Ahwoi Ridicules NPP's Disastrous Record

THE National Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused President Kufuor and his appointees of lacking good sense of priority and commitment to what they preach and promise.

Accordingly, the party has compiled all that it perceives as shortcomings of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to be used as ammunition by opposition foot soldiers against the government, as the 2004 electioneering campaigns start soon.

Kwamena Ahwoi, the NDC wordsmith, who disclosed a few of the catalogued charges at the party's youth congress last weekend, questioned the President's sense of priority.

"In the tragic period following the brutal murder of the Ya-Na, Yakubu Andani II, and the horrendous massacre of his followers, President Kufuor was shown on national television joyously receiving Queen Elizabeth's Commonwealth games baton and handing it over to his equally joyous Vice, who is a son of Dagbon, the Ya-Na's Kingdom."

That very evening, Mr. Ahwoi alleged, the President attended a wedding party.

This, and the fact that shortly after the Accra Stadium disaster the Head of State flew outside when, significantly that incident had forced the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to cancel his foreign trip, showed clearly that Mr. Kufuor lacked a sense of priority, the ex-Minister charged.

Though President Kufuor had last year declared Ghana's independence day as the most important one on the political calendar of the nation, he "preferred touring Australia after the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, instead of returning home to celebrate his most important day with his people," Ahowi said to buttress his point.

The same NPP, who in opposition coasted to victory on the promise to cut waste in government is now wasting the tax payer's money without any justification at all, Ahwoi argued.

Contrary to government's claim that most of the President's overseas travels are free, Ahwoi stated that they are paid-for expensive trips as he uses commercial flights at a time when the Gulf Stream jet is sitting idle.

He debunked Finance Minister Osafo Maafo's claim that he had not signed any voucher for any payment in respect of the Gulf Stream, as a trick to dodge the truth.

Mr. Osafo Maafo may not be signing any cheques for it, but "we are paying from our external account, precisely our UNIFIL account, as the agreement entered into by former Minister Kwame Peprah was to the effect that if we don't pay, the money should be paid directly from the UNIFIL accounts."

From a per diem of $75.00 which the then opposition NPP criticised, what each government official is paid on overseas trips has been hiked to $250.00, he went on.

The new government had gone back on its promise to downsize the number of ministers and aides, and most of the promises it touted in its manifesto, while in opposition.

The same government that promised to discontinue the use of party cards to secure public service jobs has now thrown out all NADMO district and regional co-ordinators for their perceived sympathies for the NDC and their posts have been handed over to card-bearing executives of the NPP, he went on.

As if all that was not enough, the NPP continues to make more incredulous castle-in-the-air promises to the people of Ghana.

Among them, Mr. Ahwoi recounted, Kwamena Bartels promised $110 million water project to be sited at Sogakope to "supply treated water to Lome in Togo - Daily Graphic, August 28, 2001."

In the August 18,2001 edition of the same paper, Upper East Regional Minister Mahama Salifu promised that the multi-billion cedi Zuarungu meat and the Pualugu tomato factories, which had been closed down for over 20 years, would be revamped and made operational before the end of 2001.

Promises to rehabilitate Peduase Lodge, build development banks and libraries in each of the 110 districts have similarly gone unfulfilled, he recounted.

Government has maintained that its programme to fulfil all its promises is on course and must be given time as it, at least, has some two and a half years to deliver.

One of the problems militating against that determination, though, is a rundown economy with a colossal debt of ?41 trillion bequeathed to it by the NDC, the government has kept insisting.

Leaving no room for such an excuse, the NDC said it used the ?41trillion to build solid infrastructure for the accelerated development of the country.

"The excellent roads, electricity in all 10 regions and 110 district capitals and about 300 settlements, a reliable, countryside telecom system, three regional hospitals, two new universities, extended urban water supply, among others, are what the ?41 trillion was used for." That was Ahwoi's answer.