Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
Nana Akufo Addo has issued a poor certificate of performance to the Mills/Mahama administration, describing it as idle and not working to improve the lot of Ghanaians.
“The NDC is not working. Mills is not working. Mills and Mahama have not worked and will not work,” he said, adding that “let us all say together to the current custodians of power that the days of empty rhetoric are over. No more lip action. Enough is enough!”
Speaking to a teeming number of New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters in Houston, Texas, USA, the 2012 flag-bearer of the largest opposition party in Ghana said Ghanaians wanted jobs and not juju politics, as he poked fun at the Baba Jamal remark about how information officers should let government look good if it even meant turning sheep into cows and sod cuttings into action year.
“The people want jobs; not juju politics that create 1.6 million phantom jobs and turn sheep into cows, sod cuttings into action year and judgment debts into gargantuan crimes.”
The country, he pointed out, was in a state of leadership paralysis which should not go beyond the constitutionally mandated four-year tenure.
“This era of leadership paralysis must not exist a minute longer than the four years the people and constitution granted the NDC, in all innocence, in 2008. We need change now to move Ghana forward,” he said.
Ghana, he stated, could not waste four years under what he described as a government of lies, propaganda, hypocrisy, incompetence, corruption and economic hardships.
“We cannot waste four more years under this government of lies, propaganda, hypocrisy, incompetence, corruption and economic hardships,” he noted.
The challenges and opportunities for Ghana, he said, required “a competent leadership that can offer solutions and results with urgency and sagacity. A government dedicated to serving the people; not swerving the people. NPP can put Ghana to work.”
The NPP, he assured, had the people, the Ghanaian people, the competence, conviction and programme to move the country, adding, “And with God’s eternal guidance, we shall succeed in getting Ghana to succeed.”
On what Ghana needed today more than anything else, the NPP 2012 flagbearer pointed at what he described as transformational leadership – one that could transcend from the top to every arena and layer of leadership.
Ghana, he stressed, needed “an energetic, dynamic, enthusiastic, passionate and visionary leadership- a leadership of conviction; a confident, strong, compassionate, decisive leader; a can-do leader; a must-do leader; a will-do for Mother Ghana leader. This is what the NPP and I offer, and by the grace of God, this is what we are committed to delivering.”
Nana Akufo told his audience he was looking forward to a day when there would be a reversal of Ghanaians living abroad remitting money home and those at home sending money to family members in foreign countries, explaining that this used to be the case in the olden days.
President Kufuor, he recalled, took over two million Ghanaians out of poverty and laid a solid foundation followed by his discovery of oil, for an economic liftoff. Unfortunately, he observed, the project had been driven into an unnecessary traffic jam by the current national driver.
There were as many challenges as were opportunities for Ghana but in terms of human capital, he observed, the challenges and opportunities might be reduced to three things- education, skills and jobs.
“If we are to build an industrialized, modern society then we need an educated Ghanaian workforce to build it and capitalize on it. Under the current education system, less than 50% of students could not progress to secondary school. That means banishing more than half of our youth generation into a future of uncertainty and hopelessness. This is criminal and potentially dangerous. Imagine for a moment, America with such damning statistics, where half of the people who make up the future are without the basic skills for a productive life.”
Narrating some scenes from his countrywide tour, he recalled how he met a 15-year-old street hawker whose mother’s death, through child birth, had reduced her life to that of perpetual struggle.
Nana Akufo Addo said his vision revolved around value addition, adding, “I want to lead a Ghana that adds considerable value to how she educates her children. We must add value to the skill sets of our workforce. We must add value to our public sector delivery. We must add value to our physical infrastructure, our communities, our environment, our housing.”
Nana commended Ghanaians living abroad for their contributions towards the development of Ghana and urged them to bring their skills homes.
By A.R. Gomda
