NPP Exposes NDC’s Alleged Underhanded Tactics for 2024 Elections

Read full statement below:
PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE DISRUPTIVE AND UNPROGRESSIVE STRATEGY OF THE NDC TO CAPTURE POWER BY ALL MEANS

23/10/2024
1. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the media. Thank you for coming to cover this interaction. The recent occurrences in the country, particularly the Parliamentary impasse and the general disruptive ways of the NDC over the period, confirm the implementation of a Secret Document we have obtained that provides strategic guidelines for winning power through foul means in the 2024 general elections.

2. Firstly, let me start by commending the Majority Caucus of Parliament, led by the Majority Leader, Hon. Alexander Afenyo-Markin, and the entire Majority leadership, for standing on the side of the law and, more importantly, displaying maturity, decency, self-respect and above all, respect for the Ghanaian people, particularly during the sitting of Parliament on Tuesday, 22nd October 2024. They showed restraint and wisdom in spite of the infantile provocation and utterly delinquent conduct put up by the NDC Minority.

3. The Members of Parliament on our side (i.e., the Majority) have yet again, demonstrated the NPP’s belief in and fidelity to the rule of law. The NPP’s desire for protecting the peace and stability of our dear country remains unmatched. As our Majority Leader Afenyo-Markin put it, “We want to conduct ourselves in a manner that will not put our children and young people of this country to shame”. The NDC, on the other hand, prefers to dispense with civility, and go back to factory settings, namely, to be crude, crass, chaotic, confused, rude and violent. That’s what the NDC means when they say they want a so-called Reset.

4. Moving onto the NDC document to win power by any means, Our verifications show that it is a legitimate operational document of the National Democratic Congress. The document consists of eleven chapters, each directing the NDC on various disruptive, unfair, and outright crude tactics to aid its chances of capturing power in 2024.

5. I strongly urge every Ghanaian to read this Secret Document, which will introduce you to the dark corners of the NDC’s corporate mind. It is a must-read for voters, especially the youth and the middle class because the document and its prescriptions make nonsense of patriotism, responsibility, democracy, and political ethics.

6. The Secret Document goes beyond the ordinary strategy or an action plan you would expect a political party to operate with. The Secret Document is a deliberate plot to hoodwink Ghanaians.

7. From what we have read in the document, the NDC had a plan right from January 08, 2021, to frustrate the government and make it unpopular through foul means to win power on December 07, 2024. One would think that any political opposition party would do the same; indeed, that is not problematic if those plans are legitimate and in the nation’s best interest. However, this Document we have uncovered promotes crude, undemocratic, and unpatriotic means of achieving the NDC’s political objectives.

8. We focus on the document’s central theme, which is for the NDC to obtain power in 2024 by every means necessary—fair or foul, but primarily through foul means.

9. The document admitted that the NDC lost the 2020 presidential elections fairly and squarely. That notwithstanding, H.E. John Mahama has failed to concede defeat, as has been the norm thus far. While the need to concede defeat may seem inconsequential once the winner takes their rightful place as president, it adds value and deepens democracy. Reference page.

10. Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, Chapter 2 of the Secret Document provides strategies on how the NDC minority should leverage parliamentary power to disrupt government business. Pages 7-8, under the subheading Maximizing Control of the Legislature, provide context for the strategy.

“The 2020 elections resulted in an unprecedented situation in Ghanaian politics, with an evenly split Parliament, with the NDC and NPP holding equal seats. This equilibrium creates a powerful opportunity for the NDC to influence, delay, or outright block the government’s legislative agenda. With everything requiring parliamentary approval, nothing can happen in the country without the consent of the legislature. This power dynamic gives the NDC the leverage to frustrate the government’s ability to govern effectively. By uniting our members and ensuring party discipline, we can control key votes and prevent the executive from enacting its policies.”

11. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, this strategy the NDC has operated with since January 2021 is on full display with what is going on with Parliament. The NDC has resolved to capture political power even if it means Ghana’s economy going up in flames, even if Ghanaians suffer and die resulting from its dubious opposition to prevent the government from enacting policies to improve conditions for Ghanaians. Secret Document links NDC’s path to power directly to the avoidable suffering of Ghanaians. That is why the NDC, since January 2021, has done everything to ensure that this economy fails instead of canvassing an alternative policy path to help alleviate the challenges we all face as a country.

12. This is the NDC, which wants your votes, a party whose unbridled political interest has corrupted its respect for patriotism, fair play, and collective pursuit. However, with the evidence on the ground, I know Ghanaians will vote massively for Dr. Bawumia and the NPP to continue to turn the economy around.

13. The NDC minority has been disruptive, obstructive, and uncooperative since day one, and the Document proves that this has been their plan. Pivotal in this regard is blocking the passage of the revenue measures proposed in the 2022 Budget, including the MDA Fees and Charges Bill, the Tax Exemption Bill, and the E-Levy Bill. The NDC minority executed the directives of the Secret Document by blocking a critical revenue measure, the E-levy. It rendered it incapable of raising the projected revenue when it eventually passed. I know you remember the protracted debate about the e-levy and the failure of Parliament to pass the e-levy bill before the December 31st deadline.

14. For the first time in this Fourth Republic, Parliament failed to approve a budget in line with the Public Financial Management (PFMA) simply because the NDC had made a political decision to hold ransom the people’s budget to make it impossible for the Executive to discharge its mandate and thus, appear incapable, incompetent or even a failure. The goal is to make the NDC appear attractive by making the NPP government unpopular to increase the NDC’s electoral chances in 2024.

This plot is undoubtedly beyond the realm of the regular and expected opposition manoeuvres to win voters’ confidence. It is a fundamental perversion of the concept of political opposition, which is designed, among other things, to serve as a forum for debating alternative ideas, improve governance outcomes for the people, and holding the government accountable.

The NDC opposition strategy amounts to abusing the people’s trust in the democratic system of government. Voters must punish this gross abuse of trust to deter future opposition parties from going to those extremes.

15. As a result of the irregular opposition to the 2022 budget by the NDC minority, Parliament violated Section 22 (1)(a)(b)(c) of the PFMA, which requires that— “Parliament shall, by the 31st of December of each financial year, consider and approve

(a) the annual budget and the correlative work plan of the Government for the ensuing financial year;

(b) the Appropriation Bill, and
(c) any other Bill that may be required to implement the annual budget.

16. In 2021 and 2022, when the debate over the E-levy bill raged, Ghanaians did not know that the NDC minority in parliament was involved in an unprecedented political scam, hiding behind the cloak of public interest to disrupt government business to enhance its political goals. The NDC tricked Ghanaians into believing its opposition to the e-levy was principled. Thanks to the leakage of this Secret Document, we now know that the NDC’s goal in that debate was simply to disrupt the government’s policy from seeing the light of day.

17. That disruption of the passage of the e-levy bill, which was planned to cover expenditure gaps resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, fundamentally harmed the economy and contributed to the slump we experienced in 2022. The NDC’s actions primarily undermined investor confidence in the economy. In the problematic post-COVID-19 environment and with the Russia-Ukraine war underway, investors were nervous about the prospect of the global economy.

18. Therefore, the NDC’s self-serving obstruction of the E-levy signaled to investors that the government may be unable to meet its obligation. This singular act of the NDC worsened Ghana’s recovery effort.

The 2021 fiscal year began the economy’s rebound, given the impressive 5.36 percent GDP growth from 0.5 percent in 2020. The NDC’s vain disruption undermined much of the gains the smooth implementation of the 2022 budget would have brought Ghanaians. Apart from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war on Ghana’s economy, the NDC’s meticulous execution of the dictates of their dubious Secret Document contributed directly to the rapid deterioration of our economy in 2022 and after that.

19. Ladies and gentlemen, do not take my word for it. Chapter ten of the secret NDC’s Document, titled “Strategic Economic and Political Manoeuvring, directs the NDC to frustrate government economic policies by using Parliament to block government revenue generation. The 2022 budget debate was about using Parliament to constrain the government’s ability to raise revenue to fund its programs and activities.

Is this the kind of opposition you expect from the NDC?

20. The capital market, especially the international market, watched the disruptive politicking of the NDC and responded by initiating rating downgrades, weakening the cedi, spiraling inflation out of control, and compromising our balance of payment position.

While the NDC was creating these financing difficulties, it was also busy preaching to the government to seek an IMF program. It was a two-prong strategy to ultimately defeat any confidence in the domestic capacity to regenerate the economy. The best way to achieve their unpatriotic plot was to bastardize the government’s homegrown solutions advanced in the 2022 budget. It has all the nuggets to build on the impressive 2021 performance without needing external intervention, such as the IMF.

21. As we speak, an almost three-year-old tax exemption bill to stimulate growth through the One-District-One Factory (1D1F) Initiative is pending Parliamentary approval. The NDC is determined to frustrate this government policy to create employment opportunities and drive economic growth simply because if the economy does well, the NDC will not do well on 7 December.

Just imagine how many jobs these qualified 1D1F companies would have created in addition to the over 160,000 jobs created by the existing factories. Imagine their impact on the local economies and overall contributions to Ghana’s economic growth.

22. It is abundantly clear from the above that we cannot, in good conscience, hand control of this economy to the NDC on December 7th because they have not earned it the way an opposition party should. The NDC’s rather crude methods are responsible for much of the pain Ghanaians have endured because of the adverse and selfish application of their Parliamentary oversight and responsibility.

23. How many of us will reward a backstabbing friend? The NDC, by their conduct, have stabbed Ghanaians in the back and must be punished at the polls on December 7th.

24. Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, the evolving situation in Parliament, with the NDC actively working to assume the majority status with the active support of Mr. Speaker, is part of the dictates of the NDC Secret Document.

Page 8 of the Secret Document describes the speaker as an ally of the NDC. What is striking about this revelation is not the fact that Speaker Bagbin is a member of the NDC and, therefore, may exercise some discretions in favor of the NDC. This is to be expected. However, what is not expected is the active participation of Mr. Speaker in a sinister plan to aid the NDC minority in claiming majority status in Parliament illegitimately. This is a new low for any Speaker of Parliament thus far.

25. As a friend would say, Mr. Speaker has crossed the be careful line. In other words, Mr. Speaker is beyond redemption as a stateman who ought to help glue Parliament together and see to government business to further the lot of Ghanaians.

26. The NDC’s real intention, in partnership with Mr. Speaker, the NDC’s real intention in this usurpation drive is not to exercise the responsibility of a majority in Parliament but rather to use it to achieve their disruptive ends.

What is happening in Parliament at this stage is a desperate push, having realized that its evil plot is failing, and the NDC is more likely to lose the 2024 elections.

27. The NDC is exhibiting unprecedented political behavior, fuelled by a desperation to win power at all costs. We have not seen anything like it in this Fourth Republic. The NDC must be ashamed of actually crafting and executing this coordinated plot to sabotage our economy.

By now, the NDC expected the economy to be in serious trouble to soften its path to victory on 7th December, but that is not the case. Instead, the NPP is in a solid position to win on 7th December because the economy is rebounding, and the voters have realized that the alternative is empty.

28. With the active participation of Mr. Speaker in the NDC’s plot to interfere with the economy, nobody can tell how things will shape up with the NDC’s Parliamentary coup d’état. But we believe Ghanaians have the final decision on 7 December.

We hope Ghanaians will decide, knowing that the NDC’s deliberate actions and inactions have significantly contributed to the protracted economic difficulties they have endured in the past four years.

We hope Ghanaians will decide on 7 December, knowing that, apart from the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine War, the NDC has had an equally negative impact on the economy with the execution of the Secret Document to frustrate government business primarily to constrain policy enactments and revenue generation.

29. We are counting on you to provide adequate coverage to inform Ghanaians that the NPP presents a candidate who is committed to doing the bidding of Ghanaians, no matter the circumstances, obstacles, or interests, and the NDC, a choice that has been exposed as resorting to sinister and underhanded strategies, including sabotaging the national interest, to attain political power.

30. As I conclude, I wish to say the following:

The NDC is lawless bunch who bring shame to the good name of Ghana and our parliament. On Tuesday, you all saw their disgraceful, embarrassing, and childish behaviour in the Chamber. You also saw and heard Hon Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, MP for Ho West, threatening physical violence in front of cameras. (PLAY THE TWO VIDEOS FOR THE MEDIA). Dear Voters, Ladies and Gentlemen, are these the type of lawmakers you want? Are these the Parliamentarians you deserve? Surely not. The Ghanaian people deserve better than this. If the NPP hadn’t taken the high ground we would have had physical fights in the chamber, a re-enactment of January 7th.

Voters, Fellow Ghanaians, it is said that “what is rewarded is repeated”. We cannot go to the polls on December 7th and vote for the same marauding and violent NDC MPs who use their numbers to block development for you; who use their numbers to prevent the FREE SHS Bill from being passed; who use their numbers to stop the passage of bills to stop mining in forest reserves. DO NOT REWARD THEM WITH YOUR VOTE on Dec 7. As voters, we cannot in one breath, complain about the conduct of our leaders, and reward the worst possible group of politicians. The only way forward to end this impunity is to vote massively for NPP candidates and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, so that his vision of Bold Solutions for You can be executed without impediments from the NDC.

31. December 7 is just around the corner. Sharpen your thumb and go out in your millions and just thumbprint number 1 for Dr Bawumia; and when you’re done do the same – thumbprint number 1 for your parliamentary candidate.

The nonsense must stop. The power to do is in your hands.

33. Thank you for coming.