A senior lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Dr Alidu Seidu, has asked policy think-tank IMANI Ghana to rather focus its research on the impact of the fulfilled promises of the Akufo-Addo government.
IMANI in its latest assessment of the promises made by President Nana Akufo-Addo and his New Patriotic Party in the run up to the 2016 elections concluded that only 48.78 per cent of promises made have been fulfilled.
The report further indicated out of the 510 promises made by government, only 27 per cent of them have been fully fulfilled, with 21.75 per cent partially fulfilled.
But President Akufo-Addo has disagreed with IMANI’s report, stating he has fulfilled 72 percent of the promises.
Speaking to the report on TV3’s news analysis program The Key Points on Saturday, Dr. Seidu noted it is important the policy think tank dwells more on the impact the fulfilled promises have on Ghanaians, instead of just finding out how many have been fulfilled or not.
“If IMANI Ghana is going to take Free SHS, it will be one, what is the impact” Dr Seidu stated.
He said the real issues worth looking into should be whether the average Ghanaian is indeed benefiting from the fulfillment of some of the promises said to have been delivered.
“CHIPS Compound; a government will say I’m going to build 50, so you go to one particular village and there is a CHIPS compound there, then you tick one box as achieved, that’s output. But you go to some of these CHIPS Compound, there are no nurses there, how does that impact the lives of the people?” the lecturer quizzed.
“I think moving forward, what IMANI can do to help them so much is to add maybe a third question which could be what is the impact,” he advised.
Dr. Seidu said development across the globe is shifting away from things that are a means to an end to things that have a longer bearing on lives, hence it is necessary Ghana also focuses on projects that benefit its citizens in the long term.
“Basically if you look at the context of development, development has moved far away from just looking at economic growth, providing infrastructure and all those things. It basically has to do with the impact that these projects have on the lives of the people.”
Contributing to the issue, Deputy Local Government and Rural Development Minister, O.B. Amoah said inasmuch as IMANI’s work is good for keeping government on its toes, it would have been better if the promises analysed were targeted instead of boxing them all together for the research.
Spokesperson of former president John Mahama, Joyce Bawa Mogtari also urged government to accept the report and look at ways things can be improved instead of being on the defensive to paint a perfect picture.
A senior lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba, Dr Ahmed Jinapor also said IMANI’s assessment of the government is a reality check to put government back on track to focus on delivering on promises made to Ghanaians before assuming power.
“What IMANI did is a reality check because; [it] is something they’ve been doing over the years, and I think the timing is important especially in our dispensation,” Dr. Jinapor noted.
By Irene Amesimeku|3news.com|Ghana