The Presidency of Ghana needs doers but not talkers

I have been monitoring closely with keen interest the campaign trails of the two major political parties in Ghana i.e the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP). And in my observation, what seem to be topical and have therefore generated a lot of discussion amongst the Ghanaian voters regarding the campaigns for this year's elections are the promises being made by the two parties on JOB CREATION.

But I must say NPP is more to be believed than NDC when it comes to jobs creation in this country. Putting a lot of issues into proper perspective, when it comes to job creation strategy, I see the NDC more of TALKERS than DOERS.

As we speak now, unlike the Nana Akufo-Addo-led administration which has a plethora of job creation policies like the "One District One Factory", National Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program (NEIP), Planting For food & Jobs e.t.c, do we know of any job creation policy that the John Mahama-led administration rolled out during his last tenure of office?

That's the big question that needs to be answered before we trust his so-called "Big Push" manifesto pledge which in anyway, DOES NOT AND CAN NOT come close to the job creation policies by this administration in terms of quantum of possible jobs to be created in a 4-year tenure.

Quite interestingly, we are told that "Big Push" which is going to be John Mahama's flagship program vis-a-viz delivering jobs for the teeming unemployed youth in this country is expected to put him in a position to deliver a maximum of one-million jobs in his 4-year tenure of office in the MOST UNLIKELY event that he wins this year's election i.e an average of two - hundred and fifty thousand (250,000) jobs to be created in a year. On the surface, it appears to be mouthwatering. That's if it is not benchmarked against very important factors like John Mahama's past record of job creation & what his major opponent, H.E president Akufo-Addo has so far done in terms of job creation.

Official figures show that between 2017 and 2019, Nana Addo and his administration have created a whooping two-million, fifty-five thousand and ten (2,055,010) jobs.

Out of this figure, one-million, eight thousand, three-hundred and sixty- five (1,008,365) jobs are from the new job creation policies the president initiated on assumption of office. Seven hundred and seventy-eight thousand, seven hundred and six (778,706) have also been created in the public sector with the remaining two hundred and sixty-seven thousand, nine hundred and thirty-nine (267,939) jobs in the formal private sector.

Comparing the 2,055,010 jobs created by the Nana Addo administration to the "Big Push" job creation policy promised us by John Mahama and his NDC which can only deliver a maximum of 1,000,000 jobs in four years, it is clear that in terms of jobs creation strategy, NDC can not be a better alternative to the Nana Addo's administration that they seek to wrestle power from in these upcoming elections.

Another important benchmark is the former president's record on job creation during his tenure of office as president. In fact, the least talked about it, the better!

The health of a country's economy which is the backbone of every job creation policy was in such a poor state under his watch that employment into the public sector in this country had to be frozen in compliance with IMF conditionalities which was imposed on this country because of "policy credibility" program we ran to the IMF for the purpose of resuscitating the then ailing economy under his watch. So if this is the record of the flag bear of NDC, John Dramani Mahama, what's the guarantee that his "Big Push" will even see the light of the day if he even wins the election?