NPP’s ‘fast food’ politics exposed – Spio-Garbrah

Seven months into the Akufo-Administration, a former Minister of Trade and Industry under the Mahama administration, Dr. Ekwow Spio Garbrah believes it is becoming clear this government cannot deliver on the promises made to Ghanaians.
Speaking to Citi News at the Ghana Economic Forum on Monday, Dr. Spio Garbrah said the New Patriotic Party resorted to “sloganeering” to win power.
This “fast food” politics, as he called it, is ultimately unsustainable as evidenced by the change in implementation periods for key policies promised, the former minister said.
“These are the Fast Foods of politics which the NDC may have failed to create… they were good at sloganeering and based partly on their effective sloganeering, they are in office.”
Free SHS being partially implemented
Dr. Spio Garbrah noted further key changes to Free Senior High School education policy that meant it would only be enjoyed by a student entering secondary education in the 2017/2018 academic year for a duration of three years.
He said the promised Free SHS was only being partially implemented “by allowing only those entering SHS this year for the first year to get the scholarships, not free education, and those in the second and third year will not even get the so called scholarships… and then if you don’t even get a certain pass grade, you don’t get to qualify at all.”
“So all of a sudden, parents are realizing that this thing we though were all going to get and children were celebrating, is not happening… so I am saying that there is a shifting of the goal post.”
Dr. Spio Garbrah indicated that he had always been skeptical about the promises because even his government fell short of promises made.
“I’m not actually surprised because we have been in politics for some time and we are aware of the gap between promises. But to the extent that the NDC did not deliver every promise it made, it was used against us in the last election even though President Mahama did a good job of implementing many of his policies and even went beyond what people expected”.