NPP Hot As Prez Mahama Changes 2nd Gear

President Mahama has started a nationwide tour to commission several new development projects and other social infrastructure that he had promised when he famously stated that his administration would unveil them when he shifts from the �First gear� of his government. President Mahama was in the Brong Ahafo Region earlier this week to launch the $156 million �Secondary Education Improvement Project� which he promised as his counter-policy to what the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) promised as their �Free Education Policy�. This project will ensure that 34,500 students get enrolled in 23 new schools to be built while 10,000 more students get enrolled in the 50 schools receiving facility improvements. Besides this pet-project of the Mahama administration, the President has gone round several regions to commission Production factories such as the Komenda Sugar Factory and the Shoe factory in the Ashanti Region. He has also commissioned several energy plants that are set to come on stream soon. These projects have dealt a hefty blow to the opposition NPP�s propaganda machinery that has fervently churned out information about what they described as the incompetence of the Mahama administration. The Republic newspaper sources have indicated that with these projects activating the �Second gear� of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, the NPP has been forced to grope for new propaganda messages to make the government appear incompetent. The only current agenda they are pushing feverishly is the 2nd Tier Pension fund, which has got organized labour into a nationwide industrial action, this paper has gathered. The party, according to sources, is using think-tank, IMANI and an NPP-centric pressure group Alliance For Accountable Governance (AFAG) to push this pension fund agenda. But government sources have indicated that the NPP would be more crippled in their arguments when the economic fundamentals such as the exchange rate depreciation and inflation finally start reversing their negative rallies. Already, the local currency-the Ghanaian Cedi-, has stabilized considerably against other foreign currencies, which dealt it a massive blow late last year and early this year. The economic fundamentals are also said to be on a bright path as the International Monetary Fund discusses economic stabilization measures with the Mahama administration. These discussions have already spurred the investment community on to start new investments in Ghana, because, according to economists, investors have gained a renewed confidence in the Ghanaian economy.