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General News of Friday, 10 January 2003

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NDC Pledges To Support Kufuor Administration, If ...

The NDC minority in Parliament has promised to support the government if the Kufuor administration makes a public acknowledgement that it has all along taken a wrong stance against the policies of the previous administration. This is contained in a statement by the minority in parliament at a press conference in Accra about the impending increase in fuel prices.

The NDC have now come out clearly now to support the current administration in its effort to lift the ailing Ghanaian economy out of poverty. But they will do that on one condition – if the NPP administration becomes humble enough to confess to the general public that they are now being faced with the realities of governance.

The minority ranking member on Mines and Energy, Abraham Kofi Asante, who addressed the press conference at Parliament House today said the Kufuor administration should acknowledge that its opposition to the policies of the previous administration was a mistake.

The group says it is surprised that after President Kufuor and his colleagues led the “Yabre” demonstrations that made it impossible for the government at the time to increase fuel prices in 1999, the Energy Minister of the NPP administration, Albert Kan-Dapaah in November 2002 blamed the problems of Tema Oil Refinery on the inability of the NDC government to increase petroleum prices in year 2000.

The NDC minority contends that government has no justification to increase fuel prices now, as the President has hinted in his recent speeches. Mr. Kofi Asante said government should first increase salaries before attempting to increase fuel prices.