Propagandist Mahama condemned LEAP in 2008 as ‘a show of lack of ideas’ - Akomea

NPP Communications Director Nana Akomea says President John Mahama's habit for propaganda went into ‘over-kill’ mode when he delivered the 2016 State of Nation at Parliament yesterday.

In an analysis of the address, Nana Akomea picked out sectors like power, economy to show how the dabbling in propaganda is hurting the current government’s credibility with the Ghanaian people.

The NPP politician zoomed in on a key social intervention programme, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) which the President touted as making a difference in the lives of the economically disadvantaged.

President John Mahama talked about a beneficiary of the programme, Zenabu who had saved some of her monthly allowance from government to start a business in pig farming.

The widow now has 10 piglets, the president said. Using what he described as an evidence based approach, President John Mahama brought Zenabu into the public gallery where she waved her gratitude to government for changing her life.

She is one of 146,074 households that have benefitted from LEAP's GH¢11million disbursed.

There have been 40 such cycles of disbursements covering the November and December 2015.

The bi-monthly cash transfers to targeted households living below the poverty line. Eligible beneficiaries include elderly people above 65 who are poor; the disabled who are unable to work and carers of orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs).

Since the inception of the programme in 2008, the beneficiary households have increased from 1,645 to 146,074 currently.

Nana Akomea however stressed that the LEAP introduced by the NPP administration endured harsh criticism from the NDC while in opposition.

He quoted a Daily Graphic report in which President John Mahama then an MP condemned the pro-poor scheme as evidence of a failed NPP government.

In the June 7, 2008 copy of the national newspaper, President John Mahama was reported as saying:

“LEAP was a show of a lack of ideas by the NPP government in alleviating poverty. He stressed that we would use subsidies to alleviate poverty and we will not use handout.

“The best way to bring people out of poverty is to empower and improve their ability to earn an income. It is when you fail that you dole out direct cash to people”.

“The introduction of LEAP is therefore signals a failure on the part of the NPP”

Nana Akomea quoted the report as an example of how President Mahama has resorted to propaganda when dealing with matters of national concern.

He castigated him for his inconsistent positions: “When you speak like this in 2008 and today you say ah LEAP is the biggest flagship and bring Zenabu, Zenabu to do propaganda, we will refer you to this.”

Nana Akomea also touched on the power supply problem that has plagued much of President Mahama's administration since 2009.

After significant improvement in the supply of power, President Mahama yesterday described the addition of some 800 megawatts as the “fastest mobilization of emergency power in our history”.

But this description, Nana maintained was a needless pronouncement.

“What is the meaning of this? if you know emergency power can be mobilized why did you sit down for three and half years for [businesses] to incur all these massive cost in massive cost in running generators, sack people…businesses to suffer and deaths to occur?” the politician wondered.

He conceded Ghanaians generally appreciate that there has been improvements in the supply of electricity but government can take credit without resorting to boastful, grand and flowery language.

“It is not necessary. This whole need to do propaganda sometimes kills the government itself”.

He said the improvement in power supply has come after several promises to end it by certain deadlines.

He said boasting about power supply improvement will only invite people to refer to great difficulties they have gone through before the crisis ebbed significantly.

He recalls that at one point the power situation was so bad that school children had to study on the floors on banks so they could use the generator-powered light to do their homework.

#Latestinghana #News #Headlinesnews #Localnews #news #Politics