President Akufo-Addo has described the opposition party’s flagbearer John Mahama’s decision to legalize okada once he assume power as populist and a stark sign of inconsistency.
Speaking in an interview on Accra based radio station Oman FM, the president quizzed how the pledge of okada legalization will yield more jobs.
“A law was made during the Mills and Mahama era. Today he has changed his mind. He said he is going to legalize it. How can that provide more jobs than NABCO and Planting for foods and jobs? We have provided over two million jobs with these social intervention initiatives.
“So how can you say that okada will provide more jobs? It’s just populist. It’s another sign of inconsistency– when you are in power you say one thing and when you are out of power you say something else. It doesn’t help in creating better public discourse”.
Akufo-Addo
John Dramani Mahama had disclosed in an earlier interview that Okada indeed has created more jobs for young people than all government’s employment initiatives in recent times.
“Why behave like the turkey and bury your head in the sand? This pragyas, Aboboyaa, okadas have created more jobs in this economy than any government job-related policy. It has created more jobs than NaBCo, YEA and all those artificial job creation programs.
“These young people live under harassment because it’s illegal and so the police stop them, they take money from them and so my suggestion is that why do we behave like the ostrich? Let us legalize it and let us regulate it, let’s make it safer”.
In a sharp rebuttal elsewhere, the flagbearer and leader of the National Democratic Congress has questioned the state of dams provided under government’s One Village One Dam promise.
He described the 1V1D as a waste of money and insisted that instead of government constructing dams as promised to the people of Ghana, it has resorted to providing dugouts that are not fit for all-year-round farming because they dry up and some are even not able to hold water.
Addressing a durbar of chiefs and people of Loggu and Manwe in the Wa East constituency, John Mahama said government’s much-touted dams are unfit for the purposes of irrigation.
“In 2016, when the NPP came with the promise of one village one dam, I personally asked what kind of dams they are talking about because there are different kinds of dams but they refused to answer”.
He stated that his comment is in line with the findings of a recent research conducted by the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana that about 90 percent of the dams constructed under the government’s One Village One Dam policy cannot be used for irrigation.
He assured the chiefs and gathering that the next NDC administration will construct fit-for-purpose irrigation dams to support their farming activities throughout the year across the country.
