President John Mahama, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, has outmaneuvered and possibly outgunned Nana Akufo-Addo, the New Patriotic Party candidate, ahead of the December polls.
Amid back and forth arguments and deliberate delays between the two main with respect to releasing their manifestoes, Mahama seized the initiative on Tuesday when he delivered highlights of the NDC manifesto at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Accra.
In a speech lasting two hours, the president itemized his plans for the nation, should he win a second term in December, based on the following cornerstones.
1. Putting people first; social services and human resources
2. Strong and resilient economy for job creation
3. Expanding social and economic structures
4. Transparent and accountable governance
One of his most ambitious plans involves equipping students with tablets to enable them electronically access the text books of core subjects such as Maths, English and Science.
“Students will receive tablets that have all their core subjects on the tablet. If the pilot is successful, the programme shall be expanded."
He also plans to improve the NHIS by pumping oil money into it and making Ghana a cashless society by 2021.
Policy think tank, Imani Ghana, has already estimated that it would cost over $24 billion dollars to finance all Mahama’s planned projects.
It is not immediately clear how the money will be raised. What is clear, however, is that some of President Mahama’s promises amount to a stab in the heart of the NPP campaign as they effectively neutralise some of the signature policies of the party.
A case in point is Akufo-Addo’s pledge to create one more region by breaking the Western Region into two.
Mahama countered that policy by proposing to create up to five more regions based on the recommendation of a committee he will set up if he wins the election.
He watered down the significance of the NPP’s “One village, one dam†proposal, stressing that the government had already provided irrigation wells to several communities in the country.
“In many places in northern Ghana, we have dug out wells ... those are not dams. We will expand the investment under SADA to construct more irrigation facilities."
He also took a shot at the NPP’s “One district, one factory†plan, saying it was was not well thought out:
“Location of industries means taking cognition of the whole value chain: the source of raw material, availability of utility services – water, electricity; closeness to markets and a whole raft of issues that we learnt in sixth form economics.â€
Mahama’s plans to “provide every Ghanaian with a national ID†and set up a cashew marketing board had also been aggressively espoused by the NPP in recent months.
Understandably, the NPP is very angry at this development and has condemned the president using strong words.
The party, in a statement signed by its communications Director, Nana Akomea, accused the president of what they called stealing to destroy.
According to them, Mahama “steals ideas from his political opponents only to be found wanting when it comes to implementing themâ€.
While the NPP will no doubt publicly accuse the president of “stealing†their ideas, there is no doubt that in private, they will have harsh words for themselves for not releasing their manifesto on time, thereby allowing Mahama to outmaneuver them.
This is not the first time Mahama has killed major NPP initiatives. Earlier in his presidency, he neutralised the NPP’s free SHS threat by introducing free education for day students and launching a plan to build 200 community secondary schools.
The monumental threat that Free SHS posed to his campaign ahead of the 2012 election was probably at the back of his mind when he delivered his $24 billion campaign plan on Tuesday.
With the sheer scale of his promises - $24 billion worth of projects – Mahama possibly has Akufo-Addo outgunned. The most pressing question now is: How will the NPP respond?
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