Member of Parliament for the North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, is proposing a National Campaign Policy to curb the abuse of state resources by the incumbent government during campaign periods.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa suggested the policy after a leading member of the New Patriotic Party and team member of the Bawumia campaign, Nana Akomea detailed the campaign tour of the Vice President on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, Friday 4th August 2023.

He added that moving forward Ghana must have a national policy for campaigning to halt incumbency abuse like in the developed countries where the incumbent government is billed for using public resources.

The lawmaker emphasized on the need for the policy citing the United States of America as a case study.

“If you are a sitting president or vice president and campaigning, and it is time to select the next leader, your campaign takes up the time. It is not placed on the taxpayer, we don’t seem to do that here but rather we have the sitting vice president using a lot of public resources including our fuel and we know how expensive our fuel is,” he explained. 

Mr. Ablakwa argued that Ghanaians are aware of the lavish taste of the people at the helm of affairs and live without any modesty and painfully it is the taxpayers that pay for the bills.

“We don’t have a policy and taking a look at the rate of the USA when a politician uses the Air Force 1 for a campaign, your campaign will reimburse and the hourly charge is 142,380 US dollars, the campaign whether it’s a Trump, Biden or Hilary campaign. The campaign reimburses the government. It is so expensive that they calculate the cost of fuel, security detail, and other things and it is the campaign’s duty to pay back, so the campaign must raise funds separately out of the government,” he pointed out.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa further said in those countries they believe some of the things can’t be taken away from them thus the jets, and vehicles but the incumbent government must pay for their use. However, Ghana has no such policy and it encourages the abuse of incumbency.

By: Edem Etsa Dorvlo | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana