I’ll place Kufuor ahead of Rawlings, et al – Joe Lartey

Retired broadcaster Joe Lartey has tipped former president John Agyekum Kufuor as the best leader under the Fourth Republic.

The 89-year-old who is popularly known as “Over to You” – a cliché he enjoyed using during his commentary days with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) – said Kufuor is his favourite ahead of JJ Rawlings, John Atta Mills and John Mahama because of his social intervention programmes.

“Kufuor did a lot of good,” the octogenarian told host of Starr Chat Bola Ray on Wednesday.

Kufuor, who came to power after winning the 2000 presidential elections on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party, ruled Ghana for eight years.

“He did a lot of school feeding programmes, health insurance was a good move and went to the extent of having the insurance of lactating matters being taken care of. Kufuor’s policies were good and Ghana was back from HIPC,” Mr. Lartey added.

Mr. Lartey, who turns 90 on June 6, 2016, also spoke about the economic situation of the country, saying Ghana is still not independent when it comes to managing its economy.

He said: “Ghana is far away from independence economically. We have not found panacea for our problems. Some of them [past leaders] went into policies that looked like solving the problems but went down.”

He touted the policies of Gen. Acheampong [a former military ruler], describing him as someone who “did well”.