Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kweku
Baako, has said that he will not contemplate a vote for the ruling National
Democratic Congress (NDC) - not even his corpse.
Mr. Baako, who has never hidden his disdain
for the NDC, said yesterday that it had never crossed his mind to give the NDC
his vote.
"I don’t vote NDC. My corpse will
not even vote for them. It’s true!” he said on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ programme - where he is a regular panelist
every Wednesday - insisting that his vote goes for NPP’s Nana Addo Dankwa
Akufo-Addo.
Responding to a bait by colleague
panelist and NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for La Dadekotopon, Nii Amasah
Namoale, to vote for the ruling party on December 7, Mr. Baako retorted, “It
can never happen. My conscience, my conviction, my commitment will not allow me
to vote NDC.”
He admitted that he has ‘great’ friends
in the NDC, including President John Mahama, but stressed that “it’s
unfortunate, I can’t do that. It’s a matter of principle.”
Media Cabal
Mr. Baako’s comment is coming at a time
President Mahama has been complaining that the media are being controlled by a
cabal that is blocking his message of transformation ahead of the December
polls.
President Mahama told Ovation magazine owned by a Nigerian
politician who does not hide his preference for the president that a certain
group of people he could not name had taken control of the Ghanaian media space
and were blocking his government’s message.
He posited, “It is populism, a certain
group has taken control of the media in Ghana and it makes it difficult for
people to discern the truth. So as much as you are putting out the information,
it is either being blocked or distorted.”
Media proliferation
Curiously, powerful personalities with
strong ties the Mahama administration, including ministers of state, are the
ones behind the proliferation of media outlets, particularly radio and
television stations, and other online platforms in the country and some analysts
are expressing surprise at the president’s outburst, indicating that he might
not be doing what Ghanaians expect of him.
The president contested allegations that
he had failed to crack the whip on his ministers and appointees - especially
the corrupt ones - and said he had acted on every allegation of misconduct.
“We
have 300 FM stations in this country. We have 70 newspapers or so; we have all
kinds of media. All kinds of media raise allegations against office holders. I
cannot on the basis of every allegation that is raised take action. It means I
will change my cabinet so many times if I acted on every single allegation.
“For every allegation that is made, I
have said I will consider the accusation seriously; we will investigate and if
those allegations are substantial that require that I take action against a minister,
I will do so. And I have done that in several cases. I have changed ministers,”
he claimed.
Economic situation
On the economic hardship affecting Ghanaians,
President Mahama said, “We have heard the complaints and it is the very reason
that we are doing all that we are doing so that the people will live a better
life. Honestly, if you do not build the infrastructure, unemployment will get
worse because you need to build a certain foundation upon which the economy can
grow and create the jobs that you want.”
Ghana’s Debt
He dismissed reports that his government
is incurring huge debts and insisted that Ghana’s debt profile had rather
reduced under his administration.
“If you look at the facts, it is
absolutely untrue that we are incurring debts because post HIPC Ghana had a
debt write-off. But if you look at the period from 2006 until 2008, under the
NPP government, they virtually doubled the debt again after it had been written
off. We will release what the debt figures were from independence till now. We
will show the structure to Ghanaians. Our debt profile is currently $24 billion,
and in total that is dollar and cedi debt, GH¢104 billion.
As at June 2016, the debt profile had
risen to GH¢110 billion from GH¢9.5 billion inherited from the previous Kufuor
administration.
“But if you look carefully at the graph,
our debt profile is declining and that is because we have now put in place a
public debt management strategy.
Before, any state-owned enterprise that
borrowed money, it was added unto the public debt, but what we have done now is
to create a Public Debt Management Strategy that says that state-owned
enterprises must borrow off their own balance sheets,” he argued.
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