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