I cannot manufacture faults! - Baako

The Journalist of the Year 1999, Kweku Baako Jnr. has stated that until the Kufuor Administration provides him with sufficient basis to attack it, he would not manufacture stories for that purpose.

Speaking at a workshop on leadership organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Kweku Baako, Editor-in-Chief of The Crusading Guide, recalled that Ghanaians over the past 19 years had fought for a change for the better.

He added that if this fight for change has turned into a reality there was the need to consolidate it.

"We battled for a certain change, we haven't consolidated the change, and some people want us to begin battling the change", Baako said in reaction to the view from certain quarters that the private press was not being critical of the NPP government.

The 1999 Journalist of the Year was quick to point out that if the Kufuor Administration began to indulge in human rights abuses, corruption and other vices contrary to the dictates of the Constitution, they (NPP Govt) would be given the same dosage of lashes as meted out to the past National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

"If a President asks a soldier to overturn a taxi I would attack him, if a young boy is abducted by Castle Security and given what a First Lady would call a mere identification hair cut, I would take them on. I am saying that those things are not happening now so why should I manufacture them", Baako queried.

He submitted that he does not support the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative ideologically. "I don't support IMF, World Bank policies but it is a government which has won the people's mandate which has decided to go for HIPC. It is a policy option so let us allow it. If it doesn't succeed after 4 years we would have a campaign material against them," Baako rationalized.