Former Ambassador urges the electorate to return NPP to power

Accra, Dec. 4, GNA - Dr Joseph Godson Amamoo, a Former Ambassador, on Friday called on voters to return the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government to power to ensure continued democracy, freedom, security, rule of law, economic stability and honest leadership.

"A massive vote for President John Agyekum Kufuor and his team will be a demonstration to the rest of the world that Ghanaians prefer peace, freedom, justice, honesty and economic development to dictatorship, corruption, oppression and human rights violations."

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, he said: "On the balance sheet of human rights violations, corruption and the management of the economy, the four years of the NPP Administration is far better than the 20 years of Rawlings/Mills regime."

Dr Amamoo said in the 2004 Elections, Ghanaians were being called upon to weigh contesting political parties and candidates on the scale of their human rights, corruption and economic management records. He said, no one candidate of the two major political parties - NPP or the National Democratic Congress (NDC) - was completely perfect, but comparing the records of the two parties on the main issues at play, the NPP was better.

Dr Amamoo recalled the human rights record of the PNDC-NDC era, saying that during the pre-NPP period, the country saw numerous untold human rights violations.

"Judges, Journalists and business people, who could have made useful contributions to the observance of human rights and rule of law in the country were either killed or completely silenced and as a result, a generation grew in this country, which saw intimidation, harassment and blatant abuse of human rights as normal practice." Dr Amamoo said this scenario led to the plummeting of the image of the country and accounted for the loss of investor and tourist confidence.

He noted that in terms of economic management, the NPP Administration did the right thing by adopting the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, explaining that, the decision helped to salvage the image of the country in the international community. The Initiative, he said, had also led to the cancellations of millions of dollars of debts, thus releasing monies, which otherwise would have been used to service these debts to be channelled into the provisions of schools, hospitals, potable water and electrification projects in the rural areas.

He noted that there was no doubt that the NPP Administration had managed inflation better and kept the cedi more stable. Dr Amamoo urged the youth to be weary of any politician, who would like to use them for violent acts, either before, during or after the elections, saying that most of those politicians had the means to easily fly out of the country when chaos struck but the youth stood to bear the brunt.