NDC manifesto: Silence on 40-year devt. plan curious – Simons

Bright Simons, Honorary Vice President of IMANI Ghana, a policy think tank, has expressed surprise at the failure of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) to incorporate the 40-year National Development Plan into its manifesto.

President John Mahama last Saturday launched the NDC’s manifesto ahead of the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections. Preceding the launch, he gave highlights of the contents in which he listed over 100 promises and also touted the achievements of the NDC over the past four years.

However, Mr Simons observed that in spite of the millions of cedis spent on the draft, stakeholder consultations, and the launch of the 40-year development plan, which is being implemented by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), the governing party did not find it necessary to include some of the plans in its manifesto.

Dr Grace Bediako, a member of the NDPC, had told Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Monday 8 February, 2016 that some political parties “have already requested for reports on the regional consultations, as they go through the writing of their manifestos”.

She added: “We did the regional consultations with them (political parties) so they understand and know some of the things needed by the general populace.”

But Mr Simons wrote on his Facebook wall on Wednesday September 21: “So for real we have spent more than 10 million Ghana cedis doing 'consultations' and whatnots to create a 40-year development plan to take off in 2018, and even the ruling party didn't find it worthwhile to benchmark any of its manifesto promises to this almighty plan? What a country.”