<<Print>>

Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the National Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party has stated that Ghanaians risk doubling the misery and suffering they have been thrown into by the Mills-Mahama administration and has warned of �double trouble� for Ghanaians if President Mills and his National Democratic Congress government are given a second term in 2012. This assertion by the NPP Chairman is in direct response to President Mills and his campaign team who have sought to imply that every government of the Fourth Republic from the era of J J Rawlings through J A Kufuor has been entitled to two terms. To drum home this point, the ruling NDC has adopted a popular Christian hit song titled �Double Double� in their bid to get the John & John ticket re-elected in 2012. In an interview granted the New Statesman, Jake stated that it is not automatic that every Government will get two terms in office as this is dependent on performance and not on �songs�. He said, �It is not an entitlement. It must be earned. Otherwise, no Government would see the urgency in achieving anything in its first term, like we are seeing now.� Jake corroborated the statement made by the late Vincent Assiseh, Director of Communications for the NDC in 2000, who likened the NDC to a mere election machine and a party bereft of ideas and policies that will result in the betterment of the lives of Ghanaians after they win power. According to the NPP Chairman, the NDC has nothing better to offer Ghanaians as they have shown in their previous two terms and the last 2� years. Jake cited the litany of broken promises to the rising cost of living of Ghanaians ever since the NDC took power. �In 2� years corruption has double doubled, prices of goods and services have double doubled, utility tariffs have double doubled and petroleum prices, which candidate Mills promised to reduce drastically have double doubled. Virtually the prices of everything have double doubled under Mills,� Jake explained. The NPP Chairman cited the prices of some goods and services which are on the upward slide in terms of prices despite the NDC claiming that inflation was low. �The cost of constructing a 6-unit classroom block in 2008 was GH�80,000. In 2008, this has more than double doubled to GH�260,000 under Mills. Senior High School students paid fees within the region GH�200 in 2008. Similarly under Mills, this has double doubled to the region of over GH�400. Even the price of pure water has has double doubled under Mills from 5 pesewas to 10 pesewas,� Jake noted. The NPP Chairman, said that if Ghanaians were to elect the NDC for a second term in 2012, then they would have themselves to blame because the NDC has no policies to better the lives of Ghanaians but have plans only for themselves which would �double double� the standard of living of the selected few. Jake further added that Ghanaians have over their democratic dispensation rewarded leaders who in their view have performed well. This situation, according to Jake, is a prevalent one in virtually all democracies. According to Jake, Ghanaians only gave JA Kufuor two terms because �in their view he had performed well and deserving of a second term�. He added, �But, this is not the case with President Mills. He has so far shown us he is incompetent, has provided weak and indecisive leadership and has displayed his hypocrisy for all to see. The standard of living of Ghanaians has worsened and everywhere you go, the song on everyone�s lips is �enkoyie enkoyie��, Jake added. He said even if the first two leaders of the 4th republic got re-elected, none of them performed so questionably in his first term that he was challenged by another leading member of his own party. President Mills just brushed off a heated challenged by Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, former First Lady. The NPP Chairman cited the examples of United States Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George HW Bush in 1976. 1980 and 1992 presidential elections where each easily sailed through challenges in their presidential primaries only to lose their bids for a second term. Two of them were former vice presidents. Their unimpressive leadership records resulted in electoral defeats by the widest margins ever in political history of the United States. In the opinion of Jake, President Mills must realize that his non-performance will result in electoral defeat in 2012 as the Ghanaian voter is discerning to realize that they have become worse-off under the Mills-Mahama administration. Jake added that the NPP was poised to wrestle political power from the NDC as the NPP was coming to office with programmes and not promises that would lead to the transformation of the Ghanaian economy, thereby improving the standard of living of Ghanaians.