"The New Patriotic Party (NPP) after a colder-eyed appraisal of the threats and misinformation embedded in the statement issued by the National Democratic Congress at their last Wednesday's press conference in Accra, has come to the conclusion that indeed the NDC as a political party does not want the economic problems facing this country to be solved and the needs of the majority of Ghanaians met.

The NDC statement and their intended demonstrations clearly confirm that they intend to politicise Ghana's energy problems, polarise the country and carry their crusade for political power into the streets in an attempt to cut off reasoned debate on oil supply and pricing.

The NDC's argument for their intended demonstrations, are not based on any economic fact. Indeed, an ordinary hawker at the Makola Market knows that you could not buy at a higher price and sell cheaper. It simply does not make sense.

The NPP still remembers that the time the NDC government was leaving office in 2001, the price of petrol was at the unrealistic price of ¢6,500 per gallon. The NPP also knows for a fact that it was the ill-considered NDC government's energy policies that have contributed to the current economic problems.

It is unfortunate therefore that the NDC should at this moment in our history, when we are very susceptible to oil price hikes and supply interruptions plus the negative effects of globalisation on our economy, try to play the role of 'Greeks' to the vulnerable in the society.

At the present time, petroleum products supply amounts to over 95 percent of our energy needs, all of them imported. For the NDC, therefore, to try to make the Kufuor administration the scapegoat for the current high cost of oil is not only hypocritical but also a cheap political gimmick and a ploy being used as a genuine economic problem to cause disturbances in order to seize the nation.

The NPP will like to remind the NDC and its apologists that there is no time for those who seek power for power sake. These interesting times in our nation's history demand that we stop thinking in the abstract and also being simplistic and naïve about the realities of the actual global conflict we find ourselves engaged in.

Posturing with words is nothing.

This is the time when all those who claim to speak on the side of the people realise that in these desperate times, when we are struggling to rebuild our economy, we must not, out of a misplaced idealism, allow our energy policy to become hostage to the parochial needs and desire of failed politicians who will do anything to exacerbate tensions in order to stir up discontent and destroy the economic gains so far made in order to make the siren song of their 20 years misrule sweeter.

The intended demonstrations by the NDC are morally wrong. The NDC should never place itself in a position where its political strategy implies that the deliberate attempts to work against the economic well being of the country, is a proper objective.

The economic issues that confront us today when oil prices are still climbing higher, are very complex; with no easy answers. That is why the NPP believes that instead of rabble rousing, the NDC should engage itself in a calm rational examination of alternative courses, which we can all take to enable us to decide on what we do for this country on the basis of facts and not fantasy.