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Mr Hassan Ayariga, the Presidential Candidate of the All Peoples Congress (APC), says the worsening economic situation in the country could be attributed to the poor leadership of the two dominant parties. 

During a courtesy call on the chiefs and people of Christian Village near Achimota to climax the five day ‘Come on Board’ tour in Accra, he said the economy was retrogressing and the hardships will keep worsening if Ghanaians keep voting for the two parties; the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). 

Mr Ayariga and his team began the tour at Dome through Dodowa to Abokobi and Adentan. They also visited Ayikuma in the Shai Osudoku District.

He said: “The NPP and the NDC alone cannot manage this country, when political parties win power it does not mean they should not listen to others. Everybody should be brought on board to help towards the development of the country.

“The main problem of this country is bad leadership and the winner takes all mentality. If the NPP wins, everything is in the hands of the party and so is the NDC with total disregard for any other party.

“One should either belong to these parties before they will listen to you even if you have the solution.”

Mr Ayariga said under the leadership of the APC, various sectors of the economy would receive a major boost and the widespread poverty would reduce by utilising the abundant resources the country was endowed with.

“Health, education, employment have not received any major achievement for so many years. We move from one country to the other begging to improve on these sectors whiles resources are available here. Our party’s vision is to improve the well being of everybody in the country making use of these resources,” he said.

The APC used the occasion to introduce the executives and the parliamentary candidate for the Okaikoi North Constituency, Mr Joseph Akoto Lamptey, to the chiefs and elders at the Christian Village.

Mr Ayariga mentioned that chieftaincy, as one of the important institutions of the state, should be considered a partner in development, adding that the idea of chiefs to refrain from politics should be looked at again.

At Asofan in the Trobo Constituency, Mr Ayariga appealed to the chiefs and people to vote for the APC as the only party to address the widespread hardships of the country, particularly youth unemployment.

“Look around and you will find poverty all around, a lot of the youth are not in any gainful employment. We are going to tackle this head-on by creating job opportunities for the youth,” he said.

Mr Ayariga touched on agriculture as one of the sectors that the party would give priority to describing the various policies by past and present governments as inadequate to address the challenges the sector was confronted with.

“Both the NPP and NDC have done little in agriculture. We are always importing food products from outside. What are we doing, is to ensure that we have enough food in the country," he said.

He appealed to Muslim youths not to allow any political party to use them to forment violence, urging them to be agents of peace in their respective communities before, during and after the election.

The Chief of Asofan, Nii Sei-Anertey Abbey, commended the APC for the respect accorded the chiefs by visiting them in its quest to occupy the highest office of the land and prayed that it achieved its goals.