General News of Monday, 26 February 2007

Source: Peter Clottey for VOA

Wayo calls for Ghana@50 Boycott on VOA

... people have no water, they are dying, there is no electricity
... Kufuor - the biggest conman
... World Bank - a bunch of criminals

The founder of the opposition united renaissance party (URP) is calling on Ghanaians to boycott the country’s golden jubilee celebration which takes place next month. Speaking to the Voice of America (VOA), Kofi Wayo said the protest is necessary because of the failure of the ruling party to provide the people with the basic necessities of life as promised. Wayo also accused the government of President John Kufuor of what he calls “messing the country up.”

Wayo said he does not understand why the government would spend millions of dollars on the celebration when some of the population does not have clean water.

“These people have no water, they are dying, there is no electricity so what is the priority of an intelligent leader? Ninety percent of the children die from water borne diseases, so why can’t they make water their priority? But their priorities are fancy cars, they are buying jaguars luxury Mercedes and no water,” he said.

He questioned why a country like Malaysia should export oil palm to Ghana when they got the palm from Ghana in the first place.

“You see two year olds with canisters and I took a look at the canisters they are made from Malaysia because Malaysia ships to the country palm nut oil and the Malaysian got the palm nut from Ghana. You see the Africa leader is not interested in substance… these leaders have no culture, no ethics, they have no morality, they don’t know anything about this,” he said.

Wayo chided leadership in Africa as lacking the humane ability to provide the needs of the people they rule.

“They don’t manufacture anything in this country. Even needles to sew clothes are imported into the country. So you can see the leadership has no intelligence at all. You see these leaders are not even leaders; they are a bunch of scoundrels... there is no water and their priority is to buy expensive cars so they can ride in and be big shots,” Wayo noted.

He took a swipe at President Kufuor for what he describes as “not keeping his promise to Ghanaians.

“I swear, I’m disappointed, I’m shocked, this man is the biggest con man I have ever come across. He was a pretty good liar…he believes in corruption, he bought a hotel for his son; his whole family is in the government. The whole system is collapsed so everybody depends on extortion to survive and we are trying to turn it around,” he said.

Wayo said there was the need to free the people from being deceived.

“We got to have freedom, we’ve got to have the people get water and light. The World Bank is telling the leadership to raise prices when the people are already poor and can’t afford it anyway. The World Bank people are a bunch of criminals,” he fumed.

Clottey's Interview With URP Leader Kofi Wayo audio clip