Kufuor Stole Our Plans - NDC

NDC parliamentarians were unanimous: President John Kufuor has stolen their plans and repackaged them as his.

In their reaction to Kufuor\'s first sessional address to Parliament, NDC MP after MP, attacked the new President\'s speech. They described it as a mere rehash of the former government\'s agenda.

Speaking on Joy FM, Moses Asaga, ex-deputy Finance Minister and MP for Nabdam pointedly accused the NPP of stealing their plans and repackaging them last Friday.

At the same time a number of NDC parliamentarians said they were not satisfied with Kufuor\'s speech.

\"I am not surprised at the NDC\'s reaction,\" Nana Akufo Addo, the new Minister of Justice and Attorney General said, \"Kufuor\'s speech offered a very clear vision for the country.\"

Not at all, said Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, ex-Minister of Employment, \"Kufuor failed to offer anything new except for a few areas.\"

Ken Dzirasah, the second deputy Speaker, Alban Bagbin, Minority Leader and Doe Adjaho, Minority Chief Whip echoed Mumuni\'s views.

\"I am disappointed, very disappointed because the address is too casual. Several key areas like mining, housing were left out and on those mentioned he was not definite.\"

Alhaji Mumuni and Mike Hammah, an ex-deputy Minister of Roads and Transport landed more heavily. \"The address lacks both vision and inspiration. The President unfortunately failed to point at the policy direction of his presidency,\" Mumuni said.

But Kwadwo Adjei Darko, the new Minister of Roads and Transport disagreed with the new minority.

The address is only an outline of the new administration\'s policy and detailed policy direction will be outlined as the government settles down, he said.

So what is the real situation? Are the politicians only at their usual game?

The NPP used to voice similar criticisms each time former President Jerry Rawlings presented his sessional address to the House. So is the new minority just paying the new majority in its own coin?

NPP MPs were all emphatic that Rawlings\' first sessional address in his second term of office failed to offer any new vision of the future.

\"The President should have told the country on an occasion like this what his vision is instead of talking about consultations,\" JH Mensah, new Minister of Government Affairs dismissed a Rawlings sessional address.

\"If people come to Parliament with this kind of statistics there is going to be a lot of trouble,\" Mensah warned when Rawlings claimed in his 1997 sessional address that 300,000 jobs were created in the tourism sector the previous year.

\"Is he serious? Have you seen 300,000 jobs,\" Mensah questioned.

A highlight of Kufuor\'s address was that consumers of petrol will pay the full cost of product inspite of the negative impact a rise will have on the population.

The NDC government was the first post-independence government to implement the policy of passing world market prices of petrol directly to the consumer. However, in the few months before the elections it suddenly abandoned that policy.

But the former Minister of Employment, Alhaji Mumuni said the only new thing about the President\'s speech is the fact that Ghanaians are going to pay more for fuel. \"But that could fuel hyper-inflation,\" he cautioned.

\"It is really going to hurt the people,\" Moses Asaga ex-deputy Minister of Finance moaned.

Kufuor took a swipe at the NDC when talking about the fuel issue. \"This problem (petrol pricing) should have been dealt with by the previous government, which for reasons of political expediency chose not to do so… we will take appropriate action to move towards a full cost recovery.\"

Ghana is said to incur a six billion cedi debt on petrol everyday. Kufuor insists that unlike the previous government, the new administration will not subsidise petrol. Yaw Osafo Maafo, new Finance Minister has since gone softer. He says there will be some form of cross subsidisation where kerosene consumers (who largely fall in the low-income bracket) may not have to pay the full cost.

This is not the first time NDC has accused the NPP of stealing its ideas. When the NPP outdoored its Manifesto weeks to the 2000 elections, the NDC leadership accused the then minority party of reproducing its manifesto. Again the party went ahead to rubbish that very manifesto.

So who is wrong and who is right ? It is early yet since the policies outlined in the speech would have to be backed with action to be complete.

Expectedly, Kufuor did broach some new areas. He promised to bring the mass urban transport; never to allow political expediency to affect petrol prices and gave a firm pledge to repeal criminal libel law which has been used mainly to cow journalists in the past.

He also hinted at improving the conditions of teachers (a campaign promise) and doctors. He will scrap the \"cash and carry\" health policy and replace it with a Health Insurance Scheme. Sure to invite controversy, a National Reconciliation Committee would be set up.

Clearly, these are new and different from the past government\'s policies and actions. But again the test will be in the doing. Another thing nettling the NDC MPs is what they say is lack of recognition of the NDC\'s achievements by the NPP.

Like the NDC adverts in last year\'s campaigns, Hammah and Mumuni said the NDC has laid solid foundation for the smooth development of the country.

Mumuni and Adjaho referred to the return of confiscated properties to owners and construction of economic infrastructure such as roads and the Gateway Project as some of the important things the NDC government did.

Bagbin suggested to Kufuor to equip Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (Chraj) to investigate the injustices of the past instead of setting up a new committee to deal solely with national reconciliation.

But was Chraj not well equipped by the NDC? Bagbin stopped short here. Welcome to Politics 2001. Positive Change or No change? The jury is still out.