Alan’s speech on Tuesday, January 10, 2023 continues to rock the Opposition, as displayed by two senior journalists, Ben Ephson and Kwesi Pratt Jnr. I will humbly attempt to respond to them both.
Kwesi Pratt Jnr. initially decided to be a beauty critic with the hope of getting a job as a valet for Alan. But I must say his comments were cool and well noted.
Kwesi Pratt Jnr. then moved up full throttle in his elements and dove in for the kill. To him, Alan Kyerematen having served under Nana Addo is tainted with the sins of “bad governance.”
Kwesi Pratt Jnr, put things this way, “Distancing himself from what has been done leading to this crisis will be a tall order for him. He made the admission that some things could have been done better which was a sensible admission to make but its going to be a tall order.”
It is very sick to hear people who should know better to rather turn around and come to tell Ghanaians that our current economic crisis was the sole doing of this present administration.
Records from 2017 to 2021 prove that the Akufo-Addo government was doing well until the effects of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war crumpled the resilient economy being laid.
If some Ghanaians will not accept the truth, IMF did and pointed out that our current hardship was not the doing of this government.
At least, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) came to meet an annually rising inflation at 17.45% and by the end of 2017, it knocked off over five percentage points to 12.37% and proceeded to have four straight years of single inflation until 2022, when the economy crushed due to external forces and we ended up with 37.63%.
When the NDC went to the IMF in 2015, the bailout of $ 918 million came with a conditionality: no employment into the public sector. What we hear is $ 3 billion coming with soft conditionalities. This proves the IMF has confidence in our economy.
Kwesi Pratt Jnr, very typical of socialists who would continue spreading lies until, they are accepted as the truth, decided to tell Ghanaians what Alan Kyerematen never said.
According to Kwesi, it is that some things could have been done better. If Kwesi Pratt Jnr, does not understand that there is a mile length difference between, doing things differently and doing things better, then he should accept admission to school for Free SHS.
Kwesi Pratt Jnr, should know that his penchant for lying with the aim of destroying the UP Tradition is becoming legendary.
To him J.B. Danquah was a regional chairman of the UGCC and today Alan said things under Nana Addo could have been done better. Kwesi Pratt will never wake up to the truth and change his behaviour, because the most difficult person to wake from sleep is the one pretending to sleep.
Ben Ephson, who has now gained the notoriety of giving wrong political projections, with all his predictions failing, has decided to wade into the pond of anti-Alan comments.
In Alan’s speech on January 10, 2023, he said among others, that “the President has laid a strong foundation for the socioeconomic development of our country, although I believe there are things that could have been done differently.
My vision is to build a superstructure on this foundation that will bring prosperity to our nation.” And here Ben Ephson said he saw a problem when there was no problem.
According to him, like Kwesi Pratt Jnr, Alan is claiming that certain things were not done right in the Nana Addo administration he served in. And if that is the case, why did Alan not resign earlier.
In the first place, Alan never said there were problems in Nana Addo’s administration, even if they were. He said things could have been done differently. There is a difference between things could have been done differently and things were done better.
The latter means nothing right was done, but the former means things could have been done differently to achieve the same successful results. So, nothing in Alan’s speech indicated that he felt Nana Addo did the wrong things.
And for Ben Ephson, based upon his mischievous mind, to proceed and say that Alan should have resigned earlier, shows that this senior journalist might have forgotten something about governance.
Four times in this country, sitting presidents contested for re-election. And each of them came out with some changes in their initial approaches to ways of doing things.
For example, during his first term, Nana Addo had one hundred and twenty-six ministers and deputy ministers, but he took a different approach to achieve the results he wanted by appointing not more than eighty-five ministers and deputies in his second term, knocking off at least forty-one ministers. And during his second term, no regional minister had a deputy.
In this case, Ben Ephson should have also asked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to step down for deciding to do things differently from what he did during his first term.
We are talking communications and English here, and here we have someone, who either does not understand Alan’s speech or is being plain mischievous with the hope that he could use something to create confusion and conflict in the New Patriotic Party.
Hon Daniel Dugan
