The opposition New Patriotic Party says it has been vindicated by Wednesday’s address by President John Mahama that the government has nothing new to offer Ghanaians. A statement signed by the party’s General Secretary Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie accused the president of using PR gimmicks to mask the failures of the government. “His ‘humbly-sounding’ pleas for peace, unity, tolerance and patriotism are betrayed by his own track record of being the second-in-command of a ruling party that has for nearly four years of its four-year term engaged in the politics of divisiveness, tribalism, baseless personal attacks, violence, lies, deceit and propaganda.” The statement further stated: “The policies of John Mahama as head of Economic Management Team and Kwesi Amissah Arthur as head of Monetary Policy, only led to unprecedented hardships, rising cost of living, falling cedi, propaganda jobs, inflated cost of contracts, dubious judgement debts and corruption-riddled mega loan agreements, mainly championed by President John Mahama himself.” Below is the full statement Wednesday, August 15, 2012:- Already, the New Patriotic Party has been vindicated by our position that President John Dramani Mahama offers nothing new and that he merely intends to use PR gimmicks and media stunts in his futile attempts to mask the failures of a government which has been characterized by incompetence, lies, broken promises, economic mismanagement and unprecedented corruption. Like most Ghanaians, the New Patriotic Party is not at all disappointed with this evening’s address to the nation by H.E President John Dramani Mahama. We are not disappointed by the “I-am-also-a-nice-guy” content of President Mahama’s speech because we did not expect him to do anything better than to use any such golden opportunity to market himself. His call against “petty, name-calling and baseless personal attacks” came after a similar promise to Church leaders that he would take action against any of his appointees who breached his still-sizzling decree against using insulting language. In between these two loud calls, the President himself used the insulting word “useless” against many decent Ghanaians whose only offence was to offer an alternative opinion to his own earlier rash decision to turn the new Presidential Palace into a presidential cemetery. In between these two holier-than-thou messages against insults, a presidential appointee, the CEO of the Ghana Free Zones Board, launched a baseless personal attack against Hon. Nana Akomea, MP, NPP Communications Director. The President has neither apologized for his own unpresidential intolerance and injurious insult against Ghanaians who disagreed with him nor has he yet taken any decisive action against the CEO of the GFZB. His ‘humbly-sounding’ pleas for peace, unity, tolerance and patriotisms are betrayed by his own track record of being the second-in-command of a ruling party that has for nearly four years of its four-year term engaged in the politics of divisiveness, tribalism, baseless personal attacks, violence, lies, deceit and propaganda. His nervous and shifty performance Wednesday night on television and radio only betrayed the fact that in President John Mahama we have a leader we cannot trust. President Mahama is simply not trustworthy. If the President thinks he can use his short caretaker period to hoodwink the Ghanaian people with such empty propaganda stunts and self-promotion gimmicks then he better think again. Ghanaians are wide awake and would not allow this four-year record of gargantuan corruption, shocking incompetence, shameless lies, and worsening economic hardships to be plastered over by the spins and stunts of a man who has made a living in PR. No PR gimmicks would fool the neglected people of Ghana. It is ironic that the man, who ignored Ghanaian contractors to travel abroad to bring in, first, Koreans and, then, South Africans, to do the work that Ghanaians are more than capable of doing, is now urging Ghanaians to be patriotic! The President should first learn to practice what he preaches and also apologise to Ghanaians for showing no confidence in them before he admonishes our youth to start believing in themselves. The policies of John Mahama as head of Economic Management Team and Kwesi Amissah Arthur as head of Monetary Policy, only led to unprecedented hardships, rising cost of living, falling cedi, propaganda jobs, inflated cost of contracts, dubious judgement debts and corruption-riddled mega loan agreements, mainly championed by President John Mahama himself. We will, once again, take this opportunity to urge President Mahama to use his energies to focus on ensuring a peaceful, free and transparent elections in December and, like a spare tyre, take Ghanaians safely, even if gingerly, through this caretaking journey until January, 2013, when we pray that the good Lord shall stretch forth His redeeming Hands to rescue Ghana from the hands of this failed government. God Bless Ghana. ……signed…… Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie NPP General Secretary