Political Scientist and director of Centre for European Studies (CES) at the University of Ghana, Dr Kwame Asah-Asante, has debunked claims that the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) call for donation is an indication the party is broke.
According to him, the appeal made by former President, John Dramani Mahama, for Ghanaians to come to his aid to fund the party’s activities is a normal move for political parties.
“In election, you need at least three basic things; resources, message and manifesto. You need resources to galvanize support, run your programs and I’m not sure NDC as a corporate body like that is broke. That is a propaganda talk, we can understand that…”
Dr Kwame Asah-Asante
Dr Asah-Asante recounted that there was a time the incumbent New Patriotic Party also introduced a scheme where people could donate money to support the party. With this, he explained that these are things that are captured in the country’s constitution which allows political parties and gives them the right to generate resources to run the affairs of their own programs.
“So, if they do that there is nothing wrong with that.”
Dr Kwame Asah-Asante
It will be recalled that His Excellency John Mahama in his appeal on December 6, 2022, called on some 500,000 “willing” Ghanaians to donate a minimum of GHC10 to help fund the upcoming National Delegates’ Congress of the NDC.
The Congress is scheduled to take place at the Accra Sports Stadium on Saturday, December 17, 2022 of which over 9,000 delegates are expected to converge at the stadium to elect national officers of the party for four years. In a Facebook post, John Mahama on Monday, December 5, stated that “the party needs your support to fund this Congress”.
NPA to seek cabinet support on tax removal on LPG
Commenting on the National Petroleum Authority’s (NPA) desire to seek Cabinet support to remove taxes on LPG, Dr Asah-Asante, revealed that it is “a good call” and supports the efforts. He believes that the removal of taxes could avert the possibility of people relying on the use of other means which may be detrimental to the environment.
“… I want to conserve the forest and by extension also support the environment. Once we detract from this, we are going to create a problem where people will resort to the use of charcoal and other means that we don’t support.”
Dr Kwame Asah-Asante
Dr Asah-Asante reckoned the need for government to reduce the taxes as it will give a breather to people.
“… Look at the resources we pump into maintaining the environment, I think that we need to support the government in this call. But they must reduce the taxes so that it can be affordable…”
Dr Kwame Asah-Asante
The Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority, Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, in his defense on the move by the Authority on December 6, 2022, stated that the Authority’s goal in the energy sector is to help eradicate energy poverty. In that regard, he gave the assurance that he would make a case for tax exemptions for investors who would be establishing cylinder bottling plants in the northern part of Ghana for them to have maximum return on their investments.
