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A communication team member of the opposition New Patriotic Party [NPP], Samuel Jinapor has chastised government for their rebuttal on Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s recent Ghana-Ivory Coast comparison.

The NPP’s flagbearer during his campaign tour was purported to have highlighted and praised the developmental strides being made by neighbouring country, Cote d’Ivoire.

According to him, Cote d’Ivoire has magnificently overcome the effects of its 2011 civil conflict and become an economic ball of fire in Africa due to good leadership – a methodology he promised to emulate if elected President come November 7.

But government rubbished the NPP leader's idealogy insisting that his comparison was a ‘blanket analysis which lacks basis’.

Deputy Communications Minister, Felix Kwakye Ofosu who interpreted Nana Addo’s comparison of ‘good leadership helping developing Ivory Coast’ argued that Ghana has seen higher growth rates than Cote d’Ivoire.

He told Class FM that “Ghana’s economy is much larger than the economy of Cote d’Ivoire. It is just like saying that because over a brief period of time Ghana has had higher growth than the US economy, the US should model their growth around Ghana’s; that is how inexplicable the position Nana Akufo-Addo has taken.

“Again they create the impression [that] because Cote d’Ivoire produces cash crops, they have done something extraordinary that Ghana should necessarily emulate. They even create the impression that it is only recently under President Mahama that Cote d’Ivoire became the world’s leading producer of cocoa. The fact of the matter is that Cote d’Ivoire since 1976 has been the world’s leading producer of cocoa. In fact, Ghana used to be the world’s second leading producer of cocoa in the world until 2006, under Nana Akufo-Addo’s NPP government, that Indonesia overtook us.”

“So, if a man, looking to be president displays such limited vision, it is even inappropriate for us to be having a discussion on such blanket, baseless comparison because what it does is to create the impression that we are a homogenous country and that all conditions in Ghana are the same as the conditions in Cote d’Ivoire,” he added. 

However, in an interview with Peacefmonline.com, Samuel Abu Jinapor spurned off Felix Kwakye’s assertions. To him, the latter lacks the expertise to educate others on what good leadership entails.

“Nana Addo never said he is going to adopt an Ivorian economic model. What he has been talking about is that after several years of war in Ivory Coast, it has achieved excellent achievements under President Alassane Ouattara. Ivory Coast is now the fastest growing economy in Africa under the leadership of President Ouattara and Ghana is the worst,” he said. 

He explained that, that eminence of leadership is what Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo talked about when he compared Ivory Coast to Ghana.

“As this form of quality leadership is what Nana Addo is talking about. La Côte d’Ivoire is now overtaking India in the production of cashew and becoming the world leading producer of cashew.

“The point Nana Addo is making is that if you look at Ghana and La Côte d’Ivoire now, we are not really different, and our population and other things are similar. But as a result of sound leadership, the La Côte d’Ivoire government has led them to make giant and monumental strides in terms of development. So that is the point Nana Addo is talking about. Akufo-Addo is talking about the leadership effort and not about economic tactics as claimed by the NDC,” he told Peacefmonline.com.

Abu Jinapor also maintained that “Ghana is doing much better in education and other sectors than Ivory Coast. The point is, where was La Côte d’Ivoire some five [5] years ago? And where was Ghana five years ago. Where is La Côte d’Ivoire today in terms of quantum development and where is Ghana today?”

“Anyone who will assess the two countries today will admit Côte d’Ivoire has made more progress than Ghana and that is as a result of the quality of leadership President Ouattara is offering the people of La Côte d’Ivoire, and that is what Akufo-Addo is calling Ghanaians to pay attention to.”