Professor Ransford Van Gyampo, a Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon has critiqued the speech delivered by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in announcing his candidacy for the 2024 general elections and expressed both commendation and scepticism.
The seasoned political scientist reacting to Dr. Bawumia’s emphasis on digitization as a key driver of development which formed the central theme of his address raised concerns about the delayed communication of such achievements to the Ghanaian public and called for an independent fact-check to verify most of his claims.
Professor Ransford Gyampo further criticised the ruling New Patriotic Party administration on its style of communicating its achievements and asserted that the ruling party appeared to be either ‘ignorant or ineffective’ in communicating the strides made in digitisation, leaving Dr Bawumia as the primary spokesperson on the matter.
The Political Scientist admonished the ruling New Patriotic Party to enhance its communication in digitization and its accomplishments, emphasizing the importance of such efforts for effective political communication.
Furthermore, Professor Ransford Gyampo while acknowledging the potentials of digitization as it was highlighted by Dr Bawumia in his address to the Ghanaian economy questioned why the Vice President overlooked other crucial factors that matter in development during his address.
He highlighted the significance of good governance, efforts to combat corruption, and exemplary leadership as equally vital components that the Vice President ought to have spoken about.
According to Professor Gyampo, such aspects of governance should have been emphasized by the New Patriotic Party flagbearer rather than being treated as mere ‘appendages’ to the digitization policy.
“Despite what it can do, Digitization is not the sine qua non to development. Other key interventions such as good governance and deliberate efforts to seal the leakages and slippages, fight corruption, exemplary leadership that first tightens its belt, rather than living bourgeoisie, etc should have been emphasized more than being treated nearly as appendages”.
Professor Ransford Van Gyampo
Moreover, Professor Ransford Van Gyampo strongly asserted that some parts of the Vice President’s speech including the Vice President’s promises to reduce ministers to 50 and abolish some taxes like the Emissions tax, Gaming Tax, E-Levy, VAT on electricity consumption among others were an indictment of the government, of which he is a part.
Professor Gyampo argued that the promise to reduce the number of ministers and abolish certain taxes, which aligns with previous criticisms made by most Ghanaians raised questions about the timing of such commitments.
According to Professor Gyampo, the delay in implementing such interventions gives doubt about the Vice President’s commitment to implement such policies and champion such reforms.
“But the more important question is, why do these great interventions tomorrow, instead of today that they are greatly needed? Does the answer still lie in the claim that he’s not the one in charge? Well, in that case, then karma is not good at all. There was then absolutely no basis for the 170 questions posed to Veep Amissah-Arthur because he was also a mate and wasn’t in charge”.
Professor Ransford Gyampo
Again, Professor Gyampo reacting to Dr. Bawumia’s attributing Ghana’s economic crisis to external factors such as the impact of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war called for the need for the ruling party to acknowledge the domestic shortcomings of the country’s problems and the government commitment to address such problems.
Professor Gyampo emphasised that blaming external factors alone might not be entirely accurate, hence the need for the governing New Patriotic Party administration to take responsibility for their contributions to the challenges.
Despite the presentation’s focus on great ideas, including the call for a national development plan, Professor Van Gyampo underscored a growing scepticism among Ghanaians regarding political promises.
He noted that some empirical survey reports revealed that many Ghanaians do not believe in such pledges, underscoring the need for a side-by-side comparison of the trustworthiness, credibility, and achievements of all contenders in the 2024 general elections.
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