ARKAAH SAYS HE CAN WORK WITH RAWLINGS DESPITE ..

Accra, Jan. 29, Mr Kow Nkensen Arkaah, Vice President, today said he can work together with President Rawlings despite their differences. Mr Arkaah said the two can work together in the same way as the opposition and government members in Parliament sit together and debate issues for the good of the nation. He was responding to a question at a press conference in Accra at which the National Convention Party (NCP) and the People's Convention Party (PCP) announced that they have merged to form the Convention People's Party (CPP). Mr Arkaah was a member of the NCP which struck an alliance with the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 1992 elections. The NCP has abrogated the alliance and Vice President

Arkaah and President Rawlings have since been at loggerheads. "If you don't understand the democratic process then you say one must resign (over the fracas). If you do then the best way is to look forward. "If you do then you sit the two people down and solve it in much the same way that the opposition and government members sit in Parliament and deliberate issues for the good of the nation, " Mr Arkaah said. Mr Arkaah drew examples from countries where government and opposition have been able to co exist in a coalition. In South Africa for example, despite being in the opposition, President Mandela, and Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Minister of the Interior, are able to tolerate each other, he said, adding, "no one is asking the other to resign." Mr Arkaah asked Ghanaians to disabuse their minds of the assertion that the best way to resolve issues when a problem arises is by amending the constitution. "Anybody who attempts to amend the constitution for the sake of one person or to get rid of another is subverting the constitution. "Let us not mix issues. Let us behave in the traditional Ghanaian way where, when a problem arises, we sit down at dawn and solve it. "At any rate, we do not solve them by blows," Mr Arkaah said to the cheering of the gathering. Mr Arkaah said when assuming power, he swore an oath to serve all Ghanaians and not any one person. "My oath is to serve the people of Ghana and protect the constitution. I have no intention of going back on this," he said.