President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said that the promise made by former president John Dramani Mahama to legalise commercial motorcycle transportation, popularly known as Okada, in Ghana smacks of inconsistency on his part.
He said Mr Mahama and the late former president John Evans Atta Mills were the same people who enacted laws to ban Okada in the country, therefore, turning around this time to promise to legalise it indicates that he lacks consistency.
The NDC flagbearer in the 2020 elections, has promised to legalise Okada if elected to be president again because in his view it is creating more jobs for the youth.
He recently said during his campaign tour that “Why behave like the turkey and bury your head in the sand? This pragyas, Aboboyaa, okadas have created more jobs in this economy than any government job-related policy. It has created more jobs than NaBCo, YEA and all those artificial job creation programs.
“These young people live under harassment because it’s illegal and so the police stop them, they take money from them and so my suggestion is that why do we behave like the ostrich? Let us legalise it and let us regulate it, let’s make it safer.”
However, Mr Akufo-Addo said in a radio interview on Oman FM Friday September 4 that this is populist.
He said “A law was made during the Mills/Mahama era. Today he has changed his mind. He said he is going to legalise it. How can that provide more jobs than NABCO and Planting for foods and jobs? We have provided over two million jobs with these social intervention initiatives.
“So how can you say that okada will provide more jobs? It’s just populist. It’s another sign of inconsistency– when you are in power you say one thing and when you are out of power you say something else. It doesn’t help in creating better public discourse,”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana