We have never seen this level of greed, unbridled arrogance, unrestrained impunity happening under Akufo-Addo – Opoku-Agyemang

Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, the running mate to former President John Dramani Mahama, has stated that Ghanaians are not in ordinary times.

She however noted that this is not news.

Delivering an address at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) auditorium in Accra on Monday, April 24 during her outdooring by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), she said “Some of us have been around for a while, and have experienced the to-and-fro of politics in Ghana.

But never have we experienced the levels of greed, unbridled arrogance, unrestrained impunity, sheer dishonesty, barefaced hypocrisy and incompassion displayed by this incumbent government over the past seven years and more.

“The task ahead is formidable, much more than it was four years ago. I remain inspired by the fact that, as a people, we have faced terrible situations before. Check our history. Please don’t begin with the Fourth Republic or the struggle for independence, important though they are.

“Go hundreds of years back. In those hard times, our forefathers and foremothers, did not throw up their arms in despair. They fought back; they resisted, they sacrificed, they persevered; they brought back hope where there was none; they picked up the broken pieces and carefully, strategically, sewed them back, and they left for us a legacy of selflessness, patriotism, and pride. It’s our turn to leave the same and even better to our future generations. Giving up is not an option.”

Across the political divide, across social and professional groupings, among the youth, she said, you hear of complaints and stories concerning state capture, where this government has chosen to use its power not in the broader interest of all Ghanaians but to favor a small clique.

“What is that? John and I have agreed, that whoever has participated in the plunder of the state must be held accountable. This is not a threat; it is a promise, premised on the wishes of our citizens across the various political and social divides, and hinged on the principle of accountability.

“Let us face the facts: The promotion of ethnocentric elitism masquerading as intellectualism; nepotism cloaked as know-how; weakness strutting as courage; and crony capitalism masked as development in freedom; shameless hypocrisy acting as objectivity… these never served a country determined to make progress at any level.

“Rather, the most significant achievement of these things has been a country in near insolvency, its natural resources such as water and land and environment in rebellion, a people harassed and intimidated into numbness and as some say cynically, bribed into silence,” she said.