President Kufuor Meets Ghanaians In Toronto

By Jermaine Nkrumah

Thousands of Ghanaians turned out to greet President Kufuor and field uncensored questions in a Town Hall Meeting held at the Howard Johnson Hotel in Toronto, Canada on November 3 2001. The president stopped over in Toronto on his way to a state visit to Canada in Ottawa on an invitation of the Canadian Prime Minister.

The president’s entourage included his wife Mrs. Theresa Kuffour, Mr. Hackman Owusu (The Foreign Minister), Mr. Agambila (Deputy Minister of Finance) Ms. Elizabeth Ohene, (at the office of the president), Mr. D.K. Osei (Secretary to the president) and Mr. Gabriel Nketia (Special assistant to the president).

The event was sponsored and planned by the Toronto Chapter of the New Patriotic Party, in association with Ghana’s High Commission in Canada. It featured the Kufuor administration’s determination to take the message directly to Ghanaians wherever they may be. A crowd of Ghanaians who came to hear the president speak was brought to life when the President arrived with his entourage. The Ghana Methodist Church Choir in Toronto set the stage for the evening after they sang the national anthems of Ghana and Canada. Christian and Islamic prayers followed the anthems from the Reverend of the Methodist Church and a chief Imam respectively.

Ghana’s outgoing commissioner to Canada, Mr. Lawluvi, opened the evening’s agenda with a welcome address to the president. The audience cheered when he stated that this was the first time Ghanaians in Canada were meeting their president invited on a state visit by a Canadian Prime minister.

Unlike his predecessor, Jerry John Rawlings, who went to lengths on end to avoid direct conversation with the average Ghanaian, Kufuor actually stepped in to eliminate certain filters that worried handlers felt were necessary to guard against potentially embarrassing situations. That paved the way for anyone of nearly 2,000 members of the audience who had a question to field it directly to the president.

As expected, there was an attempt from an obvious Rawlings fan to embarrass the president as a result of the lack of filter. Fortunately, the intent of the enquirer was so focused on embarrassing the president that he did not have his facts together and he appeared to be dump founded as the president answered his question stating the facts. In an apparent attempt to whip up some Ewe emotions, the enquirer asked the president why he said there was no money to repair any roads in the Volta Region.

The fact is that President Kufuor has never made such a statement. In fact, reminding everyone that Volta Region is one of ten regions in our country, President Kufuor went on to declare that the region will receive its fair share of the national pie just as any other region would. Anything less, said the president, would contradict everything he has stood for as an individual.

Answering a question on education, President Kufuor took the opportunity to reason with Ghanaian students. In nearly every progressive country, education is paid for in the private sector. Adding to that is the reality that any credible focus on improving education must include making teachers’ salaries competitive, as well as providing modern tools for learning. All these factors amount to increased cost of education. And while the government bears its share of the responsibility, so should parents.

On gasoline prices, President Kufuor told the audience that government subsidy of gasoline prices is a policy of the past. The previous administration resorted to selling gasoline to the general public at a subsidized price, which encouraged smugglers to smuggle the subsidized gasoline to the neighboring states, where it sold for a much higher price, to make some profit. As a result of this subsidy, Ghana racked up so much debt that a supplier, as friendly as Nigeria, even refused to sell to Ghana on credit terms because of our situation. Even Ghanaian banks refused to secure the government loan.

Hence, by deciding to stop the subsidies, Ghana put itself in a better position to ensure that creditors are paid on time to ensure constant supply of gasoline. The president acknowledged that the discontinuing of the subsidies would result in increases in prices of commodities in the short run. In the long run, however, the policy of discontinuing with the subsidies would help the nation.

On the economy, President Kufuor again illustrated a deviation from the previous administration that has yielded some stunning numbers in ten months. Interest rate has dropped from nearly 50% to the mid-thirties. Inflation is down to 23% from the forties. In addition, by owning up to the true economic picture that he inherited, Kufuor had an easier time convincing countries such as Canada to forgive all of Ghana’s debt to it, a measure that will save our nation $200 million yearly in debt servicing.

What would a question and answer session be without a question on corruption? Here too, Kufuor’s approach is unmistakably unambiguous. The public must be as vigilant on corruption as his administration is. He urged the Ghanaian public not to simply blow it away when it sees corrupt activities, but to report them to authorities so that the proper disciplinary action can be brought to bear.

The question of the evening, however, came from a 13-year-old boy. The young man wanted to know about the president’s plan to work towards Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s dream of African Unity. To that, President Kufuor told the audience that Ghana is actively participating in the newly African Union. May 25 is the day that the entire continent recognizes and celebrates the African Unity. Also, all 53 countries in Africa, by replacing the Organization of African Unity (OAU) with the African Union, set in motion the process that should ultimately result in a better-unified Africa.