KUFUOR ANOINTS NANA AKUFO-ADDO

…massive rally at Kasoa
By Charles Yakyi-Boadu & George Kyei Frimpong
Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008
President J.A Kufuor has anointed Nana Akufo-Addo as his successor with a call on Ghanaians to judge the New Patriotic Party (NPP) by its records. “Those who are misjudging us have not travelled outside Accra, otherwise they would not be criticising us”, he said at a mammoth rally to officially outdoor Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and all the parliamentary candidates at Kasoa, in the Central region, yesterday.
According to him, if their opponents have been to places such as Kibi, Nkawkaw, Kumasi, Sunyani, Sogakope, Dambai, Worawora, Kete Krachi, Salaga and Tamale, they would have noticed the transformation of the country by virtue of the roads leading to these towns and several others in the country. The President said that Tamale is now the most beautiful city in the whole of Ghana, because of the good work of his government.
The President also referred to the oil discovery by his government, the purchase of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) and the negotiation with some International companies to establish an aluminium smelter plant in Ghana, among a host of others. He maintained that all these developments witnessed by the country took place within seven and half years. He appealed to Ghanaians to vote for Nana Akufo-Addo to protect the oil that has been discovered and also continued with the good work that his government had initiated.
“The oncoming election is about leadership,” he reiterated.
He observed that although people were claiming that there are hardships in the country, there has never been a case where someone has died of hunger, but rather happiness and peace abound everywhere in Ghana.
President Kufuor advised NPP supporters to trash accusations against Nana Addo and himself that they were not lawyers.
He said Nana Addo’s family formed the bulk of the famous ‘big six’, adding that three of the members were related to Nana Addo. “Someone is saying that Akufo Addo was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but let’s be truthful, who wouldn’t like to be in such a position?” he queried.
He said those who were questioning Nana Addo’s professionalism should ask themselves the qualification they also hold, stressing that the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) would be buried once and for all.
The President, who was overwhelmed by the teeming number of the party’s supporters, who turned up at the rally grounds, said he had been in politics for over 40 years but has never seen such a crowd before.
The President continued that when the government assumed power, they reduced the middle-income target from 2020 to 2016, and that the objective could even become a reality before the period they have set. He reiterated his confidence in Nana Addo, since he has worked with him while he was in government and travelled with him to a number of places when he was the Foreign Minister. The President at the end of his speech symbolically handed over a baton, signifying the passing over of the leadership of the party to Nana Akufo-Addo.
After receiving the baton, in the form of an NPP flag, Nana Akufo-Addo thanked God for the love he had shown to the country. According to him, Ghana could not have come this far if not for the mercies of God.
He also took the opportunity to thank President Kufuor and vice-President Alhaji Aliu Mahama for their exemplary leadership skills which they have both exhibited over the last seven years since they assumed power. These skills, he said, have translated into productive gains for the country.
Considering the trials and tribulations that Ghanaians went through under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, Nana Addo was optimistic that no one would make the mistake of changing the country’s destiny by voting for the NDC. He urged Ghanaians to come out in their numbers on December 7, to endorse him as the successor to President Kufuor, to move the country forward.
He said that the way forward is to establish proper institutional structures for the basic tenets of democracy and good governance to flourish.
“If our country is to prosper, it is because every single child in Ghana will have the opportunity to have good education so that our population will be educated for the skills needed for a modern economy”, he emphasised.
The crowd went gay when he promised to make high school education in the country free, stressing that “if free primary school education has come in the era of Kufuor, then in the era of Akufo-Addo, we are going to have free secondary education in our country.”
He expressed the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) determination and commitment to make sure that everybody, either rich or poor, especially the poor, have access to quality education, saying “that is the way we are going to build our nation.”
That notwithstanding, he said he would also make sure that every region in Ghana has a public University.
According to him, the foundation laid by President Kufuor and his administration makes it possible to achieve these targets. Nana Addo stressed the need for Ghana to move away from being a mere exporter of raw materials, stressing, “We now have to begin the process of industrialisation of our country.” In the next 10years, he said, “we are going to change the structure of the Ghanaian economy, so that, instead of being a producer of raw material, we are now going to be a producer of light industrial goods.
Apart from the process of industrialisation, he noted that Ghanaians cannot make it without modernising agriculture.
For that to happen, the NPP Presidential Candidate stressed the need to bridge the gap between the south and the north, emphasising that “I want to be the President that leads the process for bridging the gap between the south and the north so that we can move forward.” He thus promised to make the north, the breadbasket of the entire West African sub-region.
Nana Addo had cause to caution those beating war drums in the country by sending a word of advise to them that no single individual or a group of disgruntled persons destroy the destiny of the country. He also advised his political opponents who are knocking the heads of the various tribes together to stop the practice in the name of peace.
He also had cause to complain about the actions of some politicians who he said are engaged in divide and rule by inciting people and ethnic groups against the other, stressing that “we in the NPP reject the politics of divide and rule, we do not approve of the politics of divide and rule.”
In that regard, he urged all Ghanaians no matter ones ethnic or political background to unite in peace for the development of the nation.