Members of the Concerned Drivers Association of Ghana and True Drivers Union under the umbrella body of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) have publicly endorsed the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its flag-bearer who double as the former President, Mr John Dramani Mahama for the December 7, 2020 general elections.
The two Associations indicated that whereas the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) 2020 manifesto is empty on plans for the driver unions, the NDC’s 2020 manifesto inspires hope with clear-cut plans to revive the suffering industry.
The driver associations said their decision stems out of “careful interrogation of the manifestos of the two front-running political parties in the upcoming elections and the attitudes of their respective governments towards the driver unions in the last four years.”
“We cannot forget the four bad years by the current NPP administration led by President Akufo-Addo, which rendered us hopeless and saddled with debts, broke our homes and sent many of us to the grave,” they added.
They stressed that”we have resolved unanimously to advise all our members to make sure they go to the polls come December 7, 2020, and reject Nana Akufo-Addo and his NPP for the deceit.”
“We have therefore concluded to vote and bring back His Excellency the former president, Mr John Drama I Mahama, whose campaign promises are convincing and we believe he will live up to his promise of giving us tax waivers on commercial vehicles, and also introduce the Free Primary Healthcare which will become the singular biggest social intervention which will ease a lot of burden on all and not only commercial drivers but every Ghanaian,’ they noted.
They added that “As parents, we also welcome Mr Dramani Mahama idea of doing away with the double track system by completing all his abandoned E-Blocks and to build more if need be.
They posited that “A President who could promise God a Cathedral and fail to deliver cannot be trusted by men to live up to any promise.
They pointed out the the level of corruption we see today means only a few privileged ones within the cycle of the president are enjoying whiles the rest of us suffer.
He said the members of Concerned Drivers Association of Ghana and True Drivers Union believe Mr Dramani Mahama will deliver, adding that we want to apologize to him for our 2016 mistake of not retaining him but he should rest assured we will do so this year on December 7, 2020.
Addressing a press conference in Kasoa on Thursday, the General Secretary of Nana Owiredu said the over millions members across the country will rally behind the NDC to secure power.
“We have decided to vote for John Mahama. In fact, we are going round to campaign for him,” they added.
According to them, their anger was promised on the grounds that all the 2016 campaign promises made by Mr Akufo-Addo and his NPP to drivers were not fullfied, hence their decision not to vote for them in December 7 2020 showdown.
“We want to make it clear that in 2016 leadíng to the presidential and parliamentary elections, the then opposition candidate, Akufo-Addo and his NPP approached “our union and made many promises to us, for which we also supported his bid to become president, but it seems after using us to secure victory, the old man has abandoned us deliberately.”
“Yes, deliberately because all efforts to reach him and his government to address our concerns were met with very fierce resistance,” the members of the two associations disclosed this at a press conference on Thursday December 3,2020 held in Kasoa.
Addressing the press conference, the General Secretary of the National Concern Drivers Association Nana Owiredu pointed out that first of the failed promises by Mr Akufo-Addo and his NPP was the promise to introduce an integrated chip system into the driver’s licence as commercial drivers to enable them easily access these cards wherever “we find ourselves.”
Flanked by the leadership of the True Drivers Union, Mr Owiredu indicated that the major feature that “we were assured was to be added was to make sure our cards could be found easily if misplaced and for this reason, we were made to take new pictures and pay for that too but nothing was done.
Futher, he stated that the quality of the licence now has reduced which is our worrying because when exposed to the weather small, it fades.
“if you will recall, this Nana Addo government at a point forced us to buy first aid kits.These first aid kits which cost GH¢ 8 on the market were being sold to us at a whopping GhC108. It took our fierce expression of disagreement and the help of you the media to eventually cause the government to retract and cancel the compulsory sale of the kits to us,” the Secretary noted.
Mr Owiredu stated that the NPP government promised to refund the monies collected from the drivers who were already duped in that process but up till now, not a pesewa has been paid back to anyone.
He bemoaned that all their efforts with follow-ups and requests for meetings have fallen on death ears, evidently, they have decided not to pay ”us our monies.”
He stressed that “This is an insensitive move, from where we sit.”
Further, he said after the cancelation of the ill-thought through luxurious vehicle tax, the government promised the Concerned Drivers Association of Ghana and all other commercial drivers that it was going to refund the differentials to all drivers who were charged the luxury vehicle tax.
“WE ARE STILL WAITING FOR THE FULFILMENT OF THAT PROMISE TO REFUND OUR MONIES TO US,” he stated.
According to Mr Owiredu, the Energy Sector Levy (ESLA) remains one major campaign message the NPP led by Akufo-Addo and Dr Alhaji Mahamadu Bawumia trumpeted to we the drives referring to it as a nuisance tax and the reason for which the price of petrol was so high under John Dramani Mahama led NDC.
“We the drivers unions were all shocked to realise that President Nana Akufo-Addo upon assumption of office, instead of cancelling the ESLA because it was a sunset ACT, aimed to retire our debt, he rather increased the ESLA from its 17% to 21%,” Mr Owiredu expatriated.
This, he stressed has a direct corelation on the price of fuel and has negatively affected drivers so much.
“As we speak today, a gallon of petrol under this NPP government costs GH¢24 when it was GH¢14,20 under the previous NDC government.
“To even think that this was the same Nana Addo who made us call John Dramani Mahama names we wont want to repeat here, we are heavily disappointed about these developments,” he stated.
According to him, the collapse of the banks also continue to affect the drivers because these banks used to provide financial assistance to the diver unions to take loans to buy cars but “today as we speak, no bank is ready to do so.”
He argued that “Let nobody be deceived by the usual propaganda about interest rates, etc, the banks are not giving any loans because they are not even liquid.”
“Based on the above mentioned failed promises of Akufo-Addo led NPP government that we so much embraced, toiled and worked for to come to power, we the Concerned Drivers Association of Ghana and True Drivers Union wish to state unequivocally that we have resolved unanimously to reject Nana Akufo-Addo and his NPP in the upcoming general elections,” he stressed.
Writers koryekporfreeman@yahoo.com
