THE Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), a civil society organisation advocating for the welfare of Ghanaians, has said the lack of commitment on the part of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to fulfil its campaign promises is waning the trust of the citizenry in politicians generally.
It explained that “the matter of non-fulfilment and the deliberate departure from campaign promises have created widespread perception among the citizenry that public morality is no longer an issue in Ghanaian politics”.
A leading member of AFAG, Mr Kwabena Bonfeh, stated this at a press conference in Accra to announce a date for its intended demonstration against what it described as increasing harsh economic conditions and alleged corrupt practices under the current administration.
The demonstration was first scheduled for July 2, 2009 but the police said they could not provide the demonstrators with adequate security because at that time they were engaged in assisting the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to undertake a decongesting exercise. It was also during that same time that the police were preparing for the visit of President Barack Obama of the USA to the country.
When AFAG insisted on demonstrating, the police were able to secure a court order to prevent them.
However, just then President J. E. A. Mills called on the police not to prevent demonstrators from exercising their constitutional rights.
AFAG, on the other hand, described the President’s comment as a subversion of the Constitution.
“AFAG believes in the restoration of public morality and confidence as a necessary condition for our democratic advancement. The demonstration of August 4, 2009 will, among others, clearly establish this point,” Mr Bonfeh, who is also the National Youth Organiser of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), added.
He consequently urged all Ghanaians who believed that their condition had worsened to join the clarion call on the government to seek the interest of all and not a privileged few.
Asked what some of the harsh economic conditions were, Mr Bonfeh said as a civil society organisation, AFAG would continue to constructively engage all governments on issues that represented the people’s quest for better living conditions, security, accessible and affordable educational opportunities, among others.
He said contrary to the campaign promise of the NDC to reduce fuel prices drastically, prices had shot up drastically, coupled with pricing irregularities by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), resulting in further hikes.
He also said the alliance was taking to the street to demonstrate against some profligate expenditure, the financial mess at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, among others.
“This opulent misuse of scarce state resources clearly has some excesses which could have provided three square meals for some poor Ghanaian families, pay the school fees of some students or health insurance of some poor families. This is a defeat of government’s commitment to its austerity measures and an enormous rip-off of the taxpayer’s money,” Mr Bonfeh added.
He said another reason why the group was calling on Ghanaians to join it in the demonstration was the government’s acceptance of the IMF loan facility with dangerous conditionalities and cited some of the conditions as the freeze on public sector employment for two years and full cost recovery at public tertiary institutions, leading to increases in academic user facility fees.
He said the removal of subsidies on electricity and water for students was a clear demonstration of the government’s insensitivity to the suffering of parents and a betrayal of the President’s promise to create jobs for the people.
Mr Bonfeh reiterated its position that the IMF and the World Bank had no panacea for the nation’s ailing economy and that it was high time the country forged partnership with countries such as China and India in the short term.
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