Where Are The Jobs? PPP asks government
The 2020 elections must be fought on the platform of jobs for every Ghanaian. It is recalled that in 2012 and 2016, all political parties promised to create jobs because it was the most pressing need at the time in the lives of majority of the electorate.
Eight (8) years after those promises were made, the situation has become worse, and calls for an evaluation of how the various political parties have performed in solving the unemployment situation.
The Progressive People’s Party (PPP), believes it is in the national interest to demand that political parties account for what they have done to create sustainable jobs for Ghanaians; and for the citizens to decide who has caused the unemployment situation in the country to rise and be guided by that in selecting the next President in the December 2020 elections.
In 2012 and 2016, the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) fielded the same Presidential Candidate, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, who is known throughout the country as “Edwumawura” for creating thousands of good permanent jobs, directly and indirectly in Ghana. He was considered a “doer” by people from all walks of life due to his job creation accomplishments that people could see and feel.
Since the 2016 elections however, Dr. Nduom’s job creation machine has been shut down for political considerations,
contrary to what pertains in right thinking societies; that the job creation abilities of citizens like Dr. Nduom, evidenced in his private life as a global giant of enterprise, is an asset that he would bring to bear on solving the unemployment problem in Ghana.
It is sad, but we wish to put on record that prospective entrepreneurs, majority in the youth bracket of the Ghanaian population, who looked up to Dr. Nduom, have been denied the critical mentor-ship needed to achieve their dreams and have now added up to the unemployed graduates and jobless youth associations with dire consequences for the country’s economy, security and democracy.
The PPP hereby gives notice that, the challenges that have been deliberately foisted on Groupe Nduom companies particularly GN Bank and Gold Coast Fund Management (GCFM), resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs, cannot and will not be ignored in the call to account for the increased unemployment situation in the country.
Over the past two years, we have restrained ourselves as a political party from getting involved in what we considered to be corporate affairs, separate from politics. However, the legal gymnastics by lawyers of the Bank of Ghana, Ministry of Finance and their collaborators in the ruling government, to unduly delay and orchestrate the denial of justice in the GN Bank case before the courts, have convinced us that the closure of GN business interests is politically motivated and must be seen as such, without prejudice to the proceedings in court.
Prior to this conclusion, we had dismissed portions of a plan widely circulated ahead of the 2016 election which indicated that, should then candidate Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo of the NPP win the election to become President, businesses belonging to opponents such as Dr. Kwabena Duffuor and Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom would be “cut down to size”. We now know that there is fire beyond that smoke.
We stand by our promises in 2016, to “Create jobs, use government’s purchasing power to ensure that we eat what we grow and use what we produce in Ghana. Improve Ghana’s business climate to enable investment in job creation so that our people will stay at home to help develop the country and its economy.”
Our promise “to relentlessly provide support to Ghanaian industry and our farmers and fishermen using low interest loans, technical assistance, tax incentives and priority access to the Ghanaian market. Building inter-region highway with the same high quality throughout the country to accelerate job creation nationally and to open up the country for investment and development”, still stands.
So, when businesses owned by Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, our Founder, go from more than 7,000 employees to less than 1,000 in two years, we believe that our job, jobs, jobs agenda for the people and in the national interest is under severe threat.
When indigenous Ghanaian businesses are collapsed by an administration that promises a “private sector-led economy” and their places are taken by foreigners and associates of the ruling party, our interest is spiked. We will not take these assaults on our human rights and economic freedoms lying down.
As a party, we are wide awake and will resist the oppressors’ rule with all our will and might forevermore!
Awake Ghana!
Paa Kow Ackon
National Secretary