OPINION: 100 Days - NPP On Course

After 100 days in office, how does the honeymoon balance sheet look like for President Kufuor, his ministers, his party and above all, the country?

The President started off his administration in a trot and a hundred days on, has not showed any sign of slowing down yet. Hardly had he caught his breath after his swearing in when he was off to Togo on a state visit. It was a controversial visit which came under much criticism from anti coup campaigners who saw the visit as Mr. Kufuor's seal of approval to President Gnassingbe Eyadema, a coup-maker who has held on to power for three decades in the tiny West African country. Supporters of the visit described it as an exercise in real politik, which was bound to come sooner or later. The President himself lived above the fray and paid similar visits to Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Libya, and a couple of days ago to the Republic of Benin.

The President is therefore coming across as a strong foreign affairs president. That's hardly surprising because it was in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that he started his apprenticeship in the art of governance when he served as Deputy Foreign Minister in the government of the 2nd Republic.

The President's authority as Chief Executive was consolidated immediately after his swearing-in. With his robust foreign policy initiatives in the sub- region, he was able to nominate and have his ministers vetted by parliament in record time for the 2001 budget statement to be presented to the House in conformity with constitutional requirement.

Even before the budget, the issue of increasing the prices of petroleum products had to be resolved. Due to the immense goodwill the new government was enjoying, Ghanaians took a 65% increase in the price of petrol without much fuss. The budget itself was as innovative as it was controversial. The innovation stems from the fact that that was the first time a government had to present an "Interim Budget" to parliament with the promise of reviewing it after a few months. The Minister of Finance, Yaw Osafo Maafo told parliament on Budget Day that "This budget must ... be viewed by the House and our development partners as an interim budget." The government had inherited a far from clear record of housekeeping from the NDC government and so did not have the figures for a comprehensive budget statement. But even what was presented bore the hallmarks of what The Accra Mail described as a "house cleaning budget".

The budget touched on raw nerves when it adopted the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative as one of the cornerstones of solving the country's chronic debt status.

It was condemned by the NDC (main opposition party), and other minor political parties including the CPP and PNC, two of the five political parties which went into the Election 2000 more or less as allies of the NPP. The President assumed the role of salesman, defending HIPC in his interactions with the electorate. Before adopting HIPC in the budget statement, he had announced to the country during the celebrations of Ghana's 44th Independence Anniversary that "Ghana is not poor" and all that was required was good management of our natural and human resources. It was taken by many observers to mean that Ghana would not join HIPC, which is by far the biggest economic policy initiative of the government regarding the economy in macro terms. The decision to join HIPC has received the blessing of all major Western trading partners and donors. Ghanaian critics, like Dr. Kofi Amoah however have described it as a declaration of bankruptcy, which automatically makes Ghana not creditworthy. They see in HIPC all the hidden landmines of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) and the other conditionalities of the eighties, which pushed the poor countries into further poverty. Even as the debate on HIPC is still running, the government has had to confront in its 100 days another potentially explosive micro economic decision: increase in the tariffs of the two main life sustaining utilities of water and electricity. Both utilities are asking for huge increases of up to 300% or more and the government, though critical of their services, is preparing the ground for the increases to take effect not too long after its hundred days in office.

The performance of the government has been so far cautious with a business as usual air about the modus operandi of the ministers and their ministries. Some of them no doubt have garnered more press mileage than others but the following highlights stand out:

* The fight against crime. The upsurge of violent crime, especially armed robbery, which followed the immediate post election period was confronted with dispatch and brought under some control, though isolated cases have been reported recently.

* The disbanding of the ACDRs from the Armed Forces has been widely acclaimed as a bold and welcome move to depoliticise the military. A new military High Command has already been named and awaiting confirmation from the Military Council when it is established. Major General Seth Obeng is acting CDS and Lt. General Akafia has gone into retirement waiting for redeployment into Ghana's Diplomatic Service as ambassador.

* The Attorney General's refusal to continue cases of criminal libel brought against a number of independent newspapers by the NDC government is seen as a good indication that criminal libel is on its way out of Ghana's criminal code.

* The decision to probe organisations like GNPC, TOR, BOST and others suspected of being drain pipes on the economy, though slow in starting, promises to give probity and accountability real meaning.

* Human rights. Widows of executed former military Heads of State have appealed to the President through his wife for the exhumation and reburial of their husbands. There is every indication that their request will be acceded to and that will signal the commencement of Ghana's truth and reconciliation period.

* The economy itself will come under another more intense focus away from the budget when a National Economic Forum is convened next month. This has already been announced by the Minister for Economic Planning and Regional Integration, Dr. Kwesi Ndoum.

The economy is what is of concern to every Ghanaian. Will "positive change" bring along positive change in people's pockets? An upturn in the economy will bring along with it improvements in education, healthcare delivery, efficient utility services and other social services and improved conditions of living. These obviously cannot be provided within the space of only 100 days - nor even during the first four-year term unless a miracle is at play. It is miracles that Ghanaians are now looking for after 44 years of independence, twenty of which were squandered by the PNDC/NDC.

The Kufuor administration has so much goodwill going for it but the good will can evaporate if the government fails to take the country along with it in its quest for the economic Golden Grail.

The government has come through its first hundred days as is expected of any honeymoon period without much trouble.

Save for the US$46,000 lost by Mallam Isa, the former Minister of Sports in mysterious circumstances, it has been a scandal free hundred days. All the same the government could still tighten its spin doctoring and PR outfits. It's beginning to look like the government's weakest link.

The NPP party machinery also seems to have gone into hibernation - a dangerous development which if not addressed could signal major problems for the government itself in the near future.

Meanwhile, what's the NDC been up to in its 100 days in Opposition?

Amos Safo, The Accra Mail's News Editor takes a look at the party that once thought it was invincible now reduced to the opposition benches in Parliament.

NDC's 100 days in opposition

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) spent its first hundred days in opposition in a spiritless and spineless fashion.

Sweltering under an avalanche of corruption charges, misappropriation, mismanagement, ESB scandals and human rights abuses, the party has used up the first hundred days defending what some critics have called the "indefensible".

Since leaving office, party leaders have had an arduous task of justifying charges of economic plunder, mismanagement and corruption levelled against them by the new government and the public.

Figures so far disclosed run into thousands of trillions of cedis. Some of the money lost to the state was the result of recklessness on the part of former government functionaries, while a large chunk was due to what some uncharitable critics call "daytime robbery".

Why the former ministers and other party members stole state property and sold latest brands of cars at outrageously low prices to themselves at the expense of the state is a question that would forever baffle sociologists and psychologists. It was their supreme leader and inspirer, Rawlings who made much of probity and accountability, which in 1979 resulted in the execution of three former military heads of state and their colleagues. Due to intense public disapproval of their methods they have been in a constant state of explanation, disclaiming and in some cases even sounding pathetic.

The explanation offered by Nana Ato Dadzie, former Chief of Staff regarding the payment of end of service benefits (ESB) to themselves and the issue of the cars has done very little to repair the terribly battered image of the party.

Ironically, some NDC functionaries are still throwing their weight about and creating the impression that they are still in power. Some of them still sound outright arrogant and intolerant of divergent views, which they exhibited during their 19 years in power.

The performance of the 92 NDC Members of Parliament leaves much to be desired. They seem to have set their minds at derailing whatever the ruling party has lined up to salvage the messy economy they left behind. To them, President Kufuor's Sessional Address to Parliament was "lacking direction" and the 2001 budget presented by the Minister of Finance as "empty". In a contradictory turn of phrase, they accused the government of stealing their programmes, polishing them and selling them to the public! Such is the inconsistency of the NDC that, unless they refocus, they may lose relevance altogether.

Just after Election 2000, the NDC developed a strategy to frustrate the new government in the Supreme Court. The party has since January 7, 2001 engaged the government in court over the composition of the Cabinet and the Council of State, the appointments of the Chief of Staff, the National Security Advisor and the Media Relations Minister. They even threatened to go to court over the presentation of an "interim budget" to Parliament. The judicial war the NDC is waging against the government may not end now. Last month, the party filed a writ at the Supreme Court to restrain President Kufuor from retiring officers of the Ghana Armed Forces and appointing others to replace them.

In all the instances, the government quickly wove its way through and made the cases appear vexatious and petty even before they are heard. Hours before NDC went to court the government announced the appointment of some members of the Council of State and the composition of the cabinet. Similarly when the NDC went to court seeking to annul the appointments of Mr. Jake Obetsebi Lamptey as Chief of Staff and Elizabeth Ohene as government spokesperson, their appointments were converted into ministerial posts and submitted to Parliament for approval. They have since been vetted and sworn into office as ministers while the case is pending in court.

The NDC still is not learning from its bad ways. What could prove even more detrimental to the NDC is its continued harassment of the private press. They seem not to have come to terms with the reality that engaging the press in legal battles was the major cause of the party's unimpressive performance in the last elections. Just last week the party decided to sue the editor of The Evening News, Mr. Francis Essuah for publishing stories they considered damaging to the party and its members. And on Thursday April 12, the Free Press, an Accra bi- weekly reported an alleged harassment of one of its reporters by Mr. Kwaku Baah, a leading member of the party. The reporter had gone to the party's offices to cross check a story, when Mr. Baah allegedly threw him out and threatened court action against him and his paper.

The NPP government has proved beyond reasonable doubt that it would table a motion before Parliament for the repeal of the criminal libel laws from the statue books. The NDC used these very laws to persecute journalists when it was in power. Since the NPP government made the commitment to repeal the inimical laws against the media, the NDC, which is the largest opposition party in Parliament has not commented on the issue. Does the party support the repeal or not?

Last month the party dredged out Professor Mills, their presidential candidate in Election 2000 to lead a press conference against the NPP. The message he read succeeded in raising more questions about the NDC's own integrity than providing any solutions to the problems outlined. It backfired in lethal fashion in sections of the media and Professor Mills left with his credibility in more tatters.

100 days in opposition, and the NDC cannot still come to terms with its new place in Ghana's political dispensation. The suspicion in certain quarters that the party did not win Elections 92 & 96 and only stole the verdict is now looking like the truth and nothing but the truth...