After capitation grant, healthy balances, Free maternal deliveries

IS THAT HOW YOU TREAT ME?

... Kufuor asks as BAPAC shows solidarity

Posted: The Chronicle Monday, March 16, 2009

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

After introducing the Capitation grant, National Health Insurance, free Maternity care, School feeding programme and other pro poor policy interventions, former President John Agyekum Kufuor is obviously not happy with the ‘Thank you’ treatment being meted out to him by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.
He is particularly worried about the retrieval of cars from his residence and the hullabaloo surrounding his new office in Accra. He has, however, declined to make any public statement for now, promising to do so at the right time. At a meeting held at his private residence in Accra over the weekend, with the Brong Ahafo Patriotic Caucus (BAPAC) of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the former President declined to speak to the media in order to avoid making statement that would aggravate the situation.
Mr. Stephen Ntim, a former second vice Chairman of the party and one of the leaders of the delegation, told The Chronicle that the ‘old man’ (Kufuor) was not happy with current developments in the country, where the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has sought to damage the former President’s reputation. “Naturally, he is not happy about it but he has decided to keep his calm for now, he is not going to talk now, but he is not happy about these developments”, he noted. Asked why Mr. Kufuor is not a happy man, Mr. Ntim, who once contested the National Chairmanship position of the party but lost, said “he is human, he is not happy about these developments, I’m not happy and I don’t think you will be happy if you were in his shoes or my shoes.” He further noted that “if we sit down and allow these things to be meted out to him and for the NDC government to embarass him the way they are doing, then the rest of us will not be safe in the country.”
After BAPAC had held talks with the former President, Mr. Ntim said he (Kufuor) was touched by the concern the group had shown towards the current developments meant to humiliate him.
The delegation was made up of key members of the party in the Brong Ahafo region, including the likes of Professor Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi, Dr. Kwame Ampofo Twumasi, Ignatius Baffuor Awuah, George Boakye and Mr. T.K Obeng. In a statement signed by Nana Ama Bame Busia and Mr. Steve Ntim, BAPAC expressed deep concern about recent developments in the country, in which it noted that “a man who has distinguished himself so well is being harassed unnecessarily.” “BAPAC condemns in the strongest of terms the illegal way your vehicles, which were part of your entitlements were retrieved, and now the unwarranted brouhaha over your Ridge office building”, it emphasised.
This, according to the group, makes it difficult for them to accept what they described as President Mills’ rhetoric of being a father to all and uniting all Ghanaians.
The group has therefore vowed to stand by Mr. Kufuor in these times of difficulty, stressing that “we are prepared to offer our assistance as and when it is needed and will do everything within our means to make sure our fledgling democracy is sustained and developed in freedom,” the statement added.
The group said it was worth noting the fact that Mr. Kufuor assumed the reigns of power at a time when the national coffers and reserves were dry, with its attendant effects on inflation and lending rates, weaker state institutions and a precarious security situation. In spite of that, they noted -“these challenges did not prevent you from building a Ghana capable of supporting the poor, and bridging the gap between the poor and the rich, thereby creating wealth out of empty coffers”.
The result of these, according to the group, is the resilient economy that Ghanaians are witnessing today. According to them, a health sector, which was then running on the deadly wheels of a ‘cash and carry’ system in the year 2000, had to be replaced by Mr. Kufuor’s government with a more humane National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Whilst crediting the former President for the introduction of the Free Maternal Care policy which enables pregnant women to deliver at the hospitals and clinics at no cost, they also praised him for introducing the Capitation Grant, Free Busing system and the National School Feeding Programme which has not only increased enrolment at basic schools, but also increased the retention rate as well. According to BAPAC, the legacies of the former President can only be compared to those of the late Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President. In striking the difference that exists between the two personalities, the group stressed, “the only difference between you and the first President is that, while the later had post independent seed money to start off, you came to meet a nation on its knees and created a heroic Ghana out of zero.”
In these trying times, the group encouraged Mr. Kufuor to remain steadfast in his quest to support the NPP to remain united in opposition, in order to regain power in the year 2012, saying: “and your name will be engraved in golden letters when the history of the Danquah-Busia tradition comes to be written.”
It therefore could not but wish the former President good health, long life and fruitful retirement, with the hope and belief that posterity will be kind to the ‘old man’ when future generations celebrate the nation’s achievements

Despite Presidential pardon

Kofi Boakye in limbo

…Awaits Police Council`s decision

Posted: The Chronicle Friday, March 13, 2009

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

The fate of the former Director of Operations of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Kofi Boakye, continuous to remain unknown long after he was granted a Presidential pardon by former President Kufuor, before the latter left office.
In spite of the directive for him to be re-instated and the huge public outcry for his return into the Service, the Police Chief is still at home, awaiting a probable decision by the yet-to-be re-constituted Police Council.
However, the Director of the Public Relations Unit of the Police Service, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Akwasi Ofori, has indicated that this has nothing to do with the Police administration, since according to him lies in the hands of the yet-to-be re-constituted Police Council.
In an interview with the paper, he told this reporter that this was because the letter for his re-instatement, which was authorized by the former President and was addressed to the Police Council which has the sole prerogative to carry out any such decisions.
Meanwhile, ACP Kofi Boakye has refused to make any comment on the issue. When The Chronicle reached him for his comments, he declined to make an input, saying he preferred to wait for a decision by the Police Council. From the foregoing, it is clear that the decision to fully re-instate Kofi Boakye will largely depend on the Police Council.
It is, however, not clear when the President is likely to name members of the Police Council which supervises the activities and operations of the Service. Credible sources at the seat of government and the Police headquarters have told the paper that ACP Kofi Boakye is likely to be brought back to clamp down on the activities and operations of criminals who appear to be having a field day in the absence of the ‘crime-buster’.
This is in view of the fact that President Mills has pledged to clamp down on the activities and operations of these criminals who continue to hound Ghanaians each passing day.
Kofi Boakye is noted for his hard-line stance against criminals, especially armed robbers and Indian hemp (wee) smokers who continue to terrorize Ghanaians each passing day.
Born and bred in Ashanti New Town (Ashtown), a noted den of hardened criminals in Kumasi, Kofi Boakye is considered to be a ‘ghetto boy’ who knows the inside-out of the activities and operations of most of these criminals.
Since his interdiction as Director of Operations of the Police Service, there has been a sudden increase in crime wave, leading to a huge public outcry for his re-instatement into the Service to clamp down on the activities of these criminals.
Kofi Boakye was interdicted somewhere in year 2006 after a report commissioned by the Georgina Wood committee into the missing 77 parcels of cocaine on board the MV Benjamin vessel implicated him.
Barely 24hours to his exit from office, the then President Kufuor re-instated ACP Kofi Boakye with full benefits.
While on interdiction, Kofi Boakye enrolled at the Ghana Law School where he graduated in October 2008 with excellence, and was called to the Bar. He was adjudged the Overall Best Student after sweeping home five awards.

Washing our dirty linen is good but...

… Argues Arthur Kennedy

Posted: The Chronicle Thursday, March 12, 2009

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

Dr. Kobina Arthur Kennedy, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has disagreed that issues affecting the party must not be discussed in public. “While I agree with those who counsel against washing our dirty linen in public, I disagree vehemently with those who do not want us to wash the dirty linen at all”, he said.
Speaking to The Chronicle in an interview, Kennedy said a number of factors contributed to the defeat of the party in the December elections. He therefore stressed the urgent need for the party to find out those issues, and to identify people whose acts of commissions and omissions caused the party’s defeat in 2008 elections.
He also stressed the need to rebuild the party from the scratch, at the grassroots, to the top hierarchy on the spirit of selflessness and voluntarism, which helped the party to survive thirty long years in the political wilderness, saying “our virtues were surrendered too easily to the temptations of victory.”
This rebuilding process, according to him, must include the selection of candidates who are not only known in the party but also respected in their constituencies. This is in view of the fact that the NPP risked too many Parliamentary seats by rejecting the will of the people.
Dr. Kennedy also urged the party to discourage acts of factionalism, emphasizing that “This is perhaps the biggest challenge facing out party.” For him, it was becoming difficult to express an opinion without being labeled as a tool for another person.
He questioned the absence of intellectual debates which used to characterize the party during its days in opposition, which have all vanished into thin air.
“In 1979, we tried facing the electorate with a divided front and we lost the elections. For the sake of Ghana and posterity, let us not tread that path again”, he cautioned.
Further, he urged the leadership of the party to pay specific attention to the concerns of floating voters and the regions, since neither the NPP nor the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has a clear majority in the mandate of Ghanaians.
He noted that swing voters will for a long time to come determine elections in the country, hence the sooner NPP made this a central consideration in its strategies, the better it will be for the party.
Furthermore, he said there was also the need for the NPP to start engaging the smaller parties more aggressively and respectfully by building and extending the bonds and the chemistry that made them the NPP’s natural allies in the 2000 General elections.
“Indeed, every honest person knows that virtually all of them, except the DFP, worked for the NDC during the run-off”, he noted. Probably taking a line from Professor Mills and the NDC’s door-to-door and house-to-house campaign, Dr. Kennedy said “we must return to the politics of the streets. We used to be the driving force behind the ‘Alliance for Change’ and some of the most populist street movements in our history till we tasted power. Then poof! That was it.”
He wondered why the big wigs in the party who used to go on air regularly to defend the party and attack the opposition stopped when they got power and virtually became too big to get up in the morning and go the radio stations or take a phone call from journalists.
Obviously not happy with events that culminated in series of demonstrations at most of the party’s constituency primaries, he said the “primaries that brazenly manipulated to the advantage of people who had no place in our party and its traditions. This party that believes in the rule of law must ensure that rules are applied consistently in the party and at all parts of the country.”
If done consistently, he believes that would have the tendency of reducing the number of people going independent. Dr. Kennedy further urged the leadership of the NPP to discard complacency, which he noted was the greatest error during the 2008 campaign, saying “That sense of complacency prevented us from reacting to situations in a manner that could have helped us and from policing the counting of the votes with an aggression that may have given us victory.”
Though 2012 is fast approaching, he noted that the party seems to be proceeding in the same misguided, self-confidence, and therefore, had cause to caution its leadership “if we do not learn the lessons from our loss, we will lose again.”
To him, winning in 2012 will require a new and re-invigorated leadership at all levels of the party, from the polling station to the national headquarters.
Meanwhile, the party has set up a committee to review the 2008 General elections.
The committee, which is chaired by Ghana’s immediate past High Commissioner to South Africa, Jim Heyman, has been tasked to look into what led to the party’s defeat and make recommendations, for amendments to be made.
Party Chairman, Peter Mac Manu, who disclosed this to The Chronicle, expressed the hope that the committee will do a comprehensive work to enable the party to return to power in the next elections.