‘FIRST STEPS TO BRINGING BACK HOPE’

AT A MEDIA INTERACTION AT HIS NIMA RESIDENCE
ACCRA, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2012

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, I am honoured and delighted by your presence here this morning and I thank you most sincerely for honouring my invitation.

I asked you here today to for a discussion on how to restore hope in Ghana. Yes, I have picked up my nomination forms to contest for the position of Presidential Candidate for the New Patriotic Party in the 2012 elections.

I thank the Ghanaian people, particularly the 4,480,446 who voted for me in 2008. Should my party, by the grace of our Lord, place their hope of returning to Government in 2012 in me again, I pray and hope that I can begin, not from zero, but by first banking on you - the nearly four and a half million Ghanaians who voted for me in 2008. My message to you is that my party and I will need your active support to convince new undecided voters and a good number of the other four and a half million people who thought they were voting for a better Ghana to vote in 2012 for the president and the party they can trust to deliver with competence and decisiveness for all of Ghana – myself and the NPP. But, before that, there is that important task of winning the confidence of my party delegates.
The NPP has done a lot of reflection since 2008. We have not been complacent. Shortly after the 2008 elections, the Party set up a committee to inquire into the defeat and make recommendations for the future. We have followed that with a series of reorganisations from the polling station level to the national leadership level. Going by our Party’s constitution, the National Council has now set August 7, 2010 as the date to elect the 2012 Presidential Candidate of the Party. We have expanded our electoral college by 4,700%, from the 2,293 who voted for 17 of us in 2007 to some 115,000 who will vote to choose a new flagbearer from a maximum number of five contestants next August.
By this, the NPP has taken a giant step in deepening internal party democracy and mobilising the grassroots of the Party. No other political party on our continent has shown such bravery in extending decision-making powers to their foot soldiers – to the men and women who actually do the door-to-door campaign. Shall I take this opportunity to urge our friends in the other political parties to emulate this example.
Reflecting on the problems that affected the NPP’s chances in 2008, some of us championed the expansion of the Electoral College. This has broadened the decision-making powers to include the over 105,000 polling station executives across Ghana. I am proud of my contribution towards the expansion. I congratulate all who supported the process and campaigned throughout the country for the expansion.
Thankfully, the polling station executives of the NPP have now been recognised and empowered as a very important arm of the party leadership. In moving for this sweeping organic expansion, my colleagues and I were mindful of another important thing: bringing power to the youth who form the base of our party. If you look at the end result, the aim has been achieved. Young men and women who would not normally have taken part in the decision-making process of our party can do so today. The enthusiastic involvement of the youth in the affairs of the party is critical to the party’s growth and success. That is why I shall continue to unfold programmes for the economic, social and political development of the youth in my party and the youth in Ghana, as a whole.
After falling short of winning the presidency by less than 0.5% of the total votes cast in 2008, I have had to do a lot of reflection myself. I have listened to my party members and I have heard and seen the suffering of the majority of Ghanaians. There is every indication that the income of the majority of Ghanaians has fallen in just over one year of a ‘Better Ghana’ and it continues to fall. This is after workers’ pay enjoyed an average of 20% increase in real terms from 2003 to 2008 under the NPP. But, should we be surprised?
Despite the systematic attempt to denigrate President J A Kufuor’s eight-year record, we in the NPP are satisfied that he laid a solid record of achievement in virtually all aspects of our national life.
For example, in 1992, with a population of 15.34 million people, the number of poor Ghanaians was estimated to be 7.93 million. By 1999, one year before the NDC lost power, Ghana’s population had gone up to 18.21 million, 7.19 million Ghanaians (39.5%) still lived below the poverty line of $1 a day.
By, 2006, after just five years under the NPP, with a population of 22.24 million, the number of Ghanaians living below the revised poverty line of $1.25 had fallen to 6.34 million, from 39.5% to 28.5%. It went further down in 2008 to less than 26%. These figures are from the World Bank.

But, as a result of the economic policies adopted by President Mills and his government, the World Bank is now estimating that half a million more Ghanaians will fall below the poverty line by this year alone.

Thus, under the ‘Better Ghana’ agenda, Ghanaians are for the first time in almost a decade, going to get poorer. We are hamstrung with a government that appears to be incompetent even at managing and maintaining the economy the NPP bequeathed to them. They have succeeded in turning a growth rate of 7.3% that they inherited to between 3-4%. We are moving backwards; slowly but surely. Ghanaians are yearning to feel Prof Mills’ presidency and not just his residency at the Castle.

Statistics released last Friday from the Bank of Ghana make grim reading. Data from the Bank of Ghana’s Composite Index of Economic Activity (CIEA) which is used in gauging the pulse of the economy, shows the decline in economic confidence deepening during the first two months of this year, implying a slowdown in the pace of economic activity. According to Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, “the factors contributing to the declining index were: [low] imports, tourists spending, private sector transfers to social security, consumer spending (derived from VAT collections) and commercial banks’ credit to the private sector.”

What it means is that Ghanaians no longer have enough money to spend on consumer goods and local manufacturers simply don’t have the demand to import the requisite capital inputs. While the Governor of the central bank is telling us that transfers to SSNIT has fallen, the Minister of Information is propagating that 1.6 million mystical jobs have been created from the halo of a better Ghana in just one year.

The fact of the matter is that the economy of Ghana is shrinking. Hence, you cannot create jobs (except 1.6 million phantom ones!). With a declining economy can government revenue grow? Well, unless through increasing taxation and tolls. Bad officials must be dealt with according to law. However, the President should stop blaming hardworking CEPS officials for revenue declines and direct his anger positively at dealing with the fundamental problem of growing the economy.

But, the root of the matter should be tackled. When they meet at the top level they only plan persecution. This is a government of witch-hunting. There are clear signs that the Mills government is embarking on a series of politically motivated prosecutions. Their intention is to dismember the NPP. They will not succeed!

At the lower level, they are at each others throats. They are fanning ethnic and chieftancy conflicts. Under this era of the Asondwehene, the peace of our nation is threatened. Investor confidence is eroded. Why would the economy not shrink?

We need to restore hope. Ladies and gentlemen, this is my basic motivating factor today. If by the grace of God I have the chance, I will bring back hope and restore the kind of confidence that we need to move our nation forward.

It is of course refreshing to know that headline inflation has now dropped to 13.2%. The basic economic principle of demand and supply means you can beat inflation simply by reducing the purchasing power of the people – by impoverishing the people.

The relative stability this year, helped by strong commodity prices for our exports and reductions in both public and consumer spending, has been achieved by factors other than the competence of the present administration. It does not demonstrate imaginative or competent economic management. Any Senior High School economics student can stabilise an economy by choking it off, which is exactly what the NDC has done.

The challenge of economic management is to maintain stability while growing the economy even in the face of a global economic crisis. The entire economic policy of the Mills-Mahama government has been premised on a false understanding of the actual state of the economy. We were first told that the size of Ghana’s economy was around $16 billion and the fiscal deficit was about 15% of that, an ailment which called for appropriate remedy of very tight fiscal discipline. Just recently, both the International Monetary Fund and the Ghana Statistical Service came out to say that in fact Ghana’s economy could be twice as large and may be more than $30 billion. This immediately cuts the percentage of the nation’s fiscal deficit by half. So Ghanaians have been forced to suffer based on false statistics and the obsession of a new government to make its predecessor look bad.

Petroleum prices and electricity tariffs are about to go up, while there are no signs of corresponding increases in workers wages and salaries. This, ladies and gentlemen is not the better Ghana that I-Care-for-You Mills promised. The first 16 months of the Mills-Mahama government has been characterised by incompetence, lies, hypocrisy, and lawlessness. There is a general state of insecurity in the country driven by the NDC foot soldiers and an unchecked culture of “It’s my government so I can get away with it.”

Barely a week goes by these days without news of violent acts of lawlessness being committed by members of the ruling NDC in one part of the country or the other. Toll booths are confiscated; NHIS and NYEP offices locked up and their staff forcibly sacked and locked out. The control of public toilets these days has become the ultimate symbol of power and authority under the reign of the Asomdwehene – the King of Peace. Law and order has broken down. Ghanaians are living in fear. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the era of the Asomdwehene, the King of Peace.

From day one, the NDC has poisoned the business/investment climate by lying about the economy, lying to voters, and lying to their own foot-soldiers. Ghanaians are broke. Ghana is breaking. Who must fix it? Who can fix it? Who will fix it?

Ladies and gentlemen, I hope this explains why after nearly 35 years of being in the frontline of Ghanaian politics, this 66-year-old, short and not so handsome young man still has the energy and passion to lead Ghana to a new and exciting future. The very challenges, hardships and oppressive environment that motivated 33-year-old Akufo-Addo to help organize and lead the PMFJ’s mobilization of the people against the obnoxious Union Government concept of the Acheampong regime in 1977/8 were the very same ills that motivated 51-year old Akufo-Addo to help lead the Kume Preko demonstrations of 1995. It is this same motivation that is driving me to lead the battle to recapture power for the NPP and for the good of Ghana in 2012. Yes, I still believe in Ghana.

Ghana needs a bold and decisive leadership: A leadership that is sincere and not condescending; A leadership that sees evil, hears evil and acts against them; A leadership that can bring back self-confidence in the Ghanaian people; A leadership that believes in Ghana and in the manifest destiny of this blessed land of ours. This is why I am still in the race to lead my party to lead Ghana. Insha Allah, it shall come to pass.
God willing, I intend to begin my national tour of all 230 constituencies in Ghana tomorrow beginning with the Central Region. Apart from appealing to the 115,000 delegates of the National Congress for their votes on August 7, I intend to use this national tour to listen to the party people, especially the five polling station executives in each of the more than 21,000 polling station areas nationwide, their accounts of the opportunities and challenges facing our great Party. What we need to do to prepare and equip ourselves sufficiently for Victory 2012. I want to share ideas with them on how best to improve the Party’s fortunes in every corner of the country.
As we celebrate the 18th anniversary of the NPP, I want to thank the grassroots activists of the Party for their hard work, unwavering loyalty and commitment to the cause of the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition. Ours is a tradition born out of struggle to wage an uncompromising battle for the establishment and maintenance of liberty, justice, responsibility and prosperity.

From 1947, right through the years of dictatorship to the Fourth Republic, the rank and file of our tradition stood firm in their conviction to uphold, defend and promote the party and its principles of rule of law, multi-party democracy and individual freedom. Even though, the individual expectations of many of you, our foot soldiers could not be met during the eight years of positive change under President J A Kufuor, you showed your patience and higher understanding of democracy and the challenges and opportunities of a developing economy in a fiercely competitive multi-party democracy. Those of us in leadership position of the party shall forever be grateful to you.

I also want all of our members and activists to consider the imperative of unity for victory 2012. I know that I do not have to convince anyone of the supreme need for unity. Indeed, any time I have had the privilege of interacting with our grassroots activists, they have pressed home the need for the NPP to forge and present a united front, for united we stand divided we fall. Let me say that I fully subscribe to this important, principled value of political party organization and wish to assure our teeming supporters that, as I have always done, I will continue to strive to maintain and build on the unity that is so critical to our party’s organizational and electoral success. We must work together, because we dream together; we must think together and strategize together; we must stay together and win for all; we must protect each other, because we suffer together; and we must trust each other if we are to stick together. We are one party, one family with one goal: Victory 2012! NPP, Ghana ani da mo so!
I hope to convince our grassroots, through the power of my positive campaign, to assert their wisdom and the supreme authority granted them by the party’s constitution, to vote for the most appropriate person to lead the party into victory in December 2012 in order for us to begin the process of fixing the nation and binding us closer together after January 7, 2013.
I have done a lot of reflection since our defeat in 2008. As a human being, I assure you that I have examined myself; I have examined my strategies. I assure you that I have come out stronger for future leadership. I believe I am standing on the brink of a great victory for our great party and I ask all party faithful to give me the desired push for a sweet victory in 2012.
My soundings in the party tell me that there is broad support for my candidature from all sections within the party, young and old, men and women, from the established figures of the party, emerging figures, through the polling stations and constituencies across the country. I am assured by this broad support that I therefore represent the best prospect for uniting the party. I believe that this broad support within the party is a reflection of the broad support I enjoy within the Ghanaian population.
I am appealing to all my supporters not to resort to any negative campaign. We have a positive story to tell. Let us keep it clean and healthy.
The NPP believes in the supreme dignity of humankind. We shall continue to defend and promote the economic and social rights and freedoms of every individual in a multi-democratic and liberal economic environment, where access to success and prosperity is opened to all.
These are my first steps to bringing back hope!

God bless you!
God bless the NPP!
And, God bless mother Ghana!