A member of the Conventions People’s Party (CPP), Kwame Janutuah has criticised the National Democratic Congress (NDC), for making pedestrian comments at its press conference Thursday and failing to present itself as a government in waiting.

Mr. Jantuah said the NDC missed an obvious opportunity to speak to recent happenings in the Akufo-Addo government but the opposition party rather chose to engage in what could best be described as propaganda.

National Chairman of the NDC, Kofi Porturphy led executives of the party to organize a news conference on Thursday, which sought to present an assessment of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s first six months in office, from their perspective.

Mr. Porturphy said the president’s first six months produced nothing but arrogance, corruption, lawlessness among others.

Doing an analysis of the NDC’s presentation, Mr. Jantuah said the party missed the chance to capitalize on issues coming up in the government, including the possibility of the country experiencing a food shortage in the coming years as a result of the massive destruction caused to farmlands by fall army worms.

“The handling of the fall army worm infestation by the NDC was poor. This is something that is affecting the livelihood of farmers in this country and I would have thought that they would have made a huge hue and cry,” Mr. Jantuah said.

He said the manner the presentation was handled was enough to suggest that “they weren’t prepared for it.

“I think they could have done better and I think they could have presented it in a better way. It sounded as if they were just doing propaganda.

Kwame Janutuah 

“Even there were personal issues that came in there including the suit of the president…that was neither here nor there.”

The NDC also raised issues with government's borrowing, which it said if not curtailed, could leave Ghana in a worse economic state.

The party is predicting the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government will saddle Ghanaians with an estimated GHS640 billion debt within four years.

But a member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) who is MP for Takoradi Constituency of the Western Region in Parliament, Andrew Mercer, who was part of the panel of discussants,  described the NDC’s position as “complete hogwash”.

Andrew Mercer

“Yesterday I felt very sad as a Ghanaian because if this is the biggest opposition party, then we are in a very, very big problem,” he said.

The fact that the government has borrowed some money does not necessarily mean that it will lead to an increase in the country’s debt stock, Mr. Mercer explained.

“It is not the case that government is borrowing recklessly,” the MP added.

Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor

However, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor, the NDC Member of Parliament for South Dayi constituency in the Volta Region restated the claims made by his party chairman with regard the government’s “reckless borrowing”.
 
“We are saying that the kind of debt that they are contracting for us are atrocious,” Mr. Dafeamekpor maintained.

Listen to excerpts of the discussion in the audio attached: