The Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, has predicted that many of the campaign promises by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) will remain unfulfilled.
“I am profoundly optimistic that the ruling NPP government will choke with credibility problems in honouring their lousy and mouth-watering promises to the electorate,” he told the Daily Graphic in an interview moments after the country celebrated its 60th Independence Anniversary last Monday.
NPP Campaign promises
The NPP, during the 2016 general election campaign promised many things to the Ghanaian electorate. Some of the flagship promises were, Free Senior High School (SHS), one village one dam, paying of teacher and nursing trainee allowances, free maternal care, and reducing tariffs and abolishing some taxes.
Others are one district one factory, $1m each to all 275 constituencies, payment of all DKM customers, reducing corporate tax, creating the Western North Region, and providing jobs.
Others are the expansion of the school feeding programme, implementing strong anti-corruption policies and National Identity (NI) Cards for all Ghanaians and the elections of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) among many other promises.
Mr Iddrisu mentioned that whilst the NDC was wishing the NPP well, only time would tell about what they could do to redeem the campaign promises.
Comparing records
He said the future was very bright for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) because the Ghanaian electorate would have an opportunity to compare the records of the NDC and those of the NPP.
The NDC, he said, “had a good record of massive infrastructural development yet we lost the elections. Meaning there was something amiss. What did the Ghanaian want and we failed to do. This is what the election review committee, under Dr Kwesi Botchwey, can help to unravel.”
According to Mr Iddrisu, the NDC needs to understand the Ghanaian electorate and what influences their political choices.
Personally, I believe that addressing the growing unemployment was key and remains a critical measure of the current NPP government, he pointed out.
I believe that the election review committee should work and work well and their recommendation should drive the rebuilding of the NDC party from the grass roots to the national level, he opined.
What NDC needs to do
Going forward, the Minority Leader advised the party’s members to stop the blame game and focus and work hard for the victory of the NDC at the 2020 polls.
Furthermore, he appealed to NDC members and supporters to pick up the pieces and move on.
“Internal wranglings and undermining within the NDC did not allow us to build internal cohesion from the grass roots to the top; Some of our policies and interventions did not also reflect our philosophy and values as a social democratic party. The NDC needs to have an unbiased thorough analysis of why we lost and that can and should redefine the NDC and its future,” he reasoned.
Giving the outcome of the 2016 elections, Mr Iddrisu said it manifested that some of our policies failed and need to be tweaked.
He cautioned that “a flawless diagnosis of autopsy is impossible,” saying, “If there was nothing wrong we would not have lost the 2016 elections.”
2020 must win for NDC
As Minority leader in the Seventh Parliament, Mr Iddrisu indicated that he had the onerous duty to defend the legacy of the NDC, re-brand and reposition it towards the 2020 presidential election.
As part of his key agenda, he said he would strive to help the NDC work to improve public policy for the public good, work to ensure value for money and work to protect the public purse as well as deepen openness and transparency in the workings of Parliament to make Parliament more responsive to the needs of the people.
He said the Sixth Parliament was NDC-led and currently as Minority Leader in the Seventh Parliament, now working from opposition, he had the onerous responsibility to defend NDC’s legacy for it to be attractive to the Ghanaian electorate.
He said working from opposition was also an opportunity to serve the people of Ghana.
One feels very re-energised and re-engaged to focus on re-branding and rebuilding of the party to improve on its electoral fortunes in 2020, he stated.
“I am relating to all the structures of the party, working hard to promote unity and cohesion to recapture political power in 2020,” he assured, saying “the 2020 election must be a must win for NDC.”
He said the NDC party was very attractive except that there was discontentment and internal wranglings among its ranks.
Building bridges with NPP
On whether the NDC was building bridges with the NPP for regular dialogue as was reported in the Daily Graphic’s front page lead story of Wednesday, March 8, 2017, he said, “This harmony is to understand the work of Parliament and what Parliament does.”
In that story, it was reported that the Majority and the Minority in Parliament took a major step towards building bridges when they held a joint press briefing for the first time in Parliament holding on the same position.
Explaining further, he, however, stressed that; “Inherent in multi-party democracy is disagreement and alternative policy options,” and gave an assurance that the NDC would work to provide superior policy options to the NPP.
Source: Daily Graphic
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Babies with sharp teeth who told Rawlings that he was an expired bulldog and that he should ***barred word***..you all should be dragged to court Like the south Korean president under our corruption laws for all the money u borrowed and didn't use it for nothing but fill your big banks in Dubai and riding big SUVs ,who the hell do I think u are ,? U robbed Ghana of everything and imposed untold hardships on our people by borrowing huge sums incurring unprecedented debts that we have to pay and all u guys think about is coming back to power already God forbid ,u shall all be sent to prison and I dare any NDC member who 'll demonstrate, u shall smell pepper and fire ***barred word***....insha Allah u shall all go to Jail, Asiedu Norris, Haruna Iddrisu, koki Anyidoho, etc and the rest of the babies with sharp teeths nd ***barred word***
NDC promise how many community day schools and how many constructed pls give us a break.
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It'll be a shame for this guy to become the president of the republic ever!! It's about time every politician start looking at what will make Ghana better other than predicting Ghana's failure
If care is not taken, 2020 election will be disastrous for NDC MPs. Instead of buying into the policies of the government and lobby for some investors to partner the government to enhance the economic and social livelihood of their constituents, Who doesn't like reduced taxes,free education, employment, factory etc in his constituency. Their behaviour will allow them just lose their seats to NPP and of course that will be bad for Ghana's democracy
Haruna is rushing too much,that's not how presidential ambition is nurtured.He must be calm,and position himself in such a way that he'll be taken serious when he speaks,he's loosing credibility too fast.For his information looking at the way NPP gov't is going with this quality team,NDC may be in opposition for too long a time.
This guy is speaking rubbbbbbish. He was a minister for 8 years and Ghana became like Nima TOillllet. NPP has been in govt for only 2 months. And he is complaining? Wasnt he a minister for 8 good years? Did he stop the northerners from migrating to suffffer in the south? And didn't he and his NDC govt destroy Ghana? So what is he saying now? Is he saying that after 2 mnths of NPP, Ghanaians have suffered so much? Is that what he is saying after the 8 years of stuppppidddity under him and the NDC. Fooooooooooolish p3p3nin!
They will choke and then you can be president if they fail!! God forbid!!
Somebody should educate me, is this what is called opposition? Why is NDC in a hurry for the NPP to fail? On what basis is Haruna Iddrisu saying what he is saying? I will advice you (Haruna Iddrisu) to be patient or else you will be the one chocked with credibility issues. The fact that you are the minority leader and nurturing presidential ambitions does not mean that you should open your mouth wide just anyhow and at any time. Please oppose with some decency if you want to command some respect as the minority learder. V-Mate please respect yourself.
This is what I call Opposition Jab and at least you can tell it's by a matured man of wisdom. Even though I think he's wrong, it's the beauty of democracy and there is some decency in the speech unlike armatures like Okudzato,and that 'I wanna be' Suhiyini guy. They are not wise in their submissions and in their mind they think they are being tough or hard hence ends up exhibiting F0OOLISHNESS all the time. Hon. Haruna sounds very matured and knows what he's doing.