Rawlings cannot intimidate government - Awuni

Wa, July 11, GNA - Mr Andrew Awuni, Deputy Minister of Information declared at Wa on Wednesday that the Kufuor administration will neither be intimidated nor run the government according to the dictates of former President Jerry John Rawlings, Founder of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Ghanaians, he said gave the New Patriotic Party (NPP) the mandate to govern the country on the basis of its manifesto and promises it made to the people.

Mr Awuni stated this when he spoke on Radio Upper West, a GBC Regional FM Station.

Mr Awuni who is on a one-day's working visit to Wa also visited the various media houses in the region, and interacted with the staff to know their problems at first hand.

Former President Rawlings, a foremost critic of the performance of the government, had recently accused it of corruption, incompetent management of the national economy and of peddling massive lies about him (Rawlings).

Mr Awuni described the NPP Government as the most transparent the country had ever had.

He asked avowed critics of the NPP, whose criticism sometimes bordered on personal insults, whether under the NDC Government they could have insulted the President or any of his ministers without having "their sleeping places changed."

The Deputy Information Minister reminded ex-President Rawlings and his NDC critics to bear in mind that majority of Ghanaians were not only intelligent, but also capable of discerning falsehoods from truth. Commenting on the claim of Rawlings that the Ghanaian media had gone to bed with the government, the Deputy Minister pointed out that the government did not set up private newspapers.

Mr Awuni described the utterances of former President Rawlings as diversionary, aimed at diverting the attention of Ghanaians from the revelations coming out of the sittings of the National Reconciliation Commission.

What the country needed said Mr Awuni, were leaders capable of leading Ghana into prosperity, uniting all of the people and putting the economy back on track.

He announced that the government had signed an agreement with a German Company for the expansion and rehabilitation of Ghana Television. He said under the rehabilitation programme, which was expected to be completed within 18 months, Ghana Television would change from the present analogue to satellite to broadcast television to all parts of the country.

Touching on HIV/AIDS, he advised people in the three Northern regions to rethink some of their communal practices such as sharing of blades, as sex was not the only mode of transmission.