President John Dramani Mahama, has stated that the National Democratic Congress(NDC) party, has a good enough track record to retain power in the 2016 general election.
He said the party had honoured most of its 2012 campaign promises, by building many educational, health and road infrastructure across the country.
President Mahama was speaking in Bolgatanga on Thursday during his sixth “changing lives transformational” tour.
He cited the progressive Senior High School project promised by the party, saying the government had been able to initiate about 123 Community Senior High School projects out of the targeted 200 schools across the country.
He stated that whilemany of the school projects had been completed and commissioned, others were ongoing and indicated that by the time the community school projects were completed, 240,000 Ghanaian students who had been out of school would be studying in proper school structures.
“Things are gradually changing for the better. The World Bank has held the first and second review meetings with us about the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and we have met all the conditions. We are very optimistic that very soon inflation and interest rates will drop and the country will witness a massive economic boom”, President Mahama assured.
He said from next year the Government would, under the National Youth Employment Programme, employ about 100,000 youth nationwide of which the Upper East Region would get its share.
“The recruited youth will be trained in various employable skills. The economy has thrown out there many jobs for the youth but the problem is that our youth lack skills. The National Youth Employment Agency will seek to address such problems”, the President stated.
On the power crisis, he assured Ghanaians that Government was working feverishly to resolve the problem, and that with the power badges due to arrive in the country soon plans were far advanced to tap more power from other sources, to fix the problem.
President Mahama, appealed to his party’s delegates to renew his mandate to contest for the flagbearer slot of the party for the 2016 general election, and described the party’s new electoral reforms as the best element of democracy.
He explained that it would not only pave the way for many members of the party to actively participate in the election, but would also avoid instances in the past where some contesting candidates would buy delegates to vote for them.
He stated that the reforms made in the electoral college would enable the party to get good Parliamentary candidates, a considerable number of whom will represent the party in parliament.
He impressed upon all aspirants contesting for the impending parliamentary election to place the party above their individual interest, and urged those who would lose in the primaries to join forces to enable the party to win both the parliamentary and presidential elections in the 2016 election.
The General Secretary of the Party, Mr Aseidu Nketia appealed to party delegates to endorse President Mahama as the party’s flagbearer, saying that under his tenure of office as President of Ghana , there had been a lot of improvement.
He disclosed that so far 153,000 delegates from the 15 constituencies in the Region had registered to vote in both the Parliamentary and Presidential election, and appealed to them to participate fully in the exhibition of the voters’ register to crosscheck their names.
President Mahama who received a rousing welcome in the Region, also addressed the Regional House of Chiefs and inspected work on the Bolgatanga Regional hospital which is receiving a face-lift.
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Source: GNA