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Opinions of Thursday, 5 August 2010

Columnist: Smith, Mawuli

Nana Addo is too short… to be President

The people are calling for NPP and, they are calling for Nana Addo to be the president but, he is simply too short… By this point, half of you reading this article online have stopped reading and, you are already getting ready to comment thus, from the comments one will be able to ascertain who really read the article. The point of this article is simply that Nana Addo is short on IDEAS thus, he MAY not be fit to run Ghana.

Even though Atta Mills has proven to be a disaster I am not sure Nana Addo would have done much better. Nana Addo like Mills promised numerous things like Universities in Every region, Free Secondary Education etc etc but, like Mills he never delineated how he was going to pay for it. Thus, Ghanaians must ask themselves if Nana Addo is capable of bringing the transformative change we are looking for. Is he simply another flashy politician who knows what to say at the right time but, is incapable of delivering when it counts most?

Admittedly Nana Addo is the strongest candidate in the NPP and, I expect him to beat Alan and Frimpong Boateng easily but, can he bring transformative change? Can he fix the water situation? When his party was in power for 8 years why did the water situation not improve? Why was money used to buy jets instead of investing in health care and water? Why were so many MP’s running get rich schemes instead of serving the people? Why was Ghana selling everything that was not nailed down for cheap to foreigners? Admittedly the NDC in under 2 years has already committed every egregious act the NPP did X10 but, it still does not excuse the fact that it seems we have 2 dirty neo-colonial parties fighting for colonial chops while the common man suffers.

I will reemphasize that Nana Addo is short on ideas and, does not have the tools to change Ghana. The NPP under Kufuor added to health care by bringing the NHIS but, the quality remained the same… That is, the equipment needed to improve our health care was simply either not there or, not working for much of Kufuor’s dirty administration. The life expectancy did not improve much in 8 years thus, it is not only making the insurance but, the QUALITY and DELIVERY has to be improved. I went to my village in the Volta region and, there was not a doctor for MILES! There was only a Midwife and, when she had complications there was no functioning Ambulance thus, one would have to wait for a passer by to grant the suffering pregnant woman a ride to neighboring hospitals… QUALITY is needed…

Nana Addo is short on Ideas because, he continues to quote figures that the world bank and IMF put out without knowing how the common man on the street is doing. Who cares if the NPP took the economy to 16.654 billion dollars in 2008… According to the IMF website the economy went down to 15.513 billion dollars in 2009 under Atta Mills. Does that really mean anything?? NO! It means nothing. Because, according to the same site the economy is now 17.886 Billion dollars now Source: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2010/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2007&ey=2010&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=652&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC%2CLP&grp=0&a=&pr.x=62&pr.y=10

Now, what transformative change did Mills bring in one year to grow the economy to that extent? EXACTLY, he did NOTHING thus; it must be assumed that the IMF and World Bank and, all these organizations are jokers. The real sign of development is how the POOREST in a society are doing and, until Nana Addo can understand that he is simply not fit to be president.

Nana Addo is too short on ideas to be president because, he has the same short sighted Gold Coast Political mentality that all Leaders before him, including Mills, have had. The ideas are colonial and, do not fit our unique situation. He has no answer on the water situation, No answers on Health care, No answers plausible answers on Education, No answers on Sanitation and Beautification; thus, he is simply not fit to rule Ghana. The sad part is Atta Mills is even worse.

Mawuli Smith

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