone is to lend a hand of help to another person up. Unlike his successor who gobble up all the credit (vague), John acknowledges friends, appointees, peers, supporters and even his critics when they do great job.
Unlike his successor who reneges obligations, breaking promises. John made sure he fulfilled promises he made.
He never disrespected his followers, critics, political opponents. He appreciated all these people and held them in high esteem. In fact, he invited some of his ardent critics to seminars etc to discuss Ghana. He invited some members of the Npp to join his team discuss Ghana, and opened his doors 24/7 to his critics. He didn’t practice incivility, rudeness and insolence. He did not openly attack CSOs for offering alternative views to his, and didn’t insult his political opponents for challenging his decisions.
The President and his party folks have almost turned some of our intellectuals to illiterates and cheap surrogates. They come out with different lies on their social media walls, pages of newspapers just to mislead people, not knowing that God is greater than any mortal. The current President made some promises which can rightly be described as “useless vows”. While campaigning for the Presidential election in 2016, President Akufo Addo promised to
-Reduce fuel prices verdict – over increased
-Build one dam in all villages. Verdict no dam
-Each Constituency 1$ million annually.Verdict says it has expired
-No borrowing.Verdict borrowed over Ghc 50 billion with 23 months.
-Build 350 New Secondary Schools.Verdict ..Double track instead
-Create Employment. Verdict..unemployment has over increased and more workers have lost their jobs(Banks and businesses collapsing)
-Reduce size of government. Verdict..has over increased it.
-Get Ghana out of the IMF deal immediately they take over. Verdict…extended it.
-Cancel the Ameri deal immediately they take over. Verdict.. Extended it and attempted milking from it
-one district one factory. Verdict…no show so far
-Chocolate for school kids. Verdict…not even fried corn.
-No more sole sourcing…Verdict..worsened.
-No family and friends government. Verdict…President has appointed 64 family members including daughters and in-laws into his government. His Vice has appointed his father in law an ambassador and brother in law NADMO boss. Etc etc .
John Dramani Mahama promised will fix the decades old power crisis permanently instead of busing pastors to Akosombo for special intervention prayers. Verdict. He fulfilled that promise. He fixed the problem before leaving office.
-He promised Ghanaians that Ghana will become a.net exporter of electricity. Verdict..The current President recently announced that Ghana is now a net exporter of electricity.
-He promised will construct more roads and repair the bad ones. He did exactly that.
-Promised will extend health facilities to all districts, villages etc. Verdict. He executed that perfectly by building modern hospitals in the districts, chps compounds, polyclinics etc. He also built renovated regional hospitals, built teaching hospitals, military hospitals, midwifery training schools etc etc
-Said he will support private businesses verdict..did exactly that. Supported the poultry industry, Tobinco and Ernest Chemist, cocoa farmers with free fertiliser and seedlings etc.
He promised to fix the economy. Verdict.. The senior minister during his vetting acknowledged that the fundamentals of the economy they inherited was very strong.
The World Bank in its 2015/16 report indicated that Ghana’s economy will grow by 8 to 8.5 percent between 2017 and 2018 because of the prudent measures implemented by the Mahama administration and investments the administration made in the oil and gas sectors.
Because Nana Akufo has failed to live up to his word as his predecessor did people have lost confidence in his government, his credibility is tarnished and his relationship with Ghanaians including some CSOs who worked closely with him is damaged.
