Alfred Aseidu Walker, the only Independent Presidential Candidate for the December 7, general elections, has pledged to donate his salary to the underprivileged Ghanaians when elected as President.
Walker made the pledge while interacting with journalists at his residence at the Airport Residential enclave in Accra on Friday, October 30, 2020.
Flanked by his running mate Jacob Osei Yeboah, the industrialist said when elected president at the December 7 polls, he would donate his salary during his entire four-year term to cater for the poor and the underprivileged in society, while focusing his transformational policies at the rural and deprived regions of Ghana.
I promised to spend my whole salary earned as President to care for the poor and the vulnerable. I will donate my entire four-year salary for children on the street of this country. The underprivileged deserved better from us. And as a self-made person, my focus will be on poverty alleviation and channeling resources into charity work, all in the name of building Mother Ghana,” Aseidu Walker said.
The independent presidential candidate said, having traveled around the country, he has become privy to the socio-economic challenges in the rural communities and would focus his development agenda on deprived communities and regions.
He pointed out that the rural Ghanaians work hard to contribute to the development of the country, but they remained poorer and deprived of the needed support from the central government and his government would ensure there are policies geared towards rural transformation.
Having traveled the length and breadth of this country, from Volta North or Oti, Northern, North East, the Upper East, and Upper West and the Western North, I can see poverty and deprivation. They deserved better than that,” Aseidu Walker said.
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According to him, even with the 16 regional capitals, he would not appoint more than 25 ministers of state to run the country in a bid to efficiently and effectively manage the public purse.
Walker pledged to focus on poverty alleviation, jobs creation, media development, youth empowerment, and more improved and enhanced public services by revamping the Public Workers Department (PWDs) and the State Construction Company (SCC), hence, the need for prudent and efficient management of the state resources while reducing his government expenditure.
This, he stated would help in improving the maintenance culture under his administration, adding that developing the regional and rural-based assessment would help improve living standards in the deprived regions.
Speaking on the media industry in the country, the independent candidate expressed the need for government intervention with stimulating packages and adverts to enable them to discharge their duties credibly.
While expressing appreciation for the support from the media on his campaign, Walker also commended the online news portals for the timely coverages of events.
He said the media play a pivotal role in the development of the country and pledged that his government would fully resource the media through adverts and other stimulus packages to enable them to deliver on their constitutional mandate.
Asked how he intends to run the country’s economy, Walker explained his government would be proving the basic needs of Ghanaians, especially the provision of potable water and a good road network across the country.
He defended his policies by pointing to the fact that providing the basic life essential services are key to building the needed foundation on which other vital interventions, especially the digitization to build the country economy.
Walker however called on Ghanaians to give him the mandate to transform the country for better living conditions as the two major parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have nothing better to offer.
Ghanaians deserve better than the deceit and mismanagement of the country by both the NDC and NPP. I am not here to please anyone. I will take decisions, some may be hard but necessary. I will operate as a surgeon, it will pain but in the end, you will be cured. I will not run a propaganda government,” Walker stated.
He argued that the two major parties are best in always implementing populists’ policies at the last minutes aimed at winning elections but not what would transform the country’s economy and make the living conditions better for the masses.
When these two parties are in power, they waste the whole time doing nothing then when it’s three or two months to elections, you see them running all around cutting sods and pretending to be fixing roads that could have been fixed long before if they had the good of the people at heart. They go about sharing monies and gifts and promising free policies just to buy votes,” he averted.
The independent presidential hopeful also urged the youth of the country not to allow themselves to be used as tools for election violence ahead of the general polls, but rather use their youthful energy to seek better conditions by demanding good policy implementation from leaders.
Jacob Osei Yeboah, running mate to Kwame Walker said the issue of small-scale mining known as “Galamsey” would be streamlined on policies to make it conducive but at the same protecting the environment.
He said over the years, the two dominant parties use the issue of Galamsey to enrich themselves, while seizing machines from persons claimed to be operating illegally, adding that the Alfred Walker administration has clear policies solution to the end of galamsey and its attendant problems.