The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has taken President Akufo-Addo on for saying projects in its famous Green Book are nothing fantasies.
Addressing journalists in Accra Monday, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, the party’s Parliamentary candidate for Abora Asebu Kwamankese, said the President’s claim that projects in the Green Book do not exist on the ground is not factual.
“Having actively participated in the compilation of this book which highlights the boldest and biggest capital investment in the history of the Fourth Republic, I can state with absolute certainty, that the President’s claim that it contains “fantasy” projects that cannot be found on the ground, is an outright untruth.”
President Akufo-Addo during the commissioning of the Tema Motorway Interchange on Friday called out the previous Mahama administration for saying it embarked on unprecedented infrastructure projects during its tenure.
Describing the claims as fictional, one which only exists in the NDC’s Green Book, he said it was based on those ‘falsehoods’ that “we made a pledge to the Ghanaian people to expand and improve the road network while closing the missing links in the network.
“We had to make this pledge because we know that the so-called unprecedented infrastructure development of the Mahama administration was fantasy; existing in the Green Book and not on the ground,” he added.
But the NDC will have none of that.
Mr Kwakye Ofosu told the media that the President’s misrepresentation of the Green Book predates his ascension into office.
“He had claimed during the launch of the NPP manifesto, which has in the fullness of time proven to be the most deceptive and dishonoured in Ghanaian political history, that the Green Book was full of artist impressions.
“In view of the abundance of evidence over the accuracy of the contents of the Green Book, there are only two possible explanations for the consistent falsehood of the President on the matter,” the former Deputy Information Minister said.
He added that it was possible that having heard about the book, President Akufo-Addo has never sighted a copy of it and has thus not had the opportunity to peruse it, “in which case he would have been compelled to rely on the same pedestrian propaganda of low-level NPP communicators.
“We all can recollect how the same cavalier approach to governance and his lack of attention to detail led to his approval of the most inflated contract in the history of Ghana, the Ameri Novation deal, only for it to be withdrawn and for us to be told by sources with knowledge of the matter, that he had been misled into granting executive approval for same.”
It is also possible, Mr Kwakye Ofosu noted, that President Akufo-Addo is fully apprised of the contents of the Green Book but has “chosen the path of falsehood in so far as it enables him to mislead fanatical supporters of the NPP or unsuspecting members of the public and in the process hide his dubious reputation as the least performing of all Ghanaian leaders at least in the area of infrastructure or capital investments.
“Either way, this would be most unbecoming of an occupant of the high office of President. That office is associated with certain basic requirements which include candour, thoroughness, and truthfulness. The President of a country must speak in ways that leave no room for doubt or the potential for him to be ridiculed or derided,” he added.
Source: myjoyonline.com
