Bawumia to NPP-USA: NPP has outperformed NDC, “breaking the 8 possible”
The accomplishments of the NPP, according to Vice-President Bawumia, are far superior to those of the NDC while they were in office
The vice-president of Ghana and presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for Election 2024, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has declared that the NPP has outperformed the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in all sectors of the Ghanaian economy and argued that the achievements and record of the NPP should form the basis for the 2024 campaign of the party as it seeks to “break the 8”.
The accomplishments of the NPP, Vice-President Bawumia said, are by far superior to the NDC’s when they were in office.
He said that the NDC era was characterised by low economic growth, a decline in agricultural growth and low industrial growth, among other signs of decline, even though the NDC government did not face the twin crises that have bedevilled the world under the current NPP government.
The polycrisis emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic that struck the world in 2019 and the new geopolitical war that has followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
NPP outperforms NDC
Addressing members of the NPP in the United States of America on Saturday (25 May 2024), the first occasion since his election as the leader and presidential candidate of the NPP, at NPP-USA’s 30th-anniversary celebration, Dr Bawumia sounded bullish.
He addressed guests on the theme of “30 Years of Political Dedication and Sacrifice: Honouring our Heroes, Preserving our Legacy, Securing our Future Through Victory”, at a plush event held at the Hilton Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia.
Dr Bawumia said the NPP has a strong case to present to the people of Ghana for why the party should be retained in office to pursue its agenda for transforming the nation.
“The comparative performance [of what the NDC did while in office versus what has happened under the NPP] is practically like night and day. Of course, it is not everything we want to do that we have been able to do, but it is true that if it is compared to them [NDC], we have done much more if they are the comparative metric for us,” Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia said.
On agriculture, Dr Bawumia said the NPP administration has doubled growth from where the previous NDC government left it. Industrial expansion, the NPP leader said, has been a major agenda of the Akufo-Addo administration and it has resulted in the creation of thousands of jobs, as compared to the NDC, which was creating unemployment when it was in office.
“We have created over the last seven years 2.1 million jobs, which have been well documented – 1.2 million jobs in the public sector and 975,000 jobs in the private sector. With a crisis and even [amid] COVID, we were recruiting more nurses. In COVID, we did not lay off any public sector worker.
“We have created more jobs than any other government in the history of Ghana. No government has achieved the record of creating 2.1 million jobs in seven years,” Dr Bawumia declared.
Dr Bawumia further pointed out that the Akufo-Addo government has built more roads than any other government in Ghana, more airports than any other government, more railway lines than any other government, more court buildings than any other government and more hospitals than any other government in the Fourth Republic.
The Akufo-Addo governments have also built more fish landing sites and more sanitation facilities, which has resulted in Ghana becoming the country with the lowest levels of cholera in Africa and led to 5,400 communities being declared open-defecation-free as a direct result of the investment in sanitation facilities.
“The security forces in the country,” he added, “have also been retooled to perform their functions. Ninety-three per cent of the National Communications Authority (NCA) licensed fibre optic cable for internet service in Ghana was put in place under the NPP government from 2017 [when it took office],” Dr Bawumia said.
“When you look at sports facilities, no government has been able to achieve what the current government has achieved in office.
“So, when you look at the basic metrics that we normally use to measure development, we just have outperformed them [NDC] in every sector,” the NPP presidential aspirant added.
On digitisation, the vice-president said that, beyond all the achievements of the Akufo-Addo administration, such as interoperability, the digital address system and the Ghana Card, should he be elected president, he will turn his attention to developing the country’s credit score system.
This is expected to start with the launch of the national individual credit score system before the end of the year.
Tax reforms
The tax system in Ghana, Dr Bawumia conceded to guests, is difficult to understand.
Having studied the national tax system and comparing it to that of Estonia, the country with the best tax structure in the world, he is convinced there is a need for major tax restructuring in Ghana.
He pledged to implement tax reforms when elected president.
“So, in 2025, if, by the grace of God, I am elected president, I will grant a tax amnesty to businesses and individuals so that we all start on a fresh slate with the flat tax system.
“The other tax reform I want to do is on import duty. I think the import duty system is a bit complicated and also high.
“We need clarity, predictability and simplicity in the regime. And so what I am advocating is a flat rate in the import duty regime,” Dr Bawumia said.
To deal with smuggling of goods to Ghana through the ports in Togo in response to high tax rates at Ghana’s ports, Dr Bawumia said that the government will seek to make tax rates in Ghana equal to those of Togo, or even lower, as Togo is a competitor.
Support for Bawumia
The general secretary of the NPP, Justin Frimpong Kodua, in a solidarity message to NPP-USA he delivered on behalf of the national party in Ghana, charged NPP-USA to document its history and formation 30 years ago to preserve the history of the party in the United States.
Frimpong Kodua declared that if the party is to “break the 8” in the December 2024 general election it will have to rely heavily on NPP-USA in the campaign leading up to election day on 7 December.
He argued that Ghanaians have a clear choice to make on 7 December: between the NPP candidate, Dr Bawumia, who will be well equipped to account to the people and seek re-election after four years as president, and the NDC candidate, who will have no accountability, should he be elected.
“You in the diaspora have family members in Ghana,” Frimpong Kodua said. “Talk to them when you call them because they do listen to you. Some of the people in Ghana do not see the importance of [the 7 December 2024 general election] and how it affects the current generation and even future generations.
“We therefore beseech you to let them [Ghanaians] know when you call that the challenges they are facing in Ghana are no different in the United States, where you are, and that things are difficult globally.
“So many of our compatriots back home think the challenges are unique to Ghana,” the NPP general secretary said.
“It is understandable because some of them have not had the opportunity to travel yet. So, it is your responsibility to let them know these things and to appreciate that supporting Dr Bawumia and his transformation agenda is the way forward for Ghana if we are to achieve the developed and industrialised nation we all desire,” Frimpong Kodua added.
ROPAA implementation
The chair of NPP-USA, Obaa Yaa Amponsah Frimpong, also delivered remarks. She expressed her appreciation to all the founding fathers of NPP-USA who worked tirelessly more than three decades ago to form the United States chapter of the party.
She also registered her gratitude to the vice-president and all the other party leaders and bigwigs who joined the party for the celebration.
Mrs Amponsah Frimpong called for the implementation of the Representation of the People Amendment Act (ROPAA) 2006 (Act 699), which was passed by Parliament 19 years ago.
The law allows Ghanaians in the diaspora to vote in Ghanaian general elections in their countries of residence, but it is yet to be implemented fully by the Electoral Commission (EC).
The 30th anniversary
Roughly 1,000 members of the NPP in the United States attended the event, with several other thousands of NPP supporters across the US and around the world joining in the celebration by video link and on various social media platforms and handles such as YouTube, Facebook and X.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Ghana, the parent party of NPP-USA, celebrated its own 30th anniversary in July 2022 under the theme “NPP@30: Our Shared Traditional, Holding and Working Together a Stable and Prosperous Nation”.
For that celebration, the party held a national thanksgiving service on 31 July 2022 at the Kofi Ohene-Konadu auditorium at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) to climax the celebration.
As part of its anniversary celebration event at the Hilton, NPP-USA also organised its annual fundraising drive to support of the 7 December presidential and parliamentary elections.
NPP-USA is working towards supporting the parent party to win a third consecutive election in Ghana (commonly known as “breaking the 8”, to describe how the party intends to rupture the precedent of the major political parties relinquishing power after two terms in office).
Having assisted NPP-Ghana consistently, under the leadership of the then Candidate Akufo-Addo, it helped win the NPP the elections in 2016 and 2020.
Led by Obaa Yaa Amponsah Frimpong, the chair of the national NPP-USA, assisted by Janis Asare Bediako, chairman of the Washington DC chapter of NPP-USA, the 30th-anniversary event also aimed to re-energise the party leadership and base in the United States.
The party has the clear purpose of supporting efforts by NPP-Ghana to win the December 2024 elections and ensure the election of Mahamudu Bawumia as President of the Republic.
The entire production for the celebratory dinner was powered by Padefra Multimedia Consult, a US-based event organisation and management company.
Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Virginia, United States of America
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