Kufuor hits back at NDC

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday December 16, 2010
Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has ridiculed the recently lunched book trumpeting top 50 achievements of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) saying it is “a clear exercise in desperation of a government seeking to be acknowledged, willy-nilly.”

His spokesperson, Frank Agyekum in a new release to react to the NDC’s criticism of the former President’s 72nd birthday message said “the document is flawed”, adding “apart from its many contradictions it sets very low standards for Ghana as even projects that have just been ‘put on paper’ or are going for tender are cited as achievements. If this is what the NDC wants to be credited with, so be it.”

Following the innocuous media interviews granted by Ex-President Kufuor when he celebrated his 72nd birthday last week, the NDC set it propaganda led by machinery Richard Quashigah in motion attacking the ‘Gentle Giant’ as he is affectionately called and needlessly attacked him.

Mr. Agyekum reiterated that all former President Kufuor sought to do was to encourage his party, the NPP to defend and trump up the achievements of the government that he led which he said “are plentiful, indeed, to assure the people of Ghana, that it was ready to resume government for the betterment of the nation come 2012.”

Ridiculing the NDC, the Ex-President’s spokesperson said “you seem to take issue with his assertion that the NPP government, which he led, has been the best in Ghana so far. I submit humbly that former President Kufuor was assessing the performance of his government over their eight-year tenure.”

He said that not too long ago President JEA Mills in assessing his performance gave himself the high mark of 80 per cent but the NDC did not see anything wrong with it.

He recalled when the NPP came into office in 2001, Ghana’s international ranking had sunk so low that it was classified as a ‘Heavily Indebted and Poor Country” (HIPC); national reserves stood at only $233 million; GDP which was $4 billion, grew at a lowly 3.7 per cent annually.

The Ex-President’s spokesperson further said there was nothing like National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS); no School Feeding Programme; no free school busing for pupils and the aged; no free school fees for pupils from Kindergarten to Junior High School level; inflation stood at a high of 40.5 per cent and interest rate was hitting the 50 per cent, among others.

He said by the time the NPP was leaving office in 2008 Ghana had graduated from International Monetary Fund (IMF) oversight-ship to borrow from the EURO-Bond market where its share-value of $750 million was over-subscribed by more than three times; national reserves had risen to $2,036million; GDP shot up to over $44 billion and was growing at 8.4 per cent.

Additionally, he said the NHIS was running smoothly and efficiently; a pilot scheme to give at least one hot meal a day to school children from four years to 14 years was progressing; Inflation stood at 18 per cent and interest rate had dropped to 23 per cent.

He said with the rebasing of the GDP growth rate for 2008 from 7.3 per cent to 8.4 per cent, it is now clearly established that Ghana has attained the Middle Income status saying “the NDC had envisioned that this would be possible by 2020. The NPP believed this could be achieved by 2015 and succeeded in achieving it by 2008.”

On the purchase of an aircraft for the Presidency, Mr. Agyekum maintained that the former President ordered and secured a hire purchase agreement for one aircraft.

He said the Ex-President has the highest respect for the late President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and has not sought in any way to denigrate Ghana’s first President.

He also said the NDC wants to score cheap political points out of the Gizelle Yartze but explained that the case is “worn out” and would not fly saying: “Obviously it serves the NDC’s purpose to continue to follow a discredited lady who at every turn has embarrassed them by her penchant to twist words around and her inability to match her words with deeds.”