That the National Democratic Congress (NDC) loves drudgery and thrives on the ‘disease’ was manifested last Monday when the General Secretary of the leading opposition party, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, glorified ‘okada’ and ‘galamsey’ during the party’s town hall meeting held in Kumasi.
Far from giving Ghanaians hope in terms of alternatives which the party offers for 2020, Asiedu Nketia and his band, in welcoming ‘galamsey and ‘okada’ boys to the occasion, philosophized on drudgery and mediocrity as if the twin diseases were the reasons for society expressing need for leadership.
And, for those who are falling for the NDC’s fanciful manifesto promises and trying to do a comparison between and what the New Patriotic Party is offering – having already proved that it can deliver – the NDC, straightaway, exposes itself not only as greedy but a wicked band of political gangsters, all out to seek their own without caring a hoot about the plight of the lowly and underdog.
Threat
Unfortunately, what these young people are failing to grasp is that the NDC, in propagating lies, even after making fanciful promises which can only bear fruit in a formalized economy, is actually seeking to destroy the future, destiny and hopes of the youth because of the following reasons.
Particularly for ‘galamsey’, the NDC and its agents know that water bodies, forests and farmlands in communities that both these ‘galamsey’ and ‘okada’ boys hail from are under threat, with dire implications for health, livelihoods, investment and life expectancy. As a former president, Mahama knows that Ghana is in danger when Oti, Ankobrah, Pra, Volta and other river bodies continue to silt up from the activities of illegal miners.
That has repercussions for their relatives in the countryside who are farmers and fishermen, and also everybody depending on the water for purposes of travelling, agriculture and domestic or industrial use.
A teacher without ethics and morality is worse than a murderer or a rapist, if that is the conversation the former headmaster of a secondary school is making.
We must grow
The NDC, however, must be told that ‘galamasey’ is a threat to our forests, from which we find livelihoods and prized raw materials like timber to process to export, in growing our national economy. They must also be told that efficient management of such resources supports economic growth through afforestation, processing, export and even tourism.
As a party chief, familiar with the entire country, it should sound strange if Asiedu Nketia or some of these misled Young Turks cannot appreciate that policy is key to managing these resources for the good of future generations, than gobbling up our cash and natural resources and leaving our children to pain and adversity.
The act of irresponsible commiseration on the part of the NDC is evidence that, when the last Mahama administration created initiatives like SADA, they were actually fooling the people; that when they bought MASLOC cars for the youth and heavily inflated the prices, they were fooling the people; and, finally, when they made noise about revamping irrigation sites in the northern regions, the essence was to fill their pockets with state cash, while pretending to love poor, impoverished farmer constituencies.
The sad thing about this illiterate propaganda is that when people like Asiedu Nketia help to milk Ghana and build houses in Accra, they forget that they have a duty to improve their backyard, and not put unsuspecting youth to socio-economic jeopardy, and turn to blame ethnicity for their woes.
The electorate must be wary of what the NDC is offering them. Indeed, the alternative is scary, and the NDC has clearly shown that it poses a serious threat to the future of the country.
Source: dailystatesman.com.gh/Leader
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