General News of Monday, 14 September 2020

Source: starrfmonline.com

Don’t take the ‘comfort’ under Akufo-Addo for granted – NPP to Ghanaians

Deputy Campaign Manager of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Abdul Mustapha Hamid Deputy Campaign Manager of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Abdul Mustapha Hamid

The Deputy Campaign Manager of the New Patriotic Party, Dr Abdul Mustapha Hamid, has urged Ghanaians not to take the “comfort” they are enjoying under President Akufo-Addo for granted.

According to him, it is easy for Ghanaians to forget about the conditions that preceded the NPP administration with time.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the media, the Akan people say that, “atiyi3 ma awir3fi3,” to wit, comfort engenders forgetfulness. We have taken the new comfort for granted and have forgotten that it has not always been like this. It has taken the vision and conviction of President Akufo-Addo to restore the dignity and sanity to our country and its people. So soon people forgotten that for three years we slept in darkness. For three years businesses in this country had collapsed because of “dumsor.” Indeed “dumsor” cost this country…. And it was not for lack of capacity.

“It was simply because the economy was in such a poor state, that the NDC government could not raise the money required to keep the lights on. When we make the argument today, they tell us that they resolved dumsor before the exited. Here are the statistics for how many hours the lights were off in 2015, 2016 and 2017. In 2015, there was 868 hours, 44 minutes of power outages. In 2016, there were 320 hours, 27 minutes of power outages. In 2017, there were 41 hours and 7 minutes of power outages. So, they should tell us if resolving over 800 hours of power outages is tantamount to resolving “dumsor,”” he told a news conference Monday.

He stressed: “Ladies and gentlemen of the media, that is what leadership of vision and conviction does. But beyond vision and conviction, we need leadership of empathy and compassion. For many years, Ghanaians in rural areas were dying because basic medical deliverables like anti-snake serums were unavailable. The empathy that President Akufo-Addo has for the rural people and his vision got him to institute the drone service for delivering critical medical supplies to remote areas of our country to save lives. We have established drone delivery centers in Omenako in the Eastern Region, Walewale in the North-East Region, Mampong in the Ashanti Region and Sefwi-Wiawso in the Western-North Region. To date, 79, 800 life-saving products have been delivered to 945 health facilities across the country, including 2, 500 COVID samples to two testing centers. Just yesterday, Ghana’s drone delivery system together with that of Rwanda were the subject of a BBC documentary.

“Today, Akufo-Addo’s leadership is being praised across the world, with his quotes making it into many write-ups and articles across respected journals. Just go to youtube or google and search for the top ten most respected leaders across Africa and see how our President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo fares. How come Ghana was not mentioned in that respect eight years, seven years or four years ago?”.