A political analyst and senior lecturer with the University of Cape Coast, Jonathan Otchere has described as ‘ridiculous’ the gargantuan promises the ruling New Patriotic Party made in the 2016 electioneering period. According to him the trend in the Ghanaian politics where political parties seek to lure electorates or the citizenry with juicy promises, leaves discerning Ghanaians doubting the integrity of politicians, and that might cost the development of the nation.
Speaking exclusively to Samuel Kojo Brace on the Jolly Breakfast Show, Mr. Otchere noted that such promises clearly tells of the subliminal deceptions in the perceived social contracts they sign with the Ghanaian people.
“It is just too ridiculous that for a party in government, maybe because they want to win political power… I mean can you imagine, over 380 promises made. It tells you that our parties don’t really have a focus and that all over the period, what they do is to say something that would hoodwink us into voting for them. The number itself is so ridiculous that, it is not achievable” he emphasized.
His comments comes after a political banter between the ruling government and the major opposition political party; National Democratic Congress (NDC), over the number of manifesto promises and the assessment of performance by government in fulling them.
Mr. Jonathan Otchere remarked that the reaction by the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah on behalf of government, was just premature. He argued that the work done by NDC given the 4 month review of the manifesto promises of the NPP government, warrant a thorough analysis of the claims by government so they could sufficiently and convincingly counter those claims..
“I think that what the information minister did was not necessary. It was too early… he rushed into making responding to to it. He should have taken his time. The NDC gave pages..they highlighted all the promises you made from your manifesto.
“…it was a transparent display. So if you were coming to counter these claims you should have taken your time..you take your time do the analysis and then react” he elaborated.
The NDC rates that the performance of the Nana Addo led government, to their manifesto performance is 14 percent, and thus implied the government had failed abysmally.
But Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah maintained that the opposition party is being dishonest with the ratings.