Ace Investigative and Broadcast Journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni has urged political leaders in the country to demonstrate honesty ahead of the 2024 electioneering campaign.
Reacting to a billboard mounted by the ruling New Patriotic Party which quoted Former President John Dramani Mahama as saying that he is not a ‘magician’ to put money into people’s pockets, the Nieman Fellow at Harvard University eulogized the National Democratic Congress flagbearer for demonstrating truthfulness in his remarks.
According to him politicians and governments are not supposed to put money in the citizen’s pockets, as evidenced in recent times during the New Patriotic Party internal presidential and parliamentary primaries, but rather they are required to create policies that allow citizens to work to earn their own money.
He noted that even if the New Patriotic Party attacked Mr Mahama’s statement with the argument that the government puts money in people’s pockets indirectly, their recent record in government would still afflict them more than the opposition National Democratic Congress.
“The NPP has mounted a billboard of a story in which President John Dramani Mahama is quoted as saying he’s not a magician to put money into people’s pockets. That’s an honest statement. When the Kwaku Ananse-like scammers told gullible voters in 2020 that they were giving them free water and electricity during the COVID-19 pandemic, what happened afterwards? The scammers introduced the COVID-19 tax after they used the “freebies” to buy votes”.
Manasseh Azure Awuni
Mr Awuni further accused the New Patriotic Party’s administration of taking money ‘directly’ from people’s pockets by inflicting them with bonds and other investment losses due to its mismanagement.
He emphasized that the New Patriotic Party as the party in government has no moral right to attack Former President John Dramani Mahama who said he could not put money in the pockets of Ghanaians.
“It’s better not to put money into people’s pockets than to take money from the pockets of those who made their own money. One of my Facebook followers sent me a message about her difficulty in getting her savings at Databank and needs my help. Others are forced to keep their monies in other investment banks because they would lose a significant portion of it if they withdraw. Campaigns such as the money in the pocket will only remind people like this lady of the government that dipped its hands directly in her pocket and left her in pain”.
Manasseh Azure Awuni
Again, Mr Awuni expressed confidence in the National Democratic Congress flagbearer Former President John Dramani profiting from the New Patriotic Party’s attempt to ‘equalise’ in their billboard campaign.
Manasseh Awuni Urges Parliament To Probe Zoomlion Waste Management Contract
Meanwhile, the award-winning Ghanaian Journalist and Writer has bemoaned the lack of commitment from Parliament to address the numerous problems which have characterized Zoomlion’s contract with the government of Ghana on waste management in the country.
Reacting to the former Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu’s statement on the floor of Parliament about the controversial contract, Mr Awuni decried the failure of successive governments since former President Agyekum Kufour to abrogate the contract even after evidence that the terms of the contract are untenable.
According to Mr Awuni, the Tamale South lawmaker’s submission on the Zoomlion contract shows that there’s a real problem with the contract and not that he, Manasseh deliberately hates Zoomlion as some Ghanaians suggest.
“Dear Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, I’m happy you’ve mentioned the fraudulent and unconscionable Zoomlion contract in the House of Parliament. Akufo-Addo and his NPP said in November 2016 that the contract was fraudulent. They said President Mahama could not cancel such deals because he was personally benefitting from them. When Akufo-Addo won the election, he became Zoomlion and Jospong’s number one PR agent. Should we assume he’s benefitting from it too?
“I’ve been drawing attention to this for the past 10 years and nothing is being done. If I were a normal human being, I should have stopped this long ago. Akufo-Addo is now in bed with Jospong and when John Mahama promises to undertake a “24-Hour Economy in Waste and Sanitation Management”, only one company came to mind—Zoomlion”.
Manasseh Azure Awuni
Manasseh Azure Awuni concluded by urging Parliament to allow the assemblies in the country to manage their ‘sweepers’ and allow the money to be paid to the ‘sweepers’ instead of Zoomlion acting as an intermediary.
He emphasized that the various assemblies in the country have waste and sanitation departments that are better qualified than the ‘average’ Zoomlion district managers, hence it is unreasonable to allow Zoomlion to continue to monopolize waste management in all the assemblies across the country.
“I, however, hope you will follow it through this time. Even the stupidest person in Cabinet or Parliament knows that the Bongo District Assembly doesn’t need a company from Accra to manage sweepers of the Bongo market and be paid from the assembly’s share of the Common Fund in Accra. Any form of modification to that contract is fraud. I wrote in The Fourth John that whenever Zoomlion is involved, government officials act without consulting their brains. I hope one day I will be proven wrong”.
Manasseh Azure Awuni
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