``… I would not be a proud Gen. Sec. in defeat``

JAK`s hidden meaning
…was it Ohene Ntow?
Posted: The Chronicle | Friday, July 31, 2009



By Charles Takyi-Boadu


Former President John Agyekum Kufuor vented what seemed like deep-seated anger on his party’s General Secretary, Nana Ohene-Ntow, when he spoke at the 3rd Ferdinand Ayim Memorial Lecture in Accra, on Wednesday night.

After making an emotional appeal to the rank and file of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to close their ranks and unite in the interest of the party, Mr. Kufuor expressed grave concern about the manner in which the NPP split its votes in the last elections, as a result of the emergence of independent candidates, and warned, “I would rather be a messenger in a victorious party that has formed a government, than a proud General-Secretary who would lead us into defeat.”

Though it was not clear whether he was referring to the current General-Secretary of the party, it is however believed that he was making an inference to Nana Ohene-Ntow, since according to the ex President, the late Ferdinand Ayim, who intended to contest the position, would have been a better General-Secretary for the party.

However, despite the chilled response from the audience, following this comment, the former President went ahead to say -“Please, I am talking from my heart; we’ve suffered for far too long”.

“So anything that will divide us, please let us approach it very cautiously because we have a historic duty to Ghana and to our tradition and to ourselves as individuals”, he cautioned.

Mr. Kufuor noted that the NPP cannot afford to lose another election since Ghanaians need the party back in government.

According to him, coming back to power in 2012 is not only a possibility, but also a must, and therefore charged the leadership and members of the party to work together to achieve this goal.

“Anything we do that will whittle down our votes, let us keep away from it, we must also keep away from anything that will divide us. We should respect each other, we should have fellow-feeling”, he said.

The programme, which was chaired by Businessman and party stalwart Mr. Kwame Pianim, was attended by key party functionaries including Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Party’s Presidential Candidate in the 2008 elections and NPP former Ministers and Members of Parliament.

Though the party is hungry for power, Kufuor warned the leadership not to use any dubious means to achieve this. According to him, other political parties would even ‘kill’ to win power, but the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition would not beat that path to win power.

He however noted that “we should go to all length and pay all the cost, so that we can get back into power, I believe Ghana needs this tradition.” With the vast knowledge and intelligence available in the NPP, Mr. Kufuor said “nothing legitimate should be too expensive for us.”

Touching on the theme of the occasion, ‘Ghana’s developmental challenges: Perspective on the roles of competence, loyalty and sycophancy’, which was delivered by former Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the former President said it is not for nothing that the economy of Ghana developed four-fold during his tenure of office as President, attributing the success story of his administration to competence. “We have it, but I am not suggesting that we should be complacent, we are targeting excellence, and for excellence we need to strive and strain to break records.”

In the party’s quest to come back to power, he noted that care must be taken in selecting people to positions of responsibility, since according to him loyalty is an important aspect of politics. He emphasised that “if you are forming a cabinet and you just look to competence, before you know, your act is stolen. NPP will lose its government to strangers, so we should be careful when we are defining loyalty.”

“It took us four to five decades to get into government, but our elders stayed the course, they sacrificed, that’s why I say our path is lighted with martyrdom, our leaders could have become sycophants, could have betrayed the course, but they didn’t do that”, he added.

Mr. Kufuor said the big changes in life all over the world tend to come through sound political leadership, which perhaps is the most critical in the evolution of rapidly developing nations, using the traits of France’s De Gaulle and China’s Lee Kuan Yew as typical examples of good political leadership.

Whilst appreciating the fact that the Dankwa-Busia-Dombo tradition is replete with a long chain of martyrs from the 1950s, the former President was of the belief that a man like the late Ferdinand Ayim deserves the position of ‘Martyr of our time’, and therefore stressed the need to celebrate him every year. He therefore asked those who believe in Ferdinand’s ideas and ideals to use the occasion to deliberate over serious political matters.

Arresting decay and flooding in the cities

OSAFO-MAAFO BACKS MILLS GOV`T
Why should people continue to die when there are bye-laws and regulations against building on waterways
Posted on: Friday, July 31, 2009


By Charles Takyi - Boadu

The memory of Alhaji Yusuf’s hotel near the airport, which was pulled down at the instance of ex-President Rawlings still lingers in the minds of Ghanaians, because of allegations that the facility was built on a waterway.

In more recent times, the architectural edifice that is nearing completion right opposite the African Regent Hotel- The Villagio, has been cited in angry outbursts by the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), headed by Kofi Potorphy, as an illegal structure standing on a waterway, that needs to be pulled down.

On an evening to celebrate one of the famous sons of Abuakwa, Ferdinand Ayim, Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the former Finance Minister went to town on the subject of indiscipline and the need for meritocracy in society, and went as far as calling on Ghanaians to support the Mayor of Accra in his fight to check the menace of flooding.

According to Osafo Maafo, almost all successive governments have identified the flood problem in Accra but little has been done to rectify the situation. He could not fathom why there are bye-laws and regulations governing the country, and yet the implementing agencies sit in laxity for Accra to always get flooded whenever it rains, with resultant death of innocent people.

“That problem has always been mentioned, so what we need to do is to remove structures built on waterways so that when it rains we will not suffer”, he said, asking “the last time it rained, wasn’t it pathetic, how many people died?” He attributed this unfortunate situation to the incompetent way of handling the city’s bye-laws and regulations.

For this reason, he urged all political parties to throw their weight behind the NDC administration and the Mayor of Accra, Dr Alfred Vanderpuye, in restoring sanity.

“Lets have this competently handled, that any structure that is authorized or unauthorized, if it is on a waterway, it must go”.

As a country with one of the best Engineering Universities on the entire continent of Africa, Mr. Osaf-Maafo wondered why Ghanaians as a people can not solve some of these simple engineering problems. According to him, he always felt embarrassed whenever people die as a result of flooding that could be controlled if the proper things were done.

Osafo-Maafo based his conviction on the fact that the success of America and other countries in creating huge opportunities for their people can be explained by the strength of institutions that have been built around competence and state loyalty.

The former Finance Minister thus declared his personal support for the action of AMA, saying “we should give all the support to the Mayor, and tell the Mayor he has my support, he should remove all unauthorized and authorized structures in waterways and let’s get the city put together.”

According to him, Ghana is an incredible place for what he described as ‘abundant future and hope’ and thus stressed the urgent need to create better avenues and conditions for the realisation of such goals. “It is important to stress that our individual and collective energies and resources should be channelled to achieving accelerated development.”

In this light, he said the country’s development challenge should be focused on how to promote broad-based development within a stable and peaceful environment with the ultimate aim of increasing the standard of living of its citizens.

Mr. Osafo-Maafo therefore stressed the need for Ghanaians to emphasise on competence in their decisions and actions, since according to him, it is fundamental and paramount for the nation’s development. As the most important resource of the country, he noted that “Ghana should not be denied the services of its competent human resources.”

The programme which was chaired by Businessman and party stalwart, Mr. Kwame Pianim, was under the theme -‘Ghana’s developmental challenges: perspective on the roles of competence, loyalty and sycophancy’.

It was attended by key party functionaries including, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, its Presidential Candidate in the 2008 election, and former Ministers and some Members of Parliament