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Press Statement
NPP, November 3, 2010
RESPONSE TO RAWLINGS AND HIS WIFE
Statements made by former President Rawlings
when he commissioned the Nsawam Cannery, a state asset that
was taken almost for free by an organisation his wife owned
while he was president were unfortunate. They were
unfortunate outbursts calculated to strengthen their own
position in the raging hostilities between his family and
the Mills government.
Obviously, Mr Rawlings and his wife were attempting to play
clever by their references to some alleged looting of state
property under the NPP government. They knew their
questionable acquisition of the state-owned Nsawan Cannery
was an indelible scar on their name and a loud evidence of
their insatiable greed for material things. If they had any
shame at all, they would not have commissioned the cannery
in the full glare of the public and the media cameras.
But once they decided to commission it, they premeditated
this juvenile ploy to throw accusations at the previous NPP
government, with the cunning objective of directing
attention away from themselves. For their information,
commissioning the Nsawan Cannery has reminded the Ghanaian
public that when Rawlings was president, Ghana was robbed of
a valuable asset by people whose greed knows no limit.
Also, claims by Mr Rawlings that if the NPP Government had
followed his kind of economic management, Ghana would be
better off today is laughable. When the Kufuor-led NPP
administration assumed office, Ghana was HIPC, pure and
simple. Economic growth and job creation had slowed down to
3.7%. Generally, the macro-economic indicators were
completely out of control.
It had to take the ingenuity of the new NPP government to
opt for the HIPC Initiative and many other remedial
interventions. The National Youth Employment Programme, the
National Health Insurance Scheme, the Free Maternal Care for
expectant mothers, the Capitation Grant, the School Feeding
Programme, the Metro Mass Transit, the outstanding
improvement in Infrastructural Development, are a few
examples.
After eight years, here is the testimony of the NDC
government that succeeded the Kufuor administration:
“Real GDP growth increased steadily from 3.7 percent in 2000
to 7.3 percent in 2008. This growth was fostered by
significant debt relief which provided the country with
fiscal space to embark on critical infrastructure
investments, particularly in the energy and road sectors, as
well as targeted social spending, all under the Ghana
Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS).The combination of higher
output growth, declining inflation, and improved social
spending under the GPRS framework contributed significantly
to lower poverty levels. The national incidence of poverty
declined from 39.5 percent in 1998/99 to 28.5 percent in
2005/06. At this rate, Ghana is poised to achieve the
Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving extreme poverty
ahead of 2015.”
These are the words of the current NDC government in the
Memorandum for Economic and Financial Policies, 2009 – 2012.
As for Rawlings, he gunned his way to political power and
ruled this country for nineteen years. In the process, many
innocent people were killed, many innocent people were
maimed, and many more suffered unimaginable pain.
Today, the same Rawlings family is seeking to rule this
country one more time. A Konadu Agyeman Rawlings presidency
is a weird and unreasonable proposition. But if they want to
pursue such a bizarre ambition, let them go ahead. What they
should not do is to attempt to distort the respectable
record of the New Patriotic Party. They will always get a
fitting response.
Signed:
Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie
General Secretary |
