‘Govt is on course’
Kufuor calls for debate – to fashion realistic wages, prices policy
‘No viable alternative to HIPC’
Kufuor accounts for his 100 days
… They’re to declare assets by April ending
Kufuor in full control
‘Rawlings will be prosecuted if…’
Kufuor warns former ministers
Castle no more a Dungeon
‘Only a Referendum can take AFRC, PNDC members to Court’
Reburial of Generals will bring tension
Boakye Djan Happy about govt’s survival
‘Govt is on course’
President J.A. Kufuor has proclaimed that his government is on course with its attempts at national reconstruction, the strengthening of democratic institutions and the general governance of the country.
The state-own Daily Graphic reports him as saying that in the course of his 100 days in office, Ghanaians have undergone a tremendous transformation, which has witnessed a vibrant enthusiasm among all.
Addressing a news conference in Accra on Wednesday to mark his 100 days in office, President Kufuor said, the climate of fear, the feeling of alienation, and the burdens of personal and political oppression have all been lifted since he assumed office.
“The air of freedom is palpable. One needs only to tune in to the radio stations to attest to the unfettered – some would even say excessive – freedom being revelled by all and sundry,” he opined.
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Kufuor calls for debate – to fashion realistic wages, prices policy
President J.A. Kufuor has called for national debate to fashion realistic wages and price policy that would serve as a lasting solution to the annual ritual of agitations for salary increases.
According to the Graphic, President Kufuor, whose basic salary is 1.9 million cedis, declared: “The nation must come into terms with the situation that the prevailing structures for wages and prices are not the best and something ought to be done about them. It calls for radical and purposeful thinking and that is why an open debate is needed.”
Addressing a press conference to mark the 100 days in office of his administration, the President said nobody should be deluded into believing that the country can make progress without realistic prices and wages. The challenge is that people must know the reality.
He noted that it costs money to provide services such as water and electricity and when realistic prices are determined, it would enable users to manage how to use those services.
Already his administration has set the ball rolling by removing the subsidy on petroleum products.
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‘No viable alternative to HIPC’
The President, Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, has explained that the government opted for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative because the country had no viable and workable alternative at that time.
He stated that the harsh statistical realities of the economy the government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) inherited and the fact that the national budget had to be presented before the end of March this year left not much choice for the government but to embrace the initiative.
President Kufuor was speaking at a news conference at the castle on Wednesday to mark his 100 days in office.
The President said the government’s revenue in the pre-HIPC period was estimated at $3 billion while it had to contend with an estimated expenditure of between $4 and $5 billion.
The problem, he said, was how to close the yawning deficit of between $1 and $2 billion.
The President further explained that the situation was complicated by the inability or refusal of the country’s development partners to render fresh assistance to the nation.
This refusal, he said, stemmed from the perception of the development partners that the country was already heavily indebted and that further injection of funds could only be made possible if the requisite steps were taken to reform and revamp the economy.
“All we have done by opting for the HIPC initiative is that we decided telling the truth to the nation, which was that Ghana was poor and heavily indebted and could not service her debts”, the President said.
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Kufuor accounts for his 100 days
The President, Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, said on Wednesday that the NPP government had in the past 100 days made some definite progress in re-fashioning the existing structures to begin to implement the government’s vision, reports state daily, ‘The Ghanaian Times.’
Addressing his maiden press conference at the Castle, Osu, to mark the 100 days of his government, the President said, “The first task the government set itself was to take hold of the structures of government, which had been established, controlled and nurtured for 19 years by the same group of persons in pursuit of a vision totally different from our own.”
It has been necessary first of all to ensure that there was an atmosphere of peace and stability in the country and to reassure citizens that the law of the land is supreme and the government accepts as its primary responsibility to engender respect for the law by all, President Kufuor stated.
Declaring that the government had ensured freedom in the country, the President said steps had been taken to add to the resources of the Police to enable them to perform their duties more efficiently, swiftly and purposely.
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… They’re to declare assets by April ending
The Ghanaian Times says the President, his vice, Ministers of State, Parliamentarians and other members of government will finish declaring their assets at the end of this month, President John Kufuor disclosed in an answer to a question at his maiden press conference held at the Castle, Osu, on Wednesday, to mark his 100 days in office.
Article 286 of the constitution which deals with the Code of Conduct of Public Officers stipulates that a person who held a public office shall submit to the Auditor-General a written declaration of all property or assets owned by, or liabilities owned by him whether directly or indirectly.
The asset declaration should be within three months after coming into force of the Constitution, or before taking office as the case may be, at the end of every four years, and at the end of his term of office.
Other public office holders required by the Constitution to declare their assets include ambassadors or high commissioners, secretary to the cabinet, head of ministry or public department, chairman, managing director, general manager and departmental head of a public corporation or company in which the state has a controlling interest.
President Kufuor disagreed with public perceptions that members of his government were delaying in declaring their assets, pointing out that the constitution gave them six months to do so, after assuming office.
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Kufuor in full control
The President, Mr J.A. Kufuor (JAK), gave a good impression of himself as having mastered the intrigues and manoeuvrings of his job, when he fielded questions from journalists, with the same laxity he read out his prepared text, at his maiden press conference at the Castle, on Wednesday.
According to the Chronicle, there was a stark contrast between the delivery of the NPP’s candidate Kufuor and President Kufuor as he stood behind the rostrum to give an account of his 100-day stewardship to the nation, in relation to the policies and actions he has taken en route to achieving his vision for the country.
Addressing the vexed issue of why the government declared the country HIPC without open debate for a party that rode on the back of democracy to victory, he replied that though being democratic, the government had to come out with that unfortunate decision a week to the presentation of the budget because the government realised it could not meet its debt service obligation for this year.
“It was not a shortchange of our promise on dialogue to the people, but it was forced on us, looking at the figures and the constraint of time”.
The press conference seen as the first to be held by a sitting president in 20 years, and attended by top-notch New Patriotic Party members and ministers of state, saw the President touching on policies he has adopted since coming into power.
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‘Rawlings will be prosecuted if…’
President Agyekum Kufuor in his historic press briefing on Wednesday gave broad hints that ex-President Jerry Rawlings could be prosecuted if found culpable in the ongoing probes set in motion by the government, report the Chronicle.
“All over the world former presidents are being prosecuted and nobody is above the law,” he said, adding that the laws of the land are supreme.
Kufuor also reiterated his earlier decision on President Rawlings that he will be accorded all the niceties required as a former president on condition that he stays within the confines of the law.
Answering questions from journalists, he said that the NPP and NDC are not at war and urged them to conduct civil politics because his administration will not entertain excesses.
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Kufuor warns former ministers
The Evening News says President John Agyekum Kufuor, has warned former members of the NDC government not to throw their weight about by making all sorts of unguarded statements.
Mr Kufuor who was answering questions at his first press conference since his assumption of office on January 7, 2001 at the Castle, asked them instead, to keep within the law.
The questions bordered on the security of the nation regarding some exchanges between some members of his government and former NDC functionaries, particularly, Mr Martin Amidu former Deputy Attorney General & Minister of Justice.
The question was premised on the fact that Ghana’s erstwhile governments were probed to establish whether or not elements in those governments milked the state and amassed wealth at the expense of the people who voted them into power.
What readily comes to mind is how the immediate past government subjected functionaries of previous regimes suspected to have abused their positions while they seem to be walking about freely.
President Kufuor, however, said as far as those functionaries kept their activities within the laws of the land and did not force the hand of the government into taking certain decisions, all will be fine.
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Castle no more a Dungeon
The Independent recalls that the Osu Christianborg Castle has been through various phases. In the colonial era the Castle personified terror, as it became the transit point for transporting humans of African origin to the Americas in the course of the inhuman slave trade.
It subsequently became the seat of government for two military regimes of Lt. General Akwasi Amankwaah Afrifa’s National Liberation Council and Generals Acheampong and Akuffo’s Supreme Military Councils I and II.
But the period that very nearly relished and replicated the inhuman slave era was the immediate past regime of Flt. Lt. Rawlings when the castle assumed an almost mystical dimension. This historical monument became the embodiment of the terror reign of Rawlings revolution and later its civilian NDC rule.
Rumours had it that the Castle was used by the then regime to torture innocent Ghanaians. It took the ordeal of the former boy friend of Miss Ezenator Rawlings the first-born daughter of the former President to confirm that indeed the Castle was used as a quasi-military barracks.
However a new chapter was opened on Wednesday by the current President John Agyekum Kufuor when he invited the cream of Ghanaian media personnel irrespective of their background to brief them on the occasion of his government’s 100 days in office-albeit reluctantly if we are to believe the preamble to his formal statement. Ms Ohene in welcoming the journalists and subsequent handling of the event displayed such brevity and awareness, the lack of which in recent times, had elicited a lot of flack from sections of the media.
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‘Only a Referendum can take AFRC, PNDC members to Court’
Until the Constitution is amended through a referendum, no one can take any member of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) or Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) to court for the execution of former Heads of State and other Military officers during the 1979 uprising.
Mr Steve Ahiawordor, Legal Practitioner and Lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, disclosed this to The Independent in an interview in Accra. He said section 34 of the transitional provisions of the 1992 constitution states clearly that nobody can take any member of the AFRC or PNDC their agents to court for any act of omission or commission committed during that period. He said the transitional provision also debars the courts from entertaining any actions from anybody who wants to seek redress as a result of the actions from coup makers and their agents from 1966 to 1981.
“What is interesting about this issue is that subsection 4 of section 34 of the transitional provisions says that it does not matter whether the actions taken during that period were in accordance with the law or not.
This means that even those actions, which were deemed unlawful cannot be questioned,” he noted. Mr Ahaiwordor stated that the irony of section 34 of the transitional provisions is that it is in direct contradiction with the provisions in article 125 of the 1992 constitution, which gives the judiciary jurisdiction in all matters.
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Reburial of Generals will bring tension
Ghanaians across the Political divide have cautioned the Kufuor Administration not to give in to the agitations from a section of the public that the mortal remains of their slain generals be given to them for reburial, reports the Ghanaian Voice.
According to a random survey conducted by this paper, such a move will create tension, animosity and help whip up emotional feelings in the country because nobody knows how the whole situation will begin and how it will end.
Talking to a fanatical CPP adherent, “the Voice” was told that it is nobody’s fault that things caught up with some of the adventurists somewhere along the line and they faced the firing squad.
On the morning of Kwame Nkrumah’s overthrow on February 24, 1966, Lt. General (then Brigadier) Akwasi Amankwah Afrifa went to the Flagstaff House where the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah had his offices and located Kwame Nkrumah’s loyal body guard General Bawah who lived there and shot him in cold blood. Proceeded to the reception of Kwame Nkrumah’s main office at Flagstaff House and PANG! He shot a young Fante woman receptionist before retreating to a waiting armoured car.
From there, Akwasi Amankwah Afrifa went to the Winneba Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute and wanted to line up all the students there and shoot them. He was however, restrained by the sober General E.K. Kotoka, his co-planner, who told him soldiers and policemen and civil servants were among the students and it was unwise to carry out the threat.
“The NPP must let the dead past bury their dead and should not countenance the petition of the widows of the slain generals for the reburial of their husbands, adding, if the NPP does not handle the affairs carefully, there would be a conflagration which will eat it up”.
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Boakye Djan Happy about govt’s survival
One of the main architects of the 1979 mutiny that brought Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings to power has stated that one single achievement of President J.A. Kufuor’s Government is that it had been able to survive within the first 100 days, reports the Crusading Guide.
The man, Major Kojo Boakye Djan (rtd), who was Rawlings’ right hand man when the latter was the Chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), made this observation in a chat with Kweku Baako Jnr, Editor-in-Chief of The Crusading Guide in London.
Boakye Djan, who left the country after the AFRC had handed over to a democratically elected government, told The Crusading Guide that “given the circumstances in which they found themselves when assuming office, it is a great achievement that they have survived”.
“Have you had the need to worry about any official policy initiative or omission so far?” probed The crusading Guide.
Replying, Major Boakye Djan (rtd) said, “Within the broad spectrum of their policy declarations and intentions and their collective conduct in office so far, I would say no”.
This paper probed further: “Not even the first foreign trip to Togo by President Kufuor to take part in the anniversary celebration of a coup that brought Eyadema to office?”
He answered, “I would hope that was a one-of error of judgement or blunder that was more than offset by those who took the lead in criticising it loudest. You will note that the critics of the President have all lived one time or the other and profited from the illegal PNDC regime and its consequential illegal bloodletting in Ghana”.
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