The Dean of University of Cape Coast Business School, Prof. John Gatsi has called on the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to discuss their recently launched People’s Manifesto for the Election 2020 in the right context.
In an interview with Awake News, Prof. Gatsi, “There is a difference between a manifesto and a budget” and “You can only prepare a budget if you are given the legal mandate after an election to lead this country.”
“You don’t have the mandate to raise revenue and engage in any expenditure. That is why revenue mobilization and expenditure strategies are in the manifesto so that the budget will reflect these.” – he explains
For Prof. Gatsi, “The key thing now is whether or not the manifesto is a reflection of the current reality? The reality includes the Covid-19 imperatives clearly articulated in the manifesto. Covid-19 reality is an about inclusive and productive expenditure that projects the SME sector as the sector lead to faster recovery.”
The economist and a lawyer noted that “Some have declared the manifesto as populist without paying attention to the constitutional pillars in article 35 & 36 on which the people’s manifesto was crafted.” adding that “The people’s manifesto has been developed to give meaning to our constitutional aspirations and modern realities of the country.”
He, however, encouraged internal preparations including costing of some of the key projects without being drawn into budgeting for the manifesto.
The NDC’s what they called The People’s Manifesto has received wide commendation and public acceptance as being reflective of the true needs of the Ghanaian people.
The party in October last year adopted an approach of seeking views and ideas from interest groups and the public to help them draft the documents.
However, the ruling New Patriotic Party described the approach as the NDC lacking ideas for which they had to run to ordinary Ghanaians to ideas to help them get the document drafted.
Interestingly, just after the launch on the Manifesto, the President Akufo-Addo led NPP government has moved to start the implementation of some of the promises the NDC made in its manifesto for which the NPP and government top officials publicly kicked against notable among these are the legalization of Okada business and extension of Free SHS to private schools.
By: Efo Korsi Senyo / awakenewsroom.com