We are not hard on NPP – IMANI

Accusations against IMANI Ghana that the policy think has been very critical of the policies and proposals of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), thereby letting the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) off the hook on its mismanagement of the economy, are false, Franklin Cudjoe, President of IMANI Ghana, has said.

According to him, no organisation in Ghana can claim to have subjected the NDC’s programmes to examination more than IMANI, therefore such accusations are “patently false and ridiculous”.

IMANI Ghana, lately, has subjected the programmes and policy proposals of the NPP to thorough scrutiny.

The first was when IMANI Ghana stated that the NPP’s promise of reviving the NHIS and the much-touted ‘One Factory, One District’ campaign promise were all not quantifiable.

A report they released said, of the 29 promises made by the NPP ahead of this year’s elections, “only one is quantifiable, 14 semi-quantifiable, and 14 non-quantifiable.

“Under governance, eight promises were found: three semi-quantifiable and one interesting promise was to create a Western-North Region during his (Nana Addo’s) tenure of office. What does the constitution say about this promise? Article 5 of the Constitution says that a commission of enquiry must show the president that there is substantive demand for a new region and a referendum conducted must entail at least 50 per cent of persons entitled to vote. And once the vote is cast, the pass rate must be 80 per cent in favour of the issue. So, these provisions are to be satisfied in order for the promises to fulfilled,” Nii-Aponsah, Deputy Head at IMANI in charge of Political and Economic Affairs, also stated.

Also, in its commentary on a recent economic lecture delivered by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, vice-presidential nominee of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), IMANI said the party’s plan to set up three authorities – the Northern Development Authority, Middle Belt Development Authority and Coastal Development Authority – to facilitate broad-based national development through a planned Infrastructure and Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) that will come into force should the NPP win the 2016 elections also requires some clarity.

“In the past, a number of these authorities have been created for Northern Ghana and parts of the coastal belt. Additional details are needed as to how this new idea will differ from previous ones. What administrative machinery would be put in place in constituencies to spend and oversee the allocated money? How does the NPP hope not to duplicate the activities of the district assemblies leading to additional overhead and operational friction, especially given their promise to see DCEs and MMCEs elected within their first term?” IMANI demanded.

The think tank added that Dr Bawumia’s claim that the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) had over the last eight years amassed and spent 12 times the nominal resources that the NPP had over its eight years of leadership is “cleverly exaggerated”.

In view of all these assessments of the NPP’s programmes, Mr Cudjoe, the president of IMANI, has noted that his organisation is being accused of placing much premium on the opposition NPP rather than focusing on the governing party that is in charge of state resources.

But in a Facebook post on Saturday September 10, he said: “We have in recent times experienced a strange upsurge in accusations that we are much too hard on the NPP, and that by subjecting NPP’s policy proposals and promises to rigorous scrutiny, we are letting the NDC off lightly. This accusation is of course patently false and ridiculous. No organisation in Ghana can claim to have subjected the NDC’s programmes to examination more than IMANI. Whether it was the Ghana Gas Plant, the CDB loan, the Sekondi Industrial Estate, or the Komenda Sugar Factory, IMANI has always been at the forefront of the critical quest of demanding accountability from the government of the ruling party. IMANI has been fearless in holding all parties in Ghana to account since our founding in 2004.”