Rejoinder: NPP UK & Northern Ireland Branch Response To The Nation Address

In their article titled response to the nations address, published on Ghanaweb (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=177745) by the NPP UK & NI, they callously sought to denigrate the President’s State of the Nation address and all well meaning Ghanaians must distance themselves from such wicked, and unacceptable political gimmickry.

The NPP said their campaign is now to present a message of hope and delivery. How funny and deceitful? What sort of message of hope and delivery are they talking of? NPP used the 8years mandate given to them, by the good people of Ghana to amass wealth, become bedfellows of drug barons, chasing per diems, selling Ghana on the cheap to their foreign business partners and condemned the Ghanaian citizenry to nothing but paupers.

The lies that characterised the erstwhile NPP administration continued unabated and at an accelerated, desperate and dangerous pace to cover their crimes and divert attention from prosecution. They labelled NDC as divisive but the good people of Ghana knew which party lied to them and they rightly booted them out of power. Find bellow are some of the list of Kufour’s (NPP) appointees (I have the full list), you may compare it with President Mills NDC appointees and judge for yourself which is more inclusive;

Ernest Owusu-Poku – (IGP-22 January 2001 – 21 July 2001)

Nana Owusu-Nsiah – (IGP-22 July 2001 – March 23 2005)

Patrick Kwateng Acheampong – (IGP-25 March 2005 - 28 January 2009)

Mr Osei Asamoah Owusu- Chairman,VRA.

Mr. Kofi Boakye, ACP, Greater Accra Regional Commander-Police Force.

Mr. Wilson Kusi Atansah, Chairman, National Media Commission (NMC).

Mr. Agyeman Duah, MD, Ghana Oil Company.

Mr. Edward Dua Agyeman, Auditor- General.

Mr. John Prempeh, Controller General, Accountant General Department.

Mrs Janet Opoku-Acheampong, Commissioner, IRS.

Mr. Kwame Damuah Agyeman, Chief Director, Electoral Commission. EC.

Mr. David Apeatu Director, CID.

Mr. J.B. Amofah, Director, BNI.

Mr. Francis Opoku, National Security Advisor.

Mrs Elizabeth Adjei, Director of Immigration.

Mr. William Kwadwo Asiedu, DG, Ghana Prisons Service.

Due to NPP’s lack of respect for Ghanaians, they continually churned out some distorted figures on the depreciation of the cedi and the state of the Nation’s economy. Today every living being in Ghana knows that, the Cedi has stabilised and in some cases appreciated against the major currencies and the state of our economy is buoyant. That is why Mr. Richard Branson of Virgin, one of the leading entrepreneurs in the world praised the work of NDC on the economy and Virgin Airline is now going to Ghana.

The NPP said, freedom of speech is a rare commodity in Ghana and the press have been openly bought by the government. Yet under their administration; the late Alhaji Mobila was killed, The Video man of Ex-President Rawlings was beaten up and at a hotel in Kumasi and even under NDC administration today accredited journalists were beaten up at NPP head quarters in Accra. It is a well known fact that NPP has more newspapers in the print media and their sympathisers control most of the radio stations and Ghanaian websites. In a country where they claimed, freedom of speech is rare a commodity, isn’t it ironical that their private radio and TV stations and numerous news papers operate freely.

The accusation by NPP that President Mills was wrong to say,” there is still huge amount of work to be done in the country”, was misplaced. Considering how NPP administration under Ex-President Kufour siphoned and destroyed the country’s economy despite, the huge financial benefit from HIPIC funds and all the goodwill we had from global donors. They even increased the salaries of workers and awarded contracts days before they left office wasn’t that sinister?, President Mills had to get the economy on sound footings before any meaningful economic structure could be realistically achieved. Ghanaians elected NDC under H.E. President John Atta Mills for 4years and they will judge his stewardship according to what happens on the ground and in their lives under his administration.

How could a HIPIC funded economy of NPP be said to leave a healthy economy when they left office? After 8yrs in power no sustainable job was created, more children were schooling under trees, our markets became a dumping place for expired and rotten foods of the world, farming became an alien profession. The question is what happened to all the moneys Ghana had during the NPP administration? We would like to know; what happened to Ghana @50, Vodafone contracts, the school feeding programme contracts, The Kpone Thermal Power Project, The Buck Press contract? There are more questions the erstwhile NPP administration haven’t answered the Good people of Ghana. We were all aware of the level of corruption, crime and drug peddling in the country during their tenure in office, some of their MPs were even arrested in the USA for cocaine smuggling.

The NDC is committed to improving the lives of Ghanaians trough the leadership of H.E. President Evans Atta mills, who leads the country from front not by going on globetrotting as was the case during the ex-President Kufour’s NPP administration. We would not allow NPP to distract us from what we are doing to improve on the Ghanaian’s livelihood. Today a Ghanaian is proud of eating his/her own rice, thanks to the revival of the rice projects in the Volta and Northern Regions of the country by the NDC i.e. Brazil Agro-Investment limited at Dabala in the Volta Region, eat his/her own tomatoes thanks to the neglected but revived Northern Star Tomato Factory, formerly (Pwalungu Tomato Factory) and many more job creation projects by NDC. How could the NPP criticize NDC, while in power, they run down local industries only to award themselves contracts to import cheap inferior food and other products into the country to kill off Ghanaian industries?

The NPP accused NDC of not creating a single job, how deceitful? do you expect them to tell the truth? The Northern Star Tomato Factory formerly (Pwalugu Tomato Factory) which has just started operation has already created jobs for the following villages; Pwalugu, Yinduri, Arigu, Cira, Bisigu, Namoo, Tong,WinkogoNavrongo, Chuchuliga, Paga, Mayoro, Kandiga Sirigu Bolgatanga, Kumbosgo, Kalbeo, Nyariga, Zaare, Sumburungu, Shirigu, Yikene and Zabilla. The government has earmarked an amount of 3 billion Ghana Cedis for the purchase of tomatoes for the factory. Already a bumper harvest of food is expected in the North and other parts of the country, due to NDC’s prudent agricultural policy targeting the youth in the villages. The construction of 200,000 houses deal clinched by Vice-President John Dramani Mahama on his recent visit to South Korea would create more jobs than what NPP created in 8years.

For a party (party) that erroneously prides itself with democracy in Ghana, to irresponsibly boycott parliament because of the reckless behaviour of their party member, is nothing short of lack of respect for Ghanaians and our system of governance. It was also distraction from Craig Murray’s allegations.

The NPP is no authority on democracy or freedom of speech in Ghana. They should rather behave responsibly in the interest of peace in the country. Knowing very well how economical they are with the truth, I would advise them to at least, for once, tell Ghanaians the truth about the state of affairs in the country.

His Excellency President Evans Atta Mills is the people’s president, because he is honest, hardworking, down to earth, stays closer to the people and his State of the Nation’s Address reflects what is happening on the ground and what he is putting in place to sort out the mess created by the NPP and move the country forward.