The former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has given his take on Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s vision for Ghana, which he presented at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), on Wednesday, February 7, 2024.
In a 3-page editorial copied to GhanaWeb, Amidu said that after reading the vision statement of Dr Bawumia, the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), several times, he has come to the conclusion the vice president said nothing new.
He said that contrary to assertions in the media, Dr Bawumia never exonerated himself from the current economic mess the country is experiencing nor betrayed his boss, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, during his address.
According to him, Dr Bawumia at the presentation of his vision mirrored the same vision he championed with President Akufo-Addo in 2016 and 2020 which has plunged the country into the situation it finds itself in today.
“All that an objective reader needs to do is to refer to the historical materials and the promises made by the Nana Akufo-Addo/Bawumia 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns and she/he would come to the realization of what either Nana Akufo-Addo or Mahamudu Bawumia mean when they deployed the rhetoric of the impossibility becoming possible.
“The ordinary Ghanaian just has to assess his economic conditions today, the loss in savings and income that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia joint promises and management has unleashed on the gullible electorate that swallowed hook, line, and sinker the demagogic and messianic deception of the electorate that voted to bring the pair to power at the polls in 2016 and 2020,” he wrote.
He added “Bawumia’s vision is a repeat using a decoy to disguise a similar cajoling vision the Akufo Addo/Bawumia team presented to the Ghanaian electorate at the 2016 elections. It is no different in form and substance from the deceptive vision team Akufo-Addo/Bawumia presented even at the 2020 elections when economic situations were exceedingly difficult. These visions have always been founded upon promises to ameliorate the harsh tax conditions the private sector and ordinary Ghanaians are facing daily in the marketplace.”
Amidu, a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General, urged Ghanaians to be circumspect about who they choose to lead the country after President Akufo-Addo.
He said that the two leading political parties, the NPP and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), would deploy all sorts of means to win the 2024 election but the winner of the elections must be determined by facts.
“As Ghana gets closer to the 2024 election season the NPP and the NDC are deploying various deceptive tools to win over the electorate whom they will each forget after securing the votes of the electorate to come to power for the next three years until the next election year. The 2024 elections should be won by established facts and projections with high degrees of probability for actualization.
“Unfortunately, every day one just hears promise upon promise from the two major political parties without any demonstrable ability to implement those promises once elected to power. The political elite from various political parties see the election season as a period of deception instead of canvassing for votes on proven record and achievement,” he added.
Read his full statement below:
