Gov't Statement On Utterances By Former President

The Government condemns utterly and calls on all well meaning Ghanaians also to condemn the irresponsible and provocative statements made by the former President J.J. Rawlings in Kumasi and Ho.

We especially condemn the attempt to put pressure on the Wuaku Commission and to raise the spectre of continuing ethnic strife in Ghana. We urge Mr. Justice Wuaku and the members of the Commission to continue to do their work without fear or favour. Posterity, not Mr. Rawlings will be their judge.

It is now apparent to all Ghanaians and well-wishers of Ghana that these irresponsible statements of Mr. Rawlings always coincide with periods during which the call for probity and accountability approaches the persons of the former President and his wife. These latest statements seemingly provoked by stories in the media about the foreign bank accounts of his wife and the payment of their children’s school fees in expensive European schools.

If Mr. Rawlings thinks that by these statements he will halt the legal process of accountability then he is wrong. He will not. The process of accountability will continue.

If Mr. Rawlings thinks that through these irresponsible statements he will derail the stability of this country and stop new investment from coming in then he is wrong. The government will continue, with increasing success, to seek and bring private sector, job creating investment into Ghana.

If Mr. Rawlings thinks that by these irresponsible utterances he will divert the focus of the government from pursing its development agenda, then he is wrong. The government will remain focused on repairing the damage to the economy and the nation caused by his years of divisive and corrupt rule and, with God’s help, will create the climate for wealth creation once more.

Mr. Rawlings is correct when he says Ghanaians are wiser and he would do well to cast his mind back and remember, as we do, what he managed to achieve in his first two years in office: Multiple murders and such hunger as Ghana had never ever known before. We remember Rawlings’s Chain and he should also remember.

Mr. Rawlings should also think on what he was able to achieve after almost 20 years in power; the destruction of the cedi, the dismantling of the private sector, uncontrolled inflation, soaring prices and interest rates, the collapse of discipline and a mountain of debts for Ghanaians to pay.

The Government calls on all Ghanaians to remain steadfast. The destruction of our country’s economy was not caused overnight and it will take time to repair the damage, heal the wounds and create a prosperous nation for us all.

We have started the process. For the first time in many years the new yam has come to meet the old, the new maize to meet the old. Food prices did not rise in the lean season and today they are somewhat lower than they were a year up.

Our feeder road programme has commenced; designed to get more money to our hard working farmers by taking food to market before it spoils and also to help our urban poor by getting more food to market at lower prices.

While we will not claim that we have eradicated or eliminated corruption, we have managed to bring down all government contract prices substantially. Printing costs less, road building costs less, rehabilitation costs less. All of these are savings of the taxpayers money; savings from lower levels of corruption.

On health we have started to move towards ending cash and carry – 42 Districts now have health insurance in place. All 110 Districts will have schemes by 2004.

In rebuilding the infrastructure the Government has been able to source funding and work including bidding, awards of contracts and preparation has started on these major roads; Accra to Cape Coast, Accra to Kumasi, Accra to Aflao, Bamboi to Bole and Hohoe to Nkwanta.

In education, we have commenced repairing the damage. We are repairing and rebuilding the schools.

We have started, on a small scale, teacher incentive schemes to motivate our teachers to stay in the classroom.

These are the beginning. There is more, much more to be done. And more, much more, will be done.

The HIPC savings are being released to sector ministries from week commencing 12th August 2002 as announced by the Hon. Minister of Finance. We are on course to start alleviating the poverty in Ghana.

For almost 20 years Ghanaians heard only the voices of Mr. Rawlings and his wife. We have heard all he has to say before; we have seen all that he has had to offer. This is the time for us to hear new voices and try new solutions to our problems, too many of them caused by the same Mr. Rawlings.

We are all aware of how badly damaged Ghana is. It will take time and hard work and sacrifice from all of us to repair the damage and get Ghana moving again. There is no easy way out. We all know this and call on Ghanaians not to be fooled again by irresponsible ranting and raving.

The one thing that Ghanaians are united in, is that we have no wish to return to any adventurism with a ruler who is not accountable to the people. We wish to make our democracy work: To judge the performance of a government after four years: To make government accountable to the will of the people.

President J. A. Kufuor and his government are fully pledged to face the electorate in 2004 on the record of what they will have been able to accomplish within the period of the mandate they have been given.