President Mahama: Ghana is well poised for tremendous leaps

President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday said Ghana was at crossroads, but well-poised for tremendous leaps forward, and therefore, called on Ghanaians to forge unity to fulfill the quest for a Better Ghana.

He said: “Let us all individually and collectively as a nation pledge to stand together in this forward move of our nation. We have a common destiny and we must forge a united basis for pursuing that destiny even as we acknowledge some diversity in our quest for a Better Ghana.”

President Mahama made the call in an address to mark the traditional 40th day celebration of the death of President John Evans Atta Mills, which also outlined the policy direction of Government three months prior to the 2012 elections.

President Mahama observed that Ghana’s economy was moving in the right direction and it was time that the gains made were consolidated and the challenges faced with a common resolve, reminding the Ghanaian electorate to conduct themselves in a peace loving manner in the months leading to election 2012.

He said: “We are commanding international attention and much investor interest from all corners of the world. Yet dangers also lurk round the corner, especially if we do not conduct ourselves as a unified and peace-loving nation in the months ahead leading to election 2012.

“I am very confident of the capacity of Ghanaians to rise to the occasion as we did these last few weeks. We will not just have peaceful elections, but we will also scale the heights and with God’s favour, make our nation great and strong as we sing in our National Anthem.”

The policy direction statement, in a 95 paragraph document, touched in what Government would do on the areas including agriculture, private sector development, peace, security and discipline and Election 2012, social services, Government expenditure, corruption and workers remuneration.

Pledging his commitment to deliver, President Mahama stressed that the way business was done in Government must change and blasted the slowness, red tapes, low performance target and tardiness in the discharge of Government business, which appeared not to be responsive to citizens’ demands and needs.

“This is why I have already instructed some of the key Ministers, in particular those responsible for service delivery – health, education, water supply and electricity, to provide my office with a delivery plan for the commitments we are making today.

“I have accordingly established a Delivery Unit in the Office of the President that will guide the implementation of delivery and the review performance on a bi-weekly basis,“ President Mahama announced.