Okudzeto Ablakwa's mouth talks before his brain thinks- Ken Kuranchie

He is in government, but apparently he has nothing better to do with his time. Deputy Minister of Information, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, is reported to have vowed to expose the Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo and also ensure that he (Nana Addo) puts an end to the 'streak of utopian promises' he keeps making anytime he is offered a platform to address Ghanaians.

According to the deputy minister, the NPP leader, prior to the last general elections in 2008, gained the unsavory reputation of being given the moniker “One billion candidate” claiming that Nana Addo was virtually on a promising spree, telling organizations and institutions that he would resolve their problems with a billion cedi fund without any thought being given to how large or small the business is.

“Anytime he went to a location and identified a problem, he threw one billion at it. He met fisher folks, and said 'I will set up a one billion fund for you', met the farmers... 'one billion fund', he met the people at Suame Magazine, and he said 'I will set up a one billion fund to revive the artisan industry' in this country,” Mr. Ablakwa said in a tone tinged with amusement.

Speaking on Joy Fm's News File, the Deputy Minster said Nana Akufo-Addo can best be described as someone who only makes “Utopian-juicy-honey dropping-fanciful promises”.

It would seem that some of us would have to engage in the unfortunate business of exposing Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa for the no-brainer that he has been all his life. It is an unfortunate duty to which we have to apply ourselves, because for so long as people like him continue to pollute the atmosphere with their special brand of illogic, it would become necessary that others make an effort to clear the air.

Okudzeto Ablakwa clearly has problems with big promises. He would have such problems, because he cannot think beyond his nose.

His mouth talks before his brain thinks. He belongs to a party that promised a few hundred millions to the three northern regions, but has failed to meet that promise! In the meantime, his government can afford to pay over half a billion dollars in fraudulently procured judgment debt!

Nana Addo is indeed a one billion dollar candidate, because he has the vision. He is imbued with the specialty of boosting an economy in order to raise the necessary funds for investments in the various sectors.

Ablakwa has forgotten himself, but he should go and check his economic facts. Before 2009, Ghana's economy was growing at an exponential rate, meaning that the tax pool was being enlarged. Ghana had discovered oil, meaning a larger resource base.

All these facts made the promises that Nana was making very realistic. The fact, however, is that as soon as the NDC took over, the government put the brakes on the economy and the GDP growth, which was growing at a healthy 7.3, almost overnight dropped to a sickly 3.7.

Okudzeto Ablakwa has left his brains behind. If he had bothered to carry his brains into the studio instead of his mouth, he would have recalled that less than a year ago, his government was sponsoring a ten billion dollar loan to be invested in housing alone.

Okudzeto Ablakwa was one of the 'beautiful brains' who were actively defending that loan on radio. Okudzeto thinks that it is right and proper to dump ten billion dollars into housing alone, but has problems with a mere billion for each sector of the economy!

In any case, a billion dollar fund does not mean that we have billions of dollars sitting somewhere, which we would carve up like cake. It means that would create the fund and create lines of investment to make up the objective. But Okudzeto, clearly, does not know this.

If Okudzeto wants to expose Akufo-Addo, he is welcome. But whilst he is doing so, he should also tell Ghanaians where we can find the 1.6 million jobs he said the NDC government has created.

And whilst he is at it, he should find out how much of the promises in the NDC's manifesto for a Better Ghana has been achieved!

He is a joker indeed. And to conclude, only a President who is a joker would appoint a no-brainer like Ablakwa into a responsible ministerial position. It tells you that the NDC government never meant business to begin with!