Let nobody tell you that we don’t have a message for 2024 – Bawumia tells NPP

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, vice president, stated that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has a message for Ghanaians ahead of the 2024 general election.

This follows the government accomplishments tally he presented over the weekend.

Dr. Bawumia, speaking on Saturday, June 10 at the NPP International Women's Conference in London, remarked that despite global factors that have impacted several economies around the world over the past three years, the NPP government, since assuming office in 2017, has done extraordinarily well with many landmark achievements, while admitting that there is still more work to be done.

Alan Kyerematen, a former trade minister who aspires to be the NPP's presidential candidate, recently enraged NPP supporters by declaring that the party lacks a message for the 2024 elections.

The Vice President's lengthy speech in London, which was applauded by party supporters, is viewed as a retaliation.

"It has not been a bed of roses and we have not accomplished everything we set out to do on our first day in office. However, despite the setbacks, we have produced a respectable record of accomplishments," Dr. Bawumia noted as he outlined recent global and domestic factors that have affected the country.

Dr. Bawumia stated that in order to appreciate the government's efforts, it is necessary to recall the condition of the country, the problems it inherited, and the solutions it has proposed to address these problems.

The Vice President listed high unemployment, Dumsor for four years, a nearly collapsed National Health Insurance system, a nearly collapsed national ambulance system, a freeze on public sector employment, a nearly collapsed banking sector, massive annual increases in utility bills, poor economic indicators, low agricultural growth, low industry growth, cancellation of teacher and nursing training allowances, and a massive burden of paying $1billion dollars.

Dr. Bawumia presented a comprehensive list of programmes, projects, and policies implemented by the NPP government to address the numerous challenges inherited in the areas of employment, education, health, agriculture, industries, security, energy, and digitalisation.

Concerning the economy, Dr. Bawumia demonstrated how the government substantially improved it by acquiring economic indicators that were far superior to those it inherited, up until the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

On education, in addition to the government's flagship Free SHS program, which the Vice President stated had solved a generational problem of unequal access, he listed a number of infrastructure the government has constructed, including thousands of classroom blocks across the country, to improve education in the country.

Concerning the high unemployment rate that the government inherited, Dr. Bawumia noted that the government has improved the situation by lifting the moratorium on public sector employment imposed by the previous NDC administration.

He stated that the NPP government has created more than 2 million verifiable employment to date.

Dr. Bawumia also lauded the NPP's numerous achievements in the health sector, including the improvement of the NHIS, the provision of ambulances for every constituency, the introduction of drones for emergency delivery of medical supplies to remote areas, treatment for children with cancers, and the construction of district and regional hospitals under the government's Agenda 111 health initiative.

Dr. Bawumia also elaborated on the government's successes in revitalizing the industrial sector, highlighting the revitalization of Anglogold Ashanti, WAMCO, Ghana Publishing, GhanaPost, and the establishment of numerous factories under 1D1F.

Dr. Bawumia's address reached its climax when he turned his attention to digitization and enumerated a number of initiatives within the sector, as well as the numerous issues that the government's focus on digitization has resolved.

As he detailed the accomplishments, the audience applauded his meticulous delivery.

"When viewing this long list of accomplishments, one cannot help but acknowledge that they are monumental. "Let no one tell you that we have no message for 2024," Dr. Bawumia stated.

"I must hasten to emphasize that this does not imply that we have accomplished everything we intended or should have accomplished. Clearly, there is much more work to be done, and we will strive diligently to do more."