The president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says if members of the National Democratic Congress continue peddling falsehood, they will stay in opposition for a long time.
Incensed by what he describes as the NDC’s constant propagation of deceit to make his government unpopular in certain parts of the Eastern region, especially Krobo and its environs, the president refuted claims that his government is working to relocate the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) from Somanya to Bunso.
This deliberate act of misinformation, according to the president is an agenda of the NDC in order to re-capture power from his party but “these are people who are looking at a long period in opposition,” he said, explaining that the more desperate the NDC gets, the more fabrications they will engage in.
“What is the purpose of coming back to power to continue the programme of create loot and share. That programme is dead in Ghana, it will not happen again. That is not the programme the people of Ghana are looking for,” the president stated.
It is unclear where the president got his information from because although the Minority questioned the construction of the Bunso campus when a $90 million loan was approved, they have not said the campus will be relocated to Bunso instead of Somanya.
What they have kicked against is an allegation that the government was planning to move the Donkorkrom campus of the university to Bunso. They also accused government of engaging in an illegality with the project when there is no governing council in place.
“This House has to be very careful the precedence we are setting. We are saying that we passed a law, another party comes to power, we don’t like our laws, we won’t amend it, we don’t tell the people of Donkorkrom anything, we are violating the law and we are going to a preferred place because of clear familiar reasons.
“Article 17 of our Constitution frowns on discrimination. What we are being invited to do is to discriminate against the people of Donkorkrom in flagrant violation of Article 17 of the constitution of Ghana and that is why this side of the House is saying that we will not be part of this illegal and discriminatory action,” North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa told Parliament when the loan was approved.
But the president says he has no intention of discriminating against any ethnic group or people.
He noted that the agreement between Ghana and the Italian Government for the establishment of the University does not allow him or anyone else to relocate the university campus to Bunso or any part of the country as is being propagated by the NDC.
“I come from the area of Bunso, so it is very easy for them (NDC) to come and tell you that ‘all the things that are meant for you, he is now taking it to his hometown’.
“That is not the basis on which I am governing Ghana. I am not standing only for the people of Akim Abuakwa or Bunso, but I stand for the entire nation of Ghana,” the president told cheering supporters during a mini durbar at Somanya.
Communications Officer of the NDC Samuel Gyamfi on Joy FM’s Top Story lashed out at the president for attributing to the opposition comments they have not made.
He said the only person peddling falsehood on the issue is the president, “at no point did we refer to the Somanya campus of the university being relocated to Bunso.
“The claim we made at the time was that we had impeachable information which suggested that government intended to relocate the Donkorkrom campus of the university to Bunso. That is very clear, so it wrong for the president to suggest that we had claimed in the past the government intended to relocate the campus of the university,” he clarified.
He insists that there is a move by government to relocate the Donkorkrom campus of the university to Bunso and the NDC has evidence to that effect.
On the claims that the NDC only wants to come to power to create loot and share, Mr Gyamfi said the president is suffering from a “credibility deficit.”
He said it was sad the president who accused the NDC of many wrongdoings while it was in power, has not been able to prosecute any member of the previous administration.
“I think it doesn’t augur well for the credibility and integrity of government when our president speaks in this manner. We want to come back to government not to create loot and share like they are doing but to restore this country back to the path of development and progress.
“If the president wants to talk about create loot and share, he should look at his government, because his government is now an epitome and embodiment of corruption. He has become a clearing agent who clearing his errant appointees of corrupt acts,” he said citing the National Lottery Authority scandal, Australian visa racketeering scandal and many others.
Mr Gyamfi said the main aim of the NDC when they return to power was to rescue the people of Ghana from the insensitivity of Akufo-Addo-led administration which has brought untoward hardship on citizens.
