Chief Executive Officer of policy think tank, IMANI Africa has called on the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to be open to Ghanaians about the campaign promises they can fulfil and those they cannot fulfil following the President’s apology over the Cape Coast harbour.

According to Franklin Cudjoe, although there is nothing wrong with making transformational promises, the government needs to be certain of the promises to fulfil especially since the country’s resources are not infinite. 

Speaking on Top Story on Thursday, Mr. Cudjoe said that “I suspect the conversation now will be whether we need to look at the manifesto properly and start saying ‘look there are certain things we can’t just do because we were not in our element of rationality or proper value for money mindset when we promised them’.”

He added that “it helps a whole lot  because the resources of the country are not infinite, and so it is important that when you are making these kinds of promises, you must also be careful.”

His comment comes after President Nana Akufo-Addo admitted that he made a mistake in his comment regarding the construction of a harbour in Cape Coast.

In a recent interview on Cape Coast-based Eagle FM, he denied that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had made any commitment to undertake the said infrastructural project in the region.

“Let me just confess it. I made a mistake,” he said on Accra-based Peace FM’s Kokrokoo on Thursday.

He added that some rethinking has to be done on the value for money when it comes to having a harbour at Cape Coast especially since there is one at Takoradi and another being developed at Elmina.

But reacting to the President’s explanation, Mr Cudjoe said he is happy the Head of State raised the conversation about value for money.

“I think we should thank the President that he has finally come home to the realisation that elections have consequences and I think when they promise big-ticket transformational projects they must also have the resources to back them. It is clear that some of those promises were made because the NDC was on their tail,” he added.

Mr Cudjoe believes that governments need to have a body that vets the types of projects they envisioned before they make their promises.

He said that “if you have people who can access projects based on their viability and profitability it will help a lot, rather than just saying we’ll do this or that.”