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Diasporia News of Thursday, 28 February 2008

Source: ICPPF

ICPPF Calls on Dr. Nduom to sign the Right to Information Bill

Fellow Comrades, the GNA on Feb. 18, in Accra reported this: - The Coalition on the Right to Information (RTI) Ghana, on Monday called on President John Agyekum Kufuor to make good his promise on the passage of the RTI Bill into law. In a statement signed by Nana Oye Lithur of the Coalition Secretariat the RTI indicated and we quote:

"The Coalition maintains its urgent call to President Kufuor to, without any further delay, and hasten the passage of the RTI Bill into law," The statement further stated said that RTI was a constitutional right of Ghanaians as provided in Article 21 (1) (f) of the 1992 Constitution. ”It noted that as early as 2005, President Kufuor promised in his State of the Nation Address to ensure the passage of the RTI Bill into law that year, to operationalize that constitutional right. Despite government's promises, Ghana still had no legislation on RTI, the Coalition said, adding that, President Kufuor "conspicuously excluded" the RTI from his final State of the Nation address to Parliament last week”.

"One would expect hat President Kufuor in his professed commitment to democratic, transparent and accountable governance would pass the RTI law to fulfil these aspirations but sadly, this has not been the case. "This omission once again registers this as another failed promise by President Kufuor and the President owes it to Ghanaians to explain why he failed to provide any policy direction on the RTI Law in his State of the Nation Address”.

Against the above background, I am privileged on behalf of my colleagues to tell the nation that this will never happen, as President Kufuor will never sign this proclamation. If his predecessor J.J Rwalings was afraid to sign this same Bill, because he knew it would put him at risk and affect his personal protection, why do we expect President Kufuor to do just that to betray his own interest? Ghanaians wake-up from your slumbers, open your eyes to see what is as stake. If we want to serve this country and free our people from the shackles of poverty, pursuit for peace, freedom and practice the rule of law, then we need to be honest and fair. Why should the forum sit down for our people to be ridiculed by unfaithful leaders who put their personal interest above those who mistakenly gave them the mandate to rule and treat them with impunity just because they paid heavily for that position by bribing the electorates? In our view, we should begin to look at politics differently; otherwise we can never solve our problems and hold our leaders accountable for their lies. Ignorance is punishable. Against this background, we members of the ICPPF, would like to call upon our Presidential candidate Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom and the rank and files of the CPP to be sensitive to the cries of Ghanaians who are calling for a positive change if they go out there to demonstrate their commitment, and promote their “Progressive Social Democratic Policies” by ensuring that the passage of Right to Information Bill is signed so as to set the people free once again in our history. ICPPF can assure our readers that Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom in a private communication on the same -subject matter, promised the leadership of ICPPF with this simple word: “I Will” PKN. For what reason are the people of this country calling for a change? They are calling for a change because of corruption and mismanagement in the Country that the other political parties have failed to address. Dr. Nduom has confirmed his readiness to face those obstacles that have over the years damaged the image of the country and its government, obstacles that have undoubtedly brought a halt to our development. Fellow comrades, we take this opportunity to extend our gratitude to Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom for promising this nation that he will sign the Right to Information Bill and pass it into law when he is given the mandate to rule and protect his people. We congratulate Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom for accepting this challenge in such a difficult moment It is our hope that our people have ears to hear his call for justice. We the executives of International Convention People’s Party Forum will like to assure Dr. Kwesi Nduom and his executives, that we will give them our unreserved support when it comes to making policy decision needed for development projects in areas like agriculture, education, science and technology, administration, religion, culture, law, politics, medicine, trade, economy, infrastructure, etc. with the help of our Diaspora experts.

We are out there to help Ghana. We invite all Ghanaian professional in the Diaspora who are experts in the above-mentioned areas; to join us in support our beloved country in its development endeavour... May God bless you all? May God bless Ghana our motherland? Serve Ghana Now Supporters and prospective individuals seeking to join or support the International Convention People’s Party Forum can contact the secretariat for further information.

Home address: CPP Germany, Morse Street 5. 40215 Dusseldorf. Tel: 0049-211-3849790 or 0049-162-3524741. cppgermany@yahoo.com On behalf of ICPPF executives and members, Organizers-ICPPF- Secretariat Organizers: Mr. Prince Aidoo-Germany (cppgermany@yahoo.com) Dr. Kenneth Yanney-UK