The Upper West Regional Communication Bureau of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has strongly criticized Vice President Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s recent campaign tour in the Upper West Region, accusing him of deceit and empty promises.
During his tour, Bawumia addressed a crowd of senior high school (SHS) students, who were reportedly bussed in to create an artificial crowd. The Vice President’s promises included a scheme for Ghanaians to buy smartphones on credit, paying GH₵1 per month, and claims of distributing tablets to SHS students. These statements have drawn sharp rebuke from the NDC.
The NDC highlights Bawumia’s evasion of critical economic issues such as inflation, exchange rates, interest rates, debt accumulation, and corruption. They question why the so-called economic whizkid, who campaigned on economic solutions in 2016, now avoids these topics.
The NDC also condemned the Vice President’s use of hungry SHS students as campaign props, questioning the fairness of involving students who are already suffering from inadequate feeding and lack of educational resources.
Moreover, the NDC ridiculed Bawumia’s smartphone promise, arguing that it is irrelevant in the face of severe economic hardship and pressing issues such as high food inflation, rising fuel costs, and inadequate salaries for public sector workers.
The NDC reminded Bawumia of several unfulfilled promises, including the completion of the Wa/Hann/Tumu road, the provision of tablets to SHS students, and the construction of the Pwalugu dam. They also criticized his handling of the Wa serial killings and the distribution of expired food aid to flood victims in Mangu in 2018.
In a scathing remark, the NDC dismissed Bawumia’s call for a debate with former President John Mahama, stating that Mahama will not engage with a “failed vice president” who has mismanaged the economy.
Issah Kantagyere, the NDC’s Regional Communication Officer, urged Ghanaians to reject Bawumia’s “comic relief” promises and support John Dramani Mahama for better policies and a more competent government.
Full Statement
IGNORE DECEITFUL AND LYING BAWUMIA AND HIS THEATRICAL COMIC RELIEF COMMENTS AND PROMISES: 24/07/2024
The Upper West Regional Communication Bureau of the National Democratic Congress has learnt
with utter dismay that, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on a campaign tour in the Upper West Region,
lying again and saying all manner of irrelevant and unrealistic things to a crowd of hungry SHS
students who were hurriedly bussed to the event site in Wa and other Constituencies to make up an
artificial crowd.Bawumia who was brought in, in 2016 to address issues of our economy and was being touted as the so
called economic whizkid and messiah for our economic woes was heard not speaking to the issues of
the economy anymore, but was rather heard saying unusual things like implementing a scheme for
Ghanaians to buy smart phones on credit and pay GH₵ 1 per month, lying that he had distributed
tablets to senior high school students etc.A number of questions are begging for answers, such as, why has the economic whizkid and economic
messiah craftily dodged discussing issues of the economy? He is no longer talking about inflation,
exchange rate, interest rates, accumulated debt, borrowing, etc. Why has he avoided the issues on
which he campaigned and won elections? Why is he not addressing corruption, profligate expenditure,
over blown size of government, unusually high numbers of government ministers and appointees, state
capture, grabbing of state assets by appointees, poor feeding of SHS students, low salaries of public
sector workers, high cost of living, ever rising cost of fuels, high food inflation, high electricity tariffs,
and several other bread and butter issues that have subjected the Ghanaian citizens to excruciating
economic hardship, pushing more households into the poverty bracket?Why has he now resorted to the use of hungry SHS students who are being bussed to all his campaign
events? Is it that his own party people have abandoned his already bankrupt campaign? Why is he
being unfair to the hungry SHS students who have not been given enough and proper feeding, no text
books, and their schools administration have also been denied the needed basic administrative logistics
to keep the schools running smoothly?Why is he also now promising smart phones on credit to hungry citizens? Who told him that smart
phones are our priority as a hungry and impoverished people? Is the smart phone our priority at this
moment of total economic collapse? To a citizenry who are saddled with humongous debt due to the
reckless and excessive borrowing of this useless and clueless government, how has the smart phone
become a priority? Indeed Bawumia is bereft of ideas.Whiles at that, he is also heard desperately calling for a debate with John Mahaha, do we need to
remind him what he said when he was called for a debate some time ago? He was heard saying JM
should go debate with the market women, hungry citizens, and poor civil servants. Since he knows
who to debate with then, why is he not debating with the same people now? Why is he looking for
John Mahama to debate with? Bawumia! For your information, Mahama will not debate with a failed
vice president, Mahama will not debate with the failed head of the Economic Management Team,
whose incompetence, recklessness, stealing, and mediocrity has brought a once vibrant Ghanaian
economy onto its knees! Mahama will not debate with an insensitive vice president who has saddled
the Ghanaian with countless, needless and nuisance taxes just to fuel his greed and profligate expenses
whiles the citizens wallow in abject poverty. Mahama will not debate a stooge of Akufo Addo who is
seeking to perpetuate his stranglehold on the Ghanaian resources only to continue to steal, loot and
share among his family and friends cabal of a government. In short Mahama will not debate with
emptiness.What should concern Dr. Mahamud Bawumia as chairman of the Police council is that, he should take
steps to end the serial killings in Wa which has so far claimed 16 lives and counting? What wrong did
the people of the UWR commit to deserve this wicked and callous treatment from the NPP
government? Why is Dr. Bawumia and his boss, Nana Akufo Addo refused to comment on the Wa
serial killings since 2022 till date? Is it that they are happy with what is happening? Well! Time will
tell.We want to remind Dr. Mahamud Bawumia that; the people of Mangu are still grappling with the pain
he put them through when he donated expired foodstuff to them in September, 2018 during a flood
which made a lot of them fell sick.
https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Expired-food-aid-given-to-flood-victims-
688041We also want to remind Bawumia that, Tumu Kuoru and his subjects are still waiting for him to
honour his promise of completing the GH₵ 2million Astro turf whose sod was cut on 11 October, 2022
and was to be completed within six months?
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+long+will+it+take+the+tumu+AstroTurf+to+complete&oq=h
ow+long+will+it+take+the+tumu+AstroTurf+to+complete&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTI
HCAEQIRigAdIBCTIyMTIyajBqNKgCALACAA&client=ms-android-transsion&sourceid=chrome-
mobile&ie=UTF-8What happened to his promise of building a model SHS in Boli in the Wa municipality? The people of
Boli are still waiting for him to honor his promise as captured in the NPP manifesto.
What about the one student, one tablet promise he made? The students are interested in getting their
tablets and not his continuous lies and deceit that he has provided them with tablets. For the records in
the UWR, it is only Nandom SHS which received some tablets out of the about 42 SHS/SHTS/TVET
schools that are in the region. So it cannot be true that SHS students have received tablets.
We also will want to remind Dr. Bawumia that, his promise of completing the Wa/Hann/Tumu road
before the December 2024 elections is still fresh in our minds and the people of Tumu want a favorable
response from him, not another set of lies and deceit. https://gna.org.gh/2022/10/veep-assures-
completion-of-wa-tumu-chuchuliga-road-before-2024/The Wa-Kumasi road rehabilitation before 2024 elections is not also forgotten.
https://www.modernghana.com/news/1313917/wa-kumasi-road-to-be-rehabilitated-before-2024.html
All these failed promises coupled with his lies and deceit are legendary and we ask the general public
to disregard his new promises because he is trying to deceive the vulnerable voting public for power
once again. You trust Dr. Bawumia with his utopian promises at your own peril, after all google search
itself has acclaimed him as the chief liar in Ghana. Wicked Bawumia should go back to his backyard
and ensure that the Pwalugu dam is constructed after they have taken close to $12 million and lied that
they have constructed the dam. How can you be so callous to your own people?Common sense should tell Bawumia that, it is not about the number of years one can be president, it is
about what you can do with the number of years. It is trite knowledge that within the four years that
Mahama was president, the UWR have benefited tremendously. It is rather the wickedness of this
insensitive NPP government that came in and decided to halt the Mahama’s projects that were ongoing
(E-BLOCKS, Wa town roads asphalting, Tumu road, Danko road, MAPLE etc). Can Bawumia tell the
good people of the UWR what their failed government has been able to do for the people in their
almost 8 years in power?A vote for Bawumia is a third term vote for Akufo Addo, it’s a vote for more hardships, it’s a vote for
mediocrity, a vote for retrogression of our nation, a vote for more taxes, a vote for more stealing, a vote
for create, loot and share, a vote for more family and friends government, a vote for arrogance and lies
and above all, a vote for escaping accountability.We cannot afford to have two first class comedian and a certified arrogant person as our President and
Vice respectively. Ghana is a serious nation that deserves serious brains and not these theatrical comic
beings parading as intellectuals.In conclusion, I wish to urge Ghanaians to endorse H.E John Dramani Mahama for better policies such
the 24 Hour Economy for decent and sustainable jobs, Women Development Bank to assist our
mothers, cancellation of the obnoxious licensure exams, restoration of the collapsed Ghanaian banks,
introduction of more social intervention programs, enhancing freedom of speech, reviewing the poorly
implemented free SHS among other things to make lives better for the Ghanaian people.
Long Live NDC! Long Live Ghana!
Signed
Issah Kantagyere
Regional Communication Officer
0547072796
