"Stop Playing Cheap Politics" - Govt to NDC

The government has asked the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to "stop playing cheap politics with every issue" including problems they created, while in government.

It said the NDC should rather cooperate with the government to find lasting solutions to problems most of which should have been resolved within the almost 20 years of the (P)NDC rule.

The government's view was contained in a statement signed by the Minister for Information and Presidential Affairs, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey in reaction to the NDC's statement on the petrol price hikes.

The statement said the government considers the position of the NDC minority in Parliament on the price increase of petroleum products as "most unfortunate".

It said the NDC statement stated that it wondered whether the leaders from the churches, Muslim communities, student leadership, labour movement a well as the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF) who were consulted could justify the increase. It said these leaders "were clandestinely invited to the Castle...and told to preach and convince their congregations to accept the imminent increases."

"This is an insult to the intelligence of the leaders invited for consultation and discussion and clearly exposes the disrespect and contempt of the NDC for eminent opinion leaders."

It said it also betrays the NDC's complete misunderstanding of the culture of consultation. "Consultations, and we hasten to add that those mentioned by the NDC were not the only ones in which the government took part, need not necessarily be done in the full glare of the public."

It said the government believes consultations are vital to good governance and they would continue to be part of the method of its governance whether conducted in public or in private. The statement said the increase in fuel prices is not pleasant, even to members of government, and would have been avoided if it were possible to do so.

"That the government chose to take the hard decisions and risk a loss of its goodwill is the surest indicator of the government's sense of deep sense of responsibility."

The statement said it compares with the NDC, when in office, chose to sacrifice the long-term national interest for political expediency, pointing out that the 3.4 trillion cedis debt at TOR is an infamous legacy left to the government and continues to grow and accrue interest for the country to pay, possibly in the next 10 years.

The government also questioned the statement of the NDC, which said that the percentage of last Friday's fuel price hike of almost 100 per cent is historically unprecedented. "In just two months, September to November 1990, the PNDC increased premium petrol prices from 396 cedis a gallon to 1,000 cedis a gallon, an increase of 153 per cent.

"We do not bring up these reminders to say that as the (P)NDC did so will we do but to show that we research our history so that what was done can guide us in what we now do."