President Akufo-Addo has assured the Ghanaian community in Malta his administration will rid the country of political vigilantism to safeguard peace.

Addressing the Ghanaian community in Malta on the first day of his two-day state visit to the Mediterranean nation, Akufo-Addo said there are many challenges that the country is battling with and that includes the phenomenon of vigilantism.

However, his administration, he said, will do everything materially possible to stop vigilantism from taking any further root in the country.

“We have a lot of challenges in our country,” the president told his audience.

He added: “You know the political issues that are there, the phenomenon of political vigilantism and all of that. These are worrying matters, but they are matters that I am determined to bring under control.”

“Come what may, we will rid our country of some of these phenomenon. We don’t need it in the new Ghana we are trying to build,” the President said.

He further noted that, “We have to have a country whereby decisions are taken on the basis of the force of argument and the quality of the presentations that are made by the various political actors in the state. If we all agree that is the way forward, these unpleasant phenomena that we have been witnessing in our country in recent times will also be brought under control.”

Management of Public Finances

President Akufo-Addo expressed great delight at the fact that the country has finally completed its 16th bailout programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“We are now on our own but I think being on our own, there is something very important that all of us have to learn from the experience of the last IMF programme and that is this, in the 60 years of our independence, the last IMF programme was the 16th time we have gone to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout because our public finances could no longer stand the strain of mismanagement. It is about a fundamental and a basic matter that all of us Ghanaians have to bear in mind, and that is discipline in the management of our public finances,” he observed.



Lessons

According to him, the country’s exit from the latest IMF bailout programme that former President John Mahama signed in 2015, comes with a big lesson of discipline. This lesson, he said, must guard our spending culture as a country.

“It is not easy to say that you have to live within your means, but if you want to be able to do big things, you expand your means, you don’t spend money that you don’t have, that is always the road to chaos. We have to learn that discipline in the management of public finances has now to be the basic element for the building of our economy and that is the lesson that the latest bailout programme with the IMF should impress on all of us,” Akufo-Addo stated.

The Maltese Custom

In his address, he pointed out that the Maltese have a custom were visiting Heads of State not only meet officials of the ruling party, but also with the leaders of the opposition, adding Ghana can emulate it.

“It is a good custom and it is a custom that we have to try and emulate in Ghana. I am due to meet the leader of the opposition tomorrow after meeting the President and the Prime Minister and the others. It is all to show that on a visit like this, you are meeting the entire Maltese nation and not just those who are temporarily in charge of it. I think it is something that we should also make part of our state culture as well,” Akufo-Addo suggested.