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General News of Thursday, 16 February 2012

Source: The Informer

Mills Dazzles

As He Makes “Nonsense” Of NPP’s Ranting

News Desk Report

Against the backdrop of empty noises on the part of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) particularly the Assin North MP, Kennedy Agyepong and Isaac Kwame Asiamah, the MP for Atwima-Mponua, claiming that the President Mills led-NDC government has performed poorly, revelations yesterday by the President in his State of the Nation Address, had virtually rendered the NPP and its propaganda machinery useless.

With brilliance, confidence and the display of his mastery over the Queens language, His Excellency President John Evans Atta Mills unveils the success chalked by his administration to the admiration of Ghanaians and the diplomatic community present in Parliament to witness the presentation of his address.
Very proud of the economic gains of his government, President Mills reveals that under his watch, Ghana has recorded the highest ever growth rate in the annals of this country’s history, with a provisional growth rate approaching 14%, despite the gargantuan heckling and detraction on the part of the minority NPP.
“I stated then that our success in confronting inflation in the previous year was notable; the challenge was to remain on course. I am happy to report that indeed we remained on course”, focused President Mills pointed out.
According to him, his government has recorded the most sustained single digit rates of inflation in decades, with the rate of inflation of 8.55% for 2011 being the lowest in 42 years since 1970.
“As at the end of September, the budget deficit was 2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)as compared to 14.5% of GDP in 2008”, he revealed.
“With the exception of the level of the budget deficit which was higher than anticipated, we have managed to attain the macro-economic projections contained in the 2008 NDC Manifesto for a Better Ghana”, President Mills confidently stated.
The positive economic indicators achieved according to His Excellency President John Evans Atta Mills, have resulted in increased investor confidence in the economy.
To buttress his claim above, he made it known that the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) has released figures showing an increase in projects registered with them amounting to over $7billion in foreign direct investment, a fortnight ago; unlike the NPP that brags of building a resilient economy but has no figures to support their argument.
In the educational sector, the President with a snapshot of the sector within the short time span of 3 years chronicled his government’s immense achievements including the efforts made to bring to an end the school shift system, which has been a drawback in the fight for quality education.
Several classroom structures, according to the President, have been constructed to provide accommodation for hundreds of pupils, who now benefit from a full day classroom teaching.
“Contracts for the construction of over 1,700 classroom blocks for schools under tress have been awarded throughout the country. On completion, the 4,320 schools under trees that existed in 2009 would be reduced by about 40%”, President Mills stated.
Over 40 million exercise books have been supplied to all pupils in basic public schools, basic school population of about 5.2 million have equally been supplied school uniforms - to three out of every five children in basic school, as part of the NDC government Better Ghana Agenda.
The school feeding programme that was poorly implemented under the erstwhile Kufuor-led NPP administration has been given a face-lift with the selection rationalized to target more needy communities/schools.
The second-cycle sector has also benefited from the fair share of the Atta Mills Better Ghana Agenda with about 672 emergency classroom blocks and dormitories in various phases of completion nationwide.
With much confidence, the President also recounted the achievement made as far as job creation is concerned; saying, many jobs have since been created outside the non-traditional areas of employment.
“With the expected heavy infrastructure expansion as well as the building of the allied petrochemical industries associated with our oil and gas find, I can safely project many more jobs will be created by the time the tenure of this Government comes to an end”, he added.
Touching on electrification, President Mills discloses that under the various rural electrification projects, over, 1,700 communities have been connected to the national grid.
“We are aiming to extend electricity to a further 4,000 or more communities covering all the regions in the country. I would like to mention that the programme to provide street lights to all regional capitals is proceeding according to plan, and will in future, be extended to cover all municipal and district capitals in the country”, he assures the nation.
The gains made in area like health sector as a result of the infrastructural development, the success story associated with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), how perfectly the government has dealt with the guinea worm cases, security, law and order, good governance, achievements in the sports sector and most importantly the fight by the government to make Ghana very unfriendly to drugs barons, as well as unraveling the mystery surrounding the purportedly disappearance of the 77 parcels of cocaine, all were highlighted in the President’s State of the Nation Address aside the tremendous economic gains.
The above success story revealed by the President Mills is what has made the NPP lifeless and completely shut their mouths.